There are many definitions of molitvas that do not coincide with each other in everything.
On the basis of these definitions, we can propose the following: prayer is “an important part of the spiritual life of a believer”, the appeal “to God, gods, saints, angels, spirits, personified natural forces, the Supreme Being or his intermediaries in general”, the most important manifestation of public and private religious life in verbal or mental form, is divided into “praise, petition and thanksgiving”.
In other words, according to the proposed definition, prayer implies a belief in existence, along with the visible, invisible world, and is a request (made in public or private) to its representatives, whether verbal or mental, with gratitude or glorification, repentance, request. From this definition it is clear that prayers can be both public and private. This implies collective worship services.
The presence of a verbal form in a prayer means that it can be written down. Received records (prayer texts) are also referred to as “prayer”. Texts of prayer can be collected in special books intended both for collective worship (liturgical books) and for private use (prayer books, otherwise called prayer books). Prayers can vary in content and can be praiseworthy, thankful, and pleading. In addition, sometimes there are separate types of prayers, such as penitential and intercessory prayers.