Vocal Prayer
Just as speech is necessary to human survival and thriving, vocal prayer is necessary to spiritual growth and holiness. While prayer is defined by the inner movement of the heart toward God, as bodily beings, with voices and ears, it’s fitting that the content of our hearts should be expressed outwardly in words. In this way, we pray with our whole being—body and spirit—and we also are able to pray with others. In doing so, we follow the example of Jesus, who prayed vocally in the synagogue with friends, family, and strangers, and in private by himself (CCC 2700–2704).
Catholics consider vocal prayer an essential element of the Christian life. Vocal prayer can be as simple and uplifting as “Thank you, God, for this beautiful morning,” or as formal as a Mass celebrating a very special occasion.
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When two or more people gather together to pray, their prayer is called communal prayer. Examples of communal prayer are the Rosary, devotional prayers including novenas and litanies, classroom prayers, and, most importantly, the Mass​. (Wikipedia - "Vocal Prayer")
The following is an excerpt from the spiritualdirection.com website on spiritual formation:
When one of His disciples said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1), He taught them a very simple vocal prayer: the Our Father. It is certainly the most sublime formula possible and contains the whole essence of the most elevated mental prayer. However, Jesus gave it as a formula for vocal prayer: “When you pray, say …” (Luke 11:2). This is enough to make us understand the value and importance of vocal prayer, which is within the reach of everyone—even children, the uneducated, the sick, the weary…. But we must realize that vocal prayer does not consist only in the repetition of a certain formula. If this were true, we should have a recitation but not a prayer, for prayer always requires a movement, an elevation of the soul toward God.
In this sense, Jesus instructed His disciples: “When thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret…. And when you are praying, speak not much as the heathens” (Matthew 6:6,7). It is interesting to note that in St. Matthew these prescriptions concerning the exterior and interior dispositions necessary for well-made prayer immediately precede the teaching of the Pater Noster.
Therefore, in order that our vocal prayer be real prayer, we must first recollect ourselves in the presence of God, approach Him, and make contact with Him. Only when we have such dispositions will the words we pronounce with our lips express our interior devotion and be able to sustain and nourish it. Unfortunately, inclined as we are to grasp the material part of things instead of the spiritual, it is only too easy in our vocal prayer to content ourselves with a mechanical recitation, without taking care to direct our heart to God; hence we should always be vigilant and alert. Vocal prayer made only by the lips dissipates and wearies the soul instead of recollecting it in God; it cannot be said that this is a means of uniting us more
(Dan Burke, Vocal Prayer, https://spiritualdirection.com/2017/04/24/vocal-prayer)
For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.​
Matthew 18:20