you take care

[Barb_D]

For me, "prayer" has only religious connotations.

Completely agree.

And there is a difference in passively accepting that someone has asked for a blessing on your behalf with "God bless you" and accepting that you have just been told to follow a directive that you don't believe in.

[Amigos4]

For me, "prayer" has only religious connotations.

I tend to agree with the previous comments but "only" might be a little too emphatic! Refer to definition #7 in Collins.

"Do you think he has a prayer of getting that job?" (A negligible hope or chance) I'm not sure 'prayer' in this sense refers to a religious experience.

Cheers,
A4

[Barb_D]

Fair enough, A4. That "prayer" (the noun) does indeed have a a non-religious meaning of "chance." (Thus proving how silly it is to use "always" or "never" or "only" because someone always comes up with an exception!)

But the verb "pray" (as in being told to "pray well") really doesn't have other connotations.

[beesting]

Fair enough, A4. That "prayer" (the noun) does indeed have a a non-religious meaning of "chance." (Thus proving how silly it is to use "always" or "never" or "only" because someone always comes up with an exception!)

But the verb "pray" (as in being told to "pray well") really doesn't have other connotations.

Actually I said so because some days back I had come across an article by an Indian spiritual teacher called Osho, and he was giving various interpretations for the term "prayer" like he said, for him, anything done out of love was prayer.(like touching someone compassionately, an artist doing his work, making love, e.t.c) , and he was totally against religions. But then today I read an interview of his, where when asked if he use AmE or BrE, he said he speaks "Osho English". So, it was my fault. Sorry.

By the way, if we know that the person we are speaking to share the same religious beliefs, then how appropriate is the expression "be prayerful"?

[5jj]

By the way, if we know that the person we are speaking to shares the same religious beliefs, then how appropriate is the expression "be prayerful"?

It is not natural English to me.