The shortest prayer that works is “help.” God doesn’t need a word count.

One word counts. There is a fear that prayer has to be constructed, that you need the right phrasing and enough of it before anything is received, and that fear keeps people quiet on the exact days they most need to speak. A single word thrown up from the floor of your room is already complete. Length is not being graded.

When you have nothing, say the one word and stop there. No preamble, no explanation of why you deserve to ask. Do it on the bus, in a bathroom stall, in the seconds before a test, and let that be the whole prayer.