Students Lead Class Prayer: 5 Tips to Get Started

Clear Structure for Student to Lead Prayer

Since I work with beginners, I provide a clear structure for leading prayer. At the beginning of the year, we learn the format and practice with partners so students know the order and expectations for prayer. We spend a few days learning about the ACTS Prayer using this resource. Then, students write their own ACTS prayer and tuck it into their Bibles so they can use that as a resource when it’s their turn to pray.

Prayer Format

• Pray the Sign of the Cross
• Read a Bible Passage
• Say an ACTS Prayer
• Pause for silent prayer or ask for petitions
• Choose a formal prayer to be spoken aloud by the whole class
• Recite a Litany of Saints
• Close with the Sign of the Cross

Ask for Volunteers to Lead Class Prayer

It’s important for all students to lead the class prayer. So, I keep track of student prayer leaders with a simple pocket chart in the front of the classroom. All the student names are in the chart and as each student volunteers to lead prayer, his or her name gets flipped around. Before anyone can lead again, all students must lead prayer at least once. I use this system to make sure that all students learn to lead the group, but students can have some choice about when they lead.

Some students volunteer so they can read specific readings. I have had students who love to read the Psalm, or who carefully time their turn so they get to read the Gospel. The daily Bible passages are the Sunday readings, so each week there is a clear structure.

• Monday: 1st Reading
• Tuesday: Psalm
• Wednesday: 2nd Reading
• Thursday: Gospel
• Friday: Choice (the volunteer can choose any passage from the Bible…as long as it’s not too bloody or attention-seeking. You have to be careful with the Old Testament….I’m looking at you, Leviticus!)

This clear format also helps the nervous students choose the length of their readings or practice ahead of time if they are anxious about reading aloud. I’ve had a few students refuse to lead prayer, so I’ve asked them to demonstrate that they have the skills one-on-one. In each case, the next time their turn came up, they were ready to pray in front of the class.

Litany of Saints in Student Prayer

We close prayer with a Litany of Saints. With my high school classes, we include 3 saints.

First, the class patron saint, ours is the school’s saint, but if your school isn’t named after a saint, it would be fun to have students vote on a class saint at the beginning of the year.

The second saint is a Saint of the Week–a specific person that we learned about that week. Usually, we watch a quick Youtube video and keep the saint’s name on the board for the week. If I have a saint skit, I add that, but there aren’t enough to cover the school year. It’s not a perfect system, but it works for now. If anyone has great ideas about teaching a weekly saint, let me know.

The third saint is chosen by the student–again, adding student choice! As the year progresses, a lot of student grow in love for a particular saint and consistently ask the same saint for help (or whisper his/her name when other students are pausing to think of a saint for prayer). When this happens, I can’t decide if I should address the lack of reverence or praise the love for the saints.