Knowra Prayer Prayer Prayer is communication or devotional attention directed toward a deity or sacred reality. It may take the form of spoken words, silent contemplation, ritual, or bodily action.
Supplication : A petitionary form of prayer that asks a deity for help, protection, or favor. It shows prayer as a request rather than praise or contemplation.
Daily Office : A structured cycle of Christian prayers and readings recited at set times of day. It organizes prayer into recurring hours of communal or personal devotion.
Worship : Acts of reverence, praise, or service directed toward a deity or sacred object. Worship can include prayer but also encompasses ritual, music, and offerings.
Problem of evil : The philosophical challenge of reconciling evil and suffering with an all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good God. Unanswered prayers sharpen questions about suffering and divine goodness.
Petitionary prayer : Prayer that asks a deity to bring about a particular outcome. Its requests make the question of whether prayer changes events explicit.
Intercession : Prayer asking a deity to aid or forgive someone other than the person praying. It directs prayer toward another person's needs.
Salat : The prescribed ritual prayer performed by Muslims five times each day. It is a highly structured daily form of prayer in Islam.
Meditation : A family of practices that train attention, awareness, or contemplation. Meditation can be nonreligious, while prayer addresses or attends to sacred reality.
Divine providence : The belief that a deity guides or sustains events in the world. Petitionary prayer often assumes that divine action can affect events.
Divine hiddenness : The philosophical problem of why a loving God may remain difficult to perceive or encounter. Silence in response to prayer is one form of apparent divine absence.
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