The meaning of prayer can be found through our everyday experiences, according to the third lecture of Saint Mary's Center for Spirituality's series "Lord, teach us to pray."

"Prayer is the turning of the mind and heart to God instead of raising the mind and heart to God," said Kathleen Dolphin, the new director for Saint Mary's Center for Spirituality.

Dolphin addressed the question of whether praying makes any sense at all. The topic was approached through a discussion of how theology and spirituality are connected.

"Theology and prayer go hand in hand. If one prayed long enough to what one considered was an angry God, then one will begin to believe that God is angry. This is due to the human psyche," Dolphin said.

Dolphin explained that prayer is a mystery, but the meaning of one's prayer may be discovered when stumbling through life. Dolphin explains, "Prayer is a daily experience in which God calls us to pray according to our own personality types."

Dolphin suggested that there are three norms to Christian Prayer: incarnational, relational, and transformational.

Within the theme of incarnational, sexuality matters.

"We are created in the image of God. To issue explicit male language when talking to God causes the lack of richness within prayer," Dolphin said.

Communal prayer describes relational prayer. It was noted that communal prayer has become increasingly popular, such that even individual prayer has become in communal.

"Prayer should be transformational. Prayer is an opportunity for genuine transformation and self-improvement," Dolphin said.

"When these three themes converge then prayer makes sense," Dolphin said.

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