I have so many experiences about prayer in my life. Starting from my childhood, I had learned various modes or acts of prayers.

When I was about five years old, I learned from my parents the three basic prayers, Our Father.., Hail Mary.. and Glory be... Also they taught me the prayer of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. That was the prayer I always utter before I go to sleep. I remember that during my childhood days, I frequently had bad dreams and nightmares everytime I sleep. As I complained to my mother, she told me to pray first before going to sleep. According to her, a prayer would prevent me to have nightmares. That was the reason why I always prayed at night since then and I carried that mentality even I reached highschool. From kinder 1 to 4th year highschool, I studied at Saint Bridget College Batangas, a Catholic School run by the Religious of Good Shepherd (RGS). Aside from the basic prayers I learned from my parents, I also learned various prayers from school. Being a Catholic School, our teachers taught us different prayers and impliedly required us to memorize those. Just like De La Salle Lipa, we had also prayers every 6am, 12nn and 6pm. Those prayers can be learned from a loud speaker that will be played and obliged everyone in the campus to stop whatever they were doing. In case of noncompliance, the students would be apprehended by the discipline officer or teachers around the vicinity. It is quite funny I realized that the school made the prayers mandatory and those who would not pay attention would be punished. In the present, I realized that that should not be the true essence of a prayer. In my highscool days, I joined the Youth For Christ, a youth organization under the Couples For Christ Family Ministries. I joined it because my parents are members of the Couples For Christ. Being a member of this organization, I learned a new mode of prayer, a prayer in a form of worship. From the time I was still a fresh member, I was fascinated and inspired of how we were worshipping God everytime we had our meetings, assemblies and conferences. Eventhough I dont know how to sing I was carried away by the sound and tune of the music, the lyrics of the songs, and also upon seeing my co-members conviction and dedication of worshipping. Because of that I learned to play the guitar and became a member of the music ministry. I took part of playing with the band in assemblies and especially in conferences. For me, that is the form of prayer that most made me feel in the presence of God. Everytime we sing the songs, raised our hands and close our eyes, I had the feeling of being fulfilled and dedicated. Unfortunately, starting my college days I wasnt able to attend meetings and already inactive. Presently, I can say that my practice of prayer is not that good and impressive. Eventhough I regularly attend the Holy Mass with my family, sometimes I do not pay serious attention thereon. Also, I do not always pray and frequently forget to do so.

Sometimes before going to sleep I would just make the sign if the Cross without actually saying a prayer. With regard to my understanding about the practice of prayer, I can say that forms of prayer are not that important. What important is, a person knows how to make himself effectively communicate with God. It is a matter of spirituality, not religion. Memorizing prayers and regularly saying those in a routine is not effective without dedicating oneself in the presence of God. As I have learned in our Lasallian formation class, keeping silent for a while without thinking and saying anything is a form of an effective prayer. Contrary to uniform prayers, this kind of activity helps us to cleanse our soul and effectively communicate with God. This is a practice of prayer that must be developed and be taught especially to children for them to realize and understand the true essence of prayer.