What is the importance of Tradition in regard to prayer?

In the Church it is through living Tradition that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God how to pray. In fact prayer cannot be reduced to a spontaneous outpouring; rather it implies contemplation, study and a grasp of the spiritual realities one experiences.

The sources of prayer are:
1) The Word of God which gives us "the surpassing knowledge" of Christ (Philippians 3:8); Prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture,so that a dialogue takes place between God and man. For we speak to him when we pray; we listen to him when we read Sacred Scripture.
2) The Liturgy of the Church that proclaims, makes present and communicates the mystery of salvation which is continued in the heart that prays. Even when it is lived out in secret, prayer is always prayer of the Church; it is a Communion with the Holy Trinity.
3) The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity by which we seek to know, love and serve God.
4) Everyday situations because in them we can encounter God. ( See CCC 2650-2662)

What are the different types of Catholic prayers?

Apart from the prayers that we recite in Church or as part of our daily offering,there are other kinds of prayers that the Catholic recite.
A novena is a series of prayers that are said for nine straight days.
The novena to the Holy Spirit is a novena of the Church to prepare for the feast of Pentecost.
 Novenas are also said in invocation to the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary to commemorate her different feasts. A litanyis a special prayer, usually intended to be recited in a group, with a Priest or other leader reciting the verses,while the faithful respond, such as the Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Litanies may be recited as part of one's private devotion.
 Chaplets are forms of prayer which use prayer beads, such as the Divine Mercy Consecration prayers are prayers of dedication or submission,such as Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Invocations take the form of an ejaculation or an aspiration,a short prayer meant to be repeated throughout the day,such as,"Blessed be the name of Jesus"and "Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner!"Indulgence prayers assist us in overcoming temptation, and they allow us to gain indulgences either for ourselves or for the poor souls in purgatory.
They also allow us to make acts of reputation for those who offered God, to pray for the conversion of many souls, and to help us remember we are to sacrifice for sinners.
The Liturgy of the Hours (known as the Divine Office) is the richest single prayer resource of the Church.It provides prayers,Psalms and meditation for every hour of every day. It has existed from the earliest times, to fulfill the Lord's command to pray without ceasing.

Hymns are prayers or Psalms that are sung.St. Augustine said: "He who sings prays twice."

Why do we have to learn prayers? Why can't we say our spontaneous prayers?

The important things is not to just express words but to speak to God from your heart. If you prefer to express yourself in your own words,you are free to do so.However, you will discover that knowing prayers by heart helps you in moments when you don't have the inclination or ability to say your own prayer.

What is the way of prayer?
Prayer is primarily addressed to the Father. Prayer is directed to God our Father but reaches only when we pray - at least implicitly- in the name of Jesus. Our prayer is efficacious when it is united in faith with the prayer of Jesus. Jesus said, "If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it" (Jn 14: 14). Jesus is the one and only mediator between God and men. His humanity is in effect the only way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray to our Father. Therefore liturgical prayers conclude with the formula: "Through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Prayer can also be directed toward Jesus, particularly by the invocation of his Holy Name: "Lord Jesus Christ,Son of God,have mercy on us sinners." By this prayer the heart opens up human wretchedness to the Saviour's mercy. Jesus always prays for us.All our petitions were gathered up, once for all,in his cry on the Cross and, in his Resurrection, heard by the Father. This is why he never ceases to intercede for us with the Father. If our prayer is resolutely united with that of Jesus, in trust and boldness as children, we obtain all that we ask in his name, even more than any particular thing: the Holy Spirit himself, who contains all gifts.

"No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1Cor 12:3). The Church invites us to invoke the Holy Spirit as the interior Teacher of Christian prayer. Since he teaches us to pray by recalling Christ, how could we not pray to the Spirit too? That is why the Church invites us to call the Holy Spirit every day, especially at the beginning and at the end of every action. The simplest and most direct prayer is the traditional,"Come Holy Spirit!" It is in the communion of the Holy Spirit that Christian prayer is prayer to the Church.

Mary,Jesus'mother and ours "shows the way", and is herself "the sign" of the way of prayer. Because of Mary's singular cooperation with the action of the Holy Spirit. the Church loves to entrust her supplications to the Virgin Mary and pray in communion with her. The Church also joins her prayers with those of all the saints who have been pleasing to the Lord because they willed his will alone. [See CCC 2663- 2682]

Father Dominic. in his sermons, tells us to always have the name of Jesus on our lips. What is the reason?

The name Jesus in Hebrew means: "God saves." The name of Jesus fully manifests the supreme power of the "name which is above every name" (Cf. Jn 12:28)."There is no salvation through anyone else, nor there is other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved"(Acts 4:12). The evil Spirits fear his name;In his name his disciples perform miracles, for the Father grants all they ask in this name(Cf. Acts 16:16-18;19:13-16; Mk 16:17; Jn 16:16). The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian Prayer. All liturgical prayers conclude with the words "through our Lord Jesus Christ". The Hail Mary reaches its high point in the words "blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus." The Eastern prayer of the heart,the Jesus Prayer, says: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,a sinner." Many Christians such as St. Joan of Arc, have died with the one word "Jesus" on their lips.

The invocation of the Holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying.When the  the Holy Name is repeated often by a humble and attentive heart,the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and brings forth fruit with patience. This prayer is possible at all times because it is the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus. So, its one of the best things you can do to humbly repeat the name of Jesus at all times.[See CCC 430-435,2668]   

What is the Origin of the "Hail Mary"?

The first part of the "Hail Mary" is taken entirely from the Gospel. Read  Luke 1:28 and Luke 1:42. The second part is a text formulated by the Church during its history.

Hail Mary [or Rejoice,Mary]:the greeting of the angel Gabriel opens this prayer. It is God himself who, through his angel as an intermediary, greets Mary. Our prayer dares to take up this greeting to Mary with the regard God had  for the        lowliness of his humble servant and to exult in the joy he finds in her.

Full of grace,the Lord is with thee: These two phrases of the angel's greeting shed light on one another. Mary is full of grace because the Lord is with her.
The grace with which she is filled is the presence of him who is the source of all grace. "Rejoice... O Daughter of Jerusalem... the Lord your God is in your midst."Mary in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant.The place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is "the dwelling of God...with men." Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world.

Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus: After the angel's greeting, we make Elizabeth's greeting our own. "Filled with the Holy Spirit," Elizabeth is the long succession of generations who have called Mary "blessed." "Blessed is she who believed..." Mary is "blessed among women" because she believed in the fulfillment of the Lord's word. Abraham, because of his faith, became a blessing for all the nations of the earth. Mary, because of her faith became the mother of believers, through whom all nations of the earth receive him who is God 's own blessing: Jesus the "fruit of thy womb."

Holy Mary, mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Because she gives us Jesus, her Son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother, we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us she prayed for herself: "Let it be  to me according to your word." By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: "Thy will be done."

Pray for the sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the "Mother of Mercy," the holy one. We give ourselves over to her now, in the today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son's death on the cross.May she welcome at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise. [ See CCC 2676- 2677 ]

"What is the devotion of the "Three Hail Marys"

The three Hail Marys are recited in honor of the three great priviledges bestowed upon the Blessed Virgin Mary by the most Blessed Trinity - the Power of the Father, the Wisdom of the Son, and the Merciful Tenderness of the Holy Spirit.

When reciting the Rosary, why do we say five decades of the Hail Marys,  Joyful Mysteries,Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries, it is a perfect number or is it a reminder of the 150 Psalms? What is the history of the Rosary?

There is a connection with Mary's Psalter (the Rosary) and the recitation of the 150 Psalm (psalter) of the Bible, as in ancient times, monks and clergy used to recite the entire psalter every day. But, as many people in that day were either illiterate or could not afford a psalter, the practice of saying one hundred and fifty Pater Nosters (Our Fathers in Latin)developed as an alternative to remind them of the 150 Psalms.

Now coming to the Rosary, according to tradition, it was St. Dominic de Guzman (in the 12th century) to whom Our Lady revealed the praying of the 150 Hail Marys along with his preaching of the salvation mysteries to combat the great heresy of his day. (The Dominicans were preachers). Saint Dominic though of the "Rosary"as a crown of roses on the head of the heavenly Queen. With the introduction of the Rosary, a new kind of psalter- the Marian Psalter - the Rosary - came into being. Rosary Beads usually contain 50 beads in groups of ten (the decades), with an additional large bead before each decade. These numbers were chosen to match the 150 Psalms, therefore 159 Hail Marys (the 15 Mysteries

When Greece was threatened by the Turks, back in 1571, the Italian navigators prayed the Rosary. They attributed the victory of the Battle of Lepanto (today Navpaktos) on October 7, 1571to our Lady. Then, in the sixteenth century, the feast of "Our Last of Victory" which was later the feast of "Our Lady of the Rosary" on 7th October was established by Saint (Pope) Pius V to commemorate that victory. The Pope, then, himself a Dominican, issued an apostolic letter establishing the twenty Mystery form of the Holy Rosary as the official, Church-authorized version. This was the prescribed format for the next four centuries. In the year 2002, Pope Jonh Paul II published an apostolic letter that added five more Mysteries (The Luminous Mysteries), making a total of twenty authorized Mysteries.

The Rosary is an "epitome of the whole Gospel." It is a contemplative prayer, and it has great intercessory power and every Catholic should pray it regularly. The Rosary - in Arabic- "misbahah", "praise tool", is NOT at all meant to "praise the Virgin, as if she were a goddess", but to praise the Lord through and with Mary who had sung: "My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour." As a master of fact, the "Hail Marys" are preceded by the Lord's Prayer ("Our Father") and always followed by the "Glory" - not to Mary - but to the triun One God. The Muslim world has also a "misbahah", for the praise of Allah, with 33 beads - which, multiplied by three, reach the number of 99, the traditional "best names of Allah" (al-assmaa' al-husana). This is an opportunity to clarify that the Church never worshipped- not ever advocated the woeship of the Virgin Mary as a goddess, though , we might find among individuals, sometimes, some exaggerations in popular devotion, contrary to the Scriptures and also according to the Church directives. [ See CCC 2678 ]

Where are the prayers and Mysteries of the Rosary mentioned in the Bible?

The Rosary is composed of biblical prayers - and meditates mainly on                   biblical events,with the  exception of the Assumption and the Coronation of Our Lady which is accepted by Catholic - Orthodox and even Anglican creeds and traditions. The prayers are:

- The Our Father (Matthew 6)
- The Glory is a wonderful doxology. One finds often similar formulas at the beginning  of Pauline Letters.
- The Hail Mary - the first part of which is taken from the greetings of the Angel Gabriel and of Elizabeth.