Some Aspect of Prayer

A few days ago, I had joined my family on a group call. My dad had asked us all to join for a family prayer, and for the first time in a long while, I got to experience what it felt like praying together as a family once more.

But you see, unlike other prayers that I've had with my family, where I was usually in the same room as them, this was different because it was done online, and maybe for that reason, I was able to notice certain things that I've just never paid much attention to in the past.

_{photo by Amaury Gutierrez}

You know, I've always wondered why most people tend to shout during prayers. At first, I thought it was because they needed to be loud enough for God to hear them, but that didn't make sense because if our aim was to raise our voices till it got to the heavens, even having the best microphone wouldn't accomplish that.

So why shout at the top of your voice when you can be a bit more quiet and talk gently instead? I've asked a couple of people this question, and everyone seems to have a different answer for him; none of it has given me any satisfaction or made me feel like the question has been answered.

Another question I've also always wanted to ask is why are prayers always made to be lengthy? I've seen people pray for three hours straight, and I might be wrong, but I don't think there's any problem you can be explaining to God that requires you to pray for that long.

What I've noticed is that a lot of repetition does happen during prayers like this. You find people saying the same thing over and over again, which to me doesn't make that much sense because I'm sure God heard you the first time or second time.

Unfortunately, when it comes to prayer, these two things that I have mentioned have become so much more normalized that people tend to call you unserious when they see you praying and not raising your voice or when they see you pray for a brief period of time.

Should it be that way, or does the volume of your voice not matter in prayers?