Cherith C- Phenomenology of Prayer

Prayer is the deepest decentering of the self and the beginning of responsibility.  There are multiple elements of prayer- thanksgiving, praise, confession, petition and intercession.  Petition is praying for yourself and intercession is praying for others.  Praise and thanksgiving seem very similar but there is a difference.  To give thanks is to praise God for the things you have received and to give praise is to thank God for who he is.  While discovering the underlying types of prayer, I was shocked because I never really distinguished them.  I would have to say that most often I find prayer of petition and intercession to be the most common because it is much easier to ask for things then to give humbly.