ACTS: The Essential Components of Prayer

JESUS PRAYING.
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Prayer is our way of communicating with the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. When we pray, usually ask something but asking for blessings is just one of the essential elements or components of prayer - it is actually the last in the hierarchy of the elements of prayer. These elements or components of prayer have the acronym ACTS though the C and the T can be exchanged in the actual act of praying.

ACTS stand for Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Supplication. We have introduced these when we discussed Prayer as the First Pillar of the Holy Friendship. In the next four weeks we shall discuss each one more deeply and somewhat more detailed manner.

Right now, let us review what we have stated about ACTS in our entry of Prayer as the First Pillar of the Holy friendship,

To easily remember these purposes of prayer, we can use the word ACTS to mean A = adoration or praise, C = contrition of being sorry for our sins, T = thanksgiving or gratitude, and S = supplication or asking for grace and blessings. When we pray we also usually do it in that sequence: we first offer our praises to God, then tell Him how sorry are we for the sins, mistakes and wrongdoings that we commit and the good deeds that have omitted, thank Him for the graces and blessings received, and ask for more blessings and graces not only for us but for others also. Contrition and Thanksgiving can be interchanged.

In an article at For Catholic Teens, Jerrome Placido wrote about ACTS in the following words,

That's why the common format for prayer is A.C.T.S. [Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication]. We first make and act of adoration, that is acknowledge that it is God who we speak to, who deserves reverence, awe and adoration. Then we make an act of contrition, understanding that no one can remain blameless in His sight and so we recognize before God that we have offended Him and express sorrow for doing so. Thanksgiving is then needed because He gives us so much already and before we can ask for more it is right and just that we thank Him for all He has already given us. Then we pray in supplication, that is, we ask God to supply for us all that we need materially and spiritually and have faith that we are heard and He will give us what is best for us.

So let us learn more about Prayer through the ACTS and while learning let us also actually pray. For it is true that practice makes perfect and the one sure way of learning how to pray is to pray. We may not be able to do it perfectly at once but we must never forget what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, that the Holy Spirit, being our Advocate, will help us express even just through groans what we cannot say in words [see Romans 8:26].