One of the biggest challenges many of us face when it comes to prayer is that we don’t know what to say. 

When this happens, it means we have forgotten an essential truth: God is our friend. We can speak to him as our best and most loving friend, because he is. 

Saint Alphonsus Liguori knew this truth well. He expressed it better than I ever could when he said: 

Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with God. Speak with familiarity and confidence as to your dearest and most loving friend. Speak of your life, your plans, your troubles, your joys, your fears. In return, God will speak to you—not that you will hear audible words in your ears, but words that you will clearly understand in your heart. These may be feelings of peace, hope, interior joy, or sorrow for sin… gentle knockings at the door of your heart. 

Alphonsus was born on September 27, 1696, in Marianella, Italy. Ordained a priest in 1726, Alphonsus left a promising legal career to serve the poorest and most overlooked souls. He realized, in interacting with people living on the street or people struggling just to get by, that many people were so afraid of God that they didn’t even try to pray. Others simply didn’t know what to say, because their image of God was an angry judge. 

Alphonsus made it his mission to teach these people how to pray to God with the openness, trust, and confidence they would have with a close friend. In 1732, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, commonly known as the Redemptorists, to carry this message of personal and affectionate prayer to rural communities. He taught that prayer should flow from a heart that sees God as approachable and caring, urging his followers to speak with God about their joys, sorrows, and daily challenges.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori changed people’s lives because he changed the way they prayed.

Remember this next time you are struggling to pray because you don’t know what to say. Just begin. It is much simpler than you suppose. Step into the silence, and in your heart, say to God, I don't know what to say, and already you will have begun to pray. Just talk to him. Simply open your heart to him in a gentle dialogue. Speak to him as you would a great friend, mentor, coach, or teacher.

When you leave your time of prayer, continue the dialogue with God in your heart throughout the moments of your day. Share with him your joys and your disappointments, your questions and your doubts. Speak to him about everything.



Feast Day: August 1 

Feast Day Shared By: The Seven Maccabean Brothers and Saint Peter Faber

Patron Saint of: Arthritis, Lawyers, Confessors, Moralists, and Vocations

Canonized: May 26, 1839

Canonized By: Pope Gregory XVI