The Three Kinds of Prayer: Lip, Head, and Heart

Bishop Fulton Sheen begins by identifying a common pitfall in the spiritual life: a tendency to pray only in times of material need. He challenges the listener to move beyond merely seeking favors from God—the "pennies in his hand"—and to instead cultivate a deep, personal relationship. To guide this journey, he outlines three distinct kinds of prayer: lip prayer, head prayer, and heart prayer. Lip prayer, he explains, is vocal prayer—the rote recitation of words without deep thought. While it has its place, it is only the first step.The second and more profound level is head prayer, or meditation. Bishop Sheen passionately urges his audience, especially the laity, to embrace this practice, which modern society has largely abandoned in its flight from silence into noise. He teaches that true meditation begins by quieting the mind, taking up the Scriptures, and allowing the life and words of Christ to penetrate the soul. He uses the beautiful story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus to illustrate this process: at first, Christ is a stranger to them, but as He opens the Scriptures, their understanding deepens until they finally recognize Him in the breaking of the bread.The ultimate goal, however, is heart prayer, which is the prayer of love. This is a state of being where one carries the atmosphere of God with them constantly, so that every action—whether work, study, or daily chores—becomes an extension of their prayer. Drawing on the profound story of a man whose simple act of putting a chair for Christ eventually led him to a life of prayer, Sheen explains that heart prayer transcends words. It is a state of being in love with God, where every moment is an opportunity to please Him. It is in this kind of prayer, he concludes, that we move beyond asking for things and begin to truly know the God who is love itself.