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The dilemma of balance in your prayer life. On the one hand, it is good to be able to pray in the way that you feel God leading you to pray. On the other hand, it is also good to pray with "the body of believers." There are great spiritual benefits to praying in a larger group, using a prayer form that is not simply your personal preference, but one that has been developed by other brethren (sometimes brethren who have lived centuries before us).

The benefits to praying with others include keeping you humble. Group prayer can constantly remind you that you are not the only follower of Christ. You don't contain all things in yourself. You need the Body, the Body of Christ ("can the eye say to the hand, 'I don't need you?'" 1 Cor. 12:21). It is good for us to pray regularly with other Christians, even at times when we feel irritated with them or more spiritual than they are. We are quite capable of deluding ourselves.

In addition, group prayer builds up charity among believers and makes us more aware of the needs of others. At times, group prayer can be an occasion for us to recognize our own faults and failings, and our need for continual conversion of heart.

On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with going apart by yourself or with a spiritual companion to approach God in a more private, personal manner. Such personal spirituality is necessary to maintain a living and growing relationship with God. ("Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." Mark 1:35)

However, the one trap you mustn't fall into is supposing, when you are praying alone or in your small group, that because of the spiritual consolation or warmth you feel, that you are more righteous, more wise, more zealous, or more holy, or closer to God than those who pray in the larger group. This is simply the snare of the Enemy seeking to delude you, hoping to make you prideful, judgmental, and ultimately, to break bonds of fellowship and charity between fellow believers. "Divide and conquer" is always his strategy.

This danger should be kept in mind, but it shouldn't stop you from genuinely nourishing your prayer life in the way God leads you. As in all things in our life with Christ, balance and wisdom are needed.

A side note: the Bible also commands us to keep holy the Lord's day, and believers since early times have done this by worshipping as a body on the Lord's Day, Sunday (Acts 20:7. see also Acts 2:42). A prayer group is not the same as the Church, and shouldn't be substituted for participation in Church worship. The benefits of group prayer are especially magnified when that group prayer is the liturgy of the Church.

The particular manner in which the liturgy of my Church is celebrated isn't always completely to my liking. Sometimes our music ministry is not very inspiring, and some of the homilies may be a bit bland. But I still participate as fully as I can, putting aside my personal desires in order to join in the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ with my brethren in Christ. I sometimes find that I am nourished the most when I feel it the least.

For my personal enrichment, however, I always try to supplement group prayer with time alone with God and, at times, involvement in a small group of my choice, where I can meet with fellow believers in a way that suits me. Right now, nightly family prayer with my wife and children fills this need.

The Church is large -- it has room for both private and group prayer, small personal groups and formalized liturgical ones. And both, I would add, are necessary for a full life with Christ.