December 4, 2012

Types of Prayer



Catechism Readings:  Paragraphs 2697 – 2776

(In case you noticed a slight gap in these catechism summaries, a friend’s illness took priority these last weeks.) 

This section of Christian Prayer focuses on the Expressions of Prayer, vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer.  It then moves on to what it describes as “The Battle of Prayer,” intending to show that starting --- and continuing --- in our prayer efforts is often not easy, but the rewards are great.

“The Tradition of the Church proposes to the faithful certain rhythms of praying intended to nourish continual prayer.  Some are daily, such as morning and evening prayer (which I try to do faithfully), grace before and after meals, the Liturgy of the Hours.  Sundays, centered on the Eucharist, are kept holy primarily by prayer.  2698   Christian Tradition has retained three major expressions of prayer:  vocal, meditative, and contemplative.” 2699
“Anyone who loves another person and all day long never gives that person a sign of his love does not really love him.  So it is with God, too.  Anyone who truly seeks him will keep sending him signals of his longing for his company and friendship.  Get up in the morning and give the day to God; thank him, especially at mealtimes; at the end of the day, place everything into his hands, ask him for forgiveness, and pray for peace for yourself and others.” YC 499

“Vocal prayer is an essential element of the Christian life.  (Jesus) prayed aloud the liturgical prayers of the synagogue but, as the Gospels show, he raised his voice to express his personal prayer. 2701   Because it is external and so thoroughly human, vocal prayer is the form of prayer most readily accessible to Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking.  The required attentiveness is difficult to sustain.  We are usually helped by books – the page on which the “today” of God is written.  2705   Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the Christian prayer should go further:  to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.” 2708

“St. Theresa answers: “Contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.”  Contemplative prayer seeks him “whom my soul loves.”  2709   Entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the Eucharistic liturgy:  We “gather up” the heart, recollect our whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us.  We let our masks fall.  2711   Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus.  The light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion for all men.  Contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of Christ.  Thus it learns the “interior knowledge of the Lord,” the more to love him and follow him.” 2715  

“Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part.  It always presupposes effort.  We pray as we live, because we live as we pray.  If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in his name.  2725   In the battle of prayer, we must face in ourselves and around us erroneous notions of prayer.  Many Christians unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation that is incompatible with all the other things they have to do:  they don’t have time.  Those who seek God by prayer are quickly discouraged because they do not know that prayer comes from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone.  2726   We must also fact the fact that certain attitudes deriving from the mentality of this present world can penetrate our lives if we are not vigilant.  For example, some would have it that only that is true which can be verified by reason and science; yet prayer is a mystery that overflows both our conscious and unconscious lives.  Others overly prize production and profit; thus prayer, being unproductive, is useless.  2727   Finally, our battle has to confront what we experience as failure in prayer; discouragement during periods of dryness; disappointment over not being heard according to our own will; our resistance to the idea that prayer is a free and unmerited gift; and so forth.  The conclusion is always the same:  what good does it do to pray?  To overcome these obstacles, we must battle to gain humility, trust, and perseverance.”  2728

“The saintly Cure of Ars once asked a brother priest who was complaining about his lack of success.  ‘You have prayed, you have sighed … but have you fasted, too?  Have you kept vigil?’  It could also be that we are asking God for the wrong things.  St. Teresa of Avila once said, ‘Do not pray for lighter burdens; pray for a stronger back.’”  YC 507

 “The habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction.  A distraction reveals to us what we are attached to, and this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for him and lead us resolutely to offer him our heart to be purified.  Therein lies the battle, the choice of which master to serve.  2729   Another difficulty, especially for those who sincerely want to pray, is dryness.  Dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This is the moment of sheer faith.”  2731

“The most common yet most hidden temptation is our lack of faith.  Sometimes we turn to the Lord as a last resort, but do we really believe he is?  Sometimes we enlist the Lord as an ally, but our heart remains presumptions.  In each case, our lack of faith reveals that we do not yet share in the disposition of a humble heart. 2732   Some stop praying because they think their petition is not heard.  “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (Jas 4:3)  If we ask with a divided heart, we are ‘adulterers’, God cannot answer us, for he desires our well-being, our life.  “Do not be troubled if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask him; for he desires to do something even greater for you, while you cling to him in prayer.”  2737

“When ‘his hour’ came, Jesus prayed to the Father. (Jn 43).  His prayer, the longest transmitted by the Gospel, embraces the whole economy of creation and salvation, as well as his death and Resurrection.  The prayer of the Hour of Jesus always remains his own, just as his Passover ‘once for all’ remains ever present in the liturgy of his Church.  2746  The prayer of the hour of Jesus, rightly called the ‘priestly prayer’, sums up the whole economy of creation and salvation.  It fulfills the great petitions of the Our Father.

THE OUR FATHER:  “Jesus ‘was praying at a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”’  In response to this request the Lord entrusts to his disciples and to his Church the fundamental Christian prayer.  2759   The Lord’s prayer is the most perfect of prayers … in it we ask, not only for all the things we rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired.  (St. Thomas Aquinas) 2763   The Sermon on the Mount is teaching for life, the Our Father is a prayer, but in both the one and the other the Spirit of the Lord gives new form to our desires, those inner movements that animate our lives.  Jesus teaches us this new life by this words; he teaches us to ask for it by our prayer.  The rightness of our life in him will depend on the rightness of our prayer.  2764   But Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically.  As in every vocal prayer, it is through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God to pray to their Father.  Jesus not only gives us the words of our filial prayer; at the same time he gives us the Spirit by whom these words become in us ‘spirit and life.’” 2766

“This indivisible gift of the Lord’s words and of the holy Spirit who gives life to them in the hearts of believers has been received and lived by the Church from the beginning.  The first communities prayed the Lord’s Prayer three times a day, in place of the ‘Eighteen Benedictions’ customary in Jewish piety.  2767   In Baptism and Confirmation, the handling on of the Lord’s Prayer signifies new birth into the divine life.  Since Christian prayer is our speaking to God with the very word of God, those who are born  anew through the living and abiding word of God learn to invoke their Father by the one Word he always hears.  2769   In the Eucharistic liturgy the Lord’s Prayer appears as the prayer of the whole Church and there reveals its full meaning and efficacy.  Placed between the Eucharistic prayer and the communion, the Lord’s Prayer sums up on the one hand all the petitions and intercessions expressed in the movement of the epiclesis and, on the other, knocks at the door of the Banquet of the kingdom which sacramental communion anticipates.”  2770

The next set of catechism paragraphs begin the walk through the meaning of the words of the Our Father prayer.    

November 8, 2012

How Should I Pray?



Catechism Readings:  Paragraphs 2598 – 2696

These next few sections are on the how’s and why’s and even where’s of prayer.

“Jesus prays before the decisive moments of his mission.  2600   Jesus often prays apart in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night. 2602   Two explicit prayers of Jesus were preserved by the evangelists.  Each begins with thanksgiving.  In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves learned and has revealed them to infants, the poor of the Beatitudes (Mt 11:25-7).  The second prayer, before the raising of Lazarus (Jn 11:41-42) is followed by Jesus adding: ‘I know that you always hear me,’ which implies that Jesus constantly made such petitions.  Jesus’ prayer, characterized by thanksgiving, reveals to us how to ask:  before the gift is given, Jesus commits himself to the One who in giving gives himself.  The Giver is more precious than the gift; He is the ‘treasure.’”  2603-4  

“From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of the heart: reconciliation with one’s brother before presenting an offering on the altar, love of enemies, and prayer for persecutors, forgiveness from the depths of the heart. 2608   Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith.  Faith is a filial adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand (belief without understanding).  2609    Jesus tells us to ask in His name.  ‘Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.’” 2615

Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer; it is an encounter between God and man.  2626   Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator.  It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us.  2628  (Prayer’s) most usual form, because the most spontaneous, is petition: by prayer of petition we express awareness of our relationship with God.  We are creatures who are not our own beginning, not the masters of adversity. 2929   The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness.  It is a prerequisite for righteous and pure prayer.  Asking forgiveness is the prerequisite for both the Eucharistic liturgy and personal prayer.  2631   Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did.  He is the one intercessor with the Father on the behalf of all men, especially sinners. 2634  In intercession, he who prays looks not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others, even to the point of praying for those who do him harm.  2635   As in the prayer of petition, every intent and need can become an offering of thanksgiving.  The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving. 2638   Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God.  It lauds God for his own sake.  By praise, the Spirit is joined to our spirits to bear witness that we are children of God, testifying to the only Son in whom we are adopted and by whom we glorify the Father.”  2639 

“Prayer cannot be reduced to the spontaneous outpouring of interior impulse: in order to pray, one must have the will to pray.  Nor is it enough to know what the Scriptures reveal about prayer: one must also learn how to pray.  Through a living transmission (Sacred Tradition) within ‘the believing and praying Church,’ the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God how to pray.  2650   The Holy Spirit is the living water ‘welling up to eternal life’ in the heart that prays.  It is he who teaches us to accept it at its source: Christ.  Indeed in the Christian life there are several wellsprings where Christ awaits us to enable us to drink of the Holy Spirit:  The Word of God, The Liturgy of the Church, and through the theological virtues.  2652  The Church ‘forcefully and specially exhorts all the Christian faithful to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.  … Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture.  The spiritual writers, paraphrasing Mathew 7:7, summarize in this way the dispositions of the heart nourished by the word of God in prayer: ‘Seek in reading and you will find in meditating; know in mental prayer and it will be opened to you by contemplation. 2653-4   In the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit proclaims, makes present, and communicates the mystery of salvation, which is continued in the heart that prays.  The spiritual writers sometimes compare the heart to an altar.  2655   One enters into prayer as one enters into liturgy: by the narrow gate of faith.  The Holy Spirit, who instructs us to celebrate the liturgy in expectation of Christ’s return, teaches to pray in hope.  Prayer, formed by the liturgical life, draws everything into the love by which we are loved in Christ and which enables us to respond to him by loving as he has loved us.  Love is the source of prayer.  2656-8  Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to ‘little children.’” 2660

“’Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.’  The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always.  2667-8  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 upon the Holy Spirit every day, especially at the beginning and the end of every important action.  2670   Jesus is the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she ‘shows the way, and is herself “the Sign” of the way’, according to the traditional iconography of East and West.  Beginning with Mary’s unique cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the holy Mother of God, centering it on the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries.  In countless hymns and antiphons expressing this prayer, two movements usually alternate with one another: the first ‘magnifies’ the Lord for the ‘great things’ he did for his lowly servant and through her for all human beings, the second entrust the supplications and praises of the children of God to the Mother of Jesus, because she now knows the humanity which, in her, the Son of God espoused.” 2675

“The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today.  When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were ‘put in charge of many things.’ (Mt 25:21)  Their intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan.  We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.  2583   The Christian family is the first place of education in prayer.  For young children in particular, daily family prayer is the first witness of the Church’s living memory as awakened patiently by the Holy Spirit. 2685   Many religious have consecrated their whole lives to prayer.  Hermits, monks, and nuns since the time of the desert fathers have devoted their time to praising God and interceding for his people. 2687   The catechesis of children, young people, and adults aims at teaching them to meditate on the Word of God in personal prayer, practicing it in liturgical prayer, and internalizing it at all times in order to bear fruit in a new life.  The memorization of basic prayers offers an essential support to the life of prayer, but it is important to help learners savor their meaning.  Prayer groups, indeed schools of prayer, are today one of the signs and one of the driving forces of renewal of prayer in the Church.  2688-9   The Holy Spirit gives to certain of the faithful the gifts of wisdom, faith and discernment for the sake of this common good which is prayer (spiritual direction).  Men and women so endowed are true servants of the living tradition of prayer.” 2690  

“The church, the house of God, is the proper place for the liturgical prayer of the parish community.  It is also the privileged place for adoration of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  The choice of a favorable place is not a matter of indifference for true prayer.  For personal prayer, this place can be a ‘prayer corner’.  In regions where monasteries exist, the vocation of these communities is to further the participation of the faithful in the Liturgy of the Hours, and to provide necessary solitude for more intense personal prayer.  Pilgrimages evoke our earthly journey toward heaven, and are traditionally very special occasions for renewal in prayer.  2691

Next week we continue looking at prayer, focusing on the different expressions of prayer and of the difficulties in praying effectively.

October 25, 2012

Prayers in the Old Testament



This is the start of the section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on Prayer.  The section reviewed today looked at prayer in general, and prayer as seen in the Old Testament.

The Church requires that faithful Catholics maintain a vital and personal relationship with God; “This relationship is prayer.” 2558   “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God, or the requesting of good things from God.  Humility is the foundation of prayer.  Only when we humbly acknowledge that we do not know how to pray as we ought are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer.2559   It is he who first seeks us.  Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours.  God thirsts that we may thirst for him.  2560   Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays.  But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the sour or the spirit, but most often the heart.  According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays.”  2562  

“Even after losing through his sin his likeness to God, man remains an image of his Creator, and retains the desire for the one who calls him into existence.  All religions bear witness to men’s essential search for God.  The living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer.  In prayer, the faithful God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response.  2566-7   In his indefectible covenant with every living creature, God has always called people to prayer.  But it is above all beginning with our father Abraham that prayer is revealed in the Old Testament.”  2569

“Abraham’s heart is entirely submissive to the Word.  Such attentiveness of the heart is essential to prayer.  Abraham’s prayer is expressed first by deeds … only later does Abraham’s first prayer in words appear.  One aspect of the drama of prayer appears from the beginning:  the test of faith in the fidelity of God.  2570  Once God had confided his plan, Abraham’s heart is attuned to his Lord’s compassion for men and he dares to intercede for them with bold confidence.  2571   Abraham is asked to sacrifice the son God had given him, (but) Abraham’s faith does not weaken.  … Prayer restores man to God’s likeness and enables him to share in the power of God’s love that saves the multitude.”  2572    

When God speaks to Moses, “here again the initiative is God’s.  From the midst of the burning bush he calls Moses.  … Only after long debate does Moses attune his own will to that of the Savior God.  (Over the years, ) Moses converses with God often and at length.  From this intimacy with the faithful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, Moses drew strength and determination for his intercession.  He does not pray for himself but for the people whom God made his own.  2575-7

David is par excellence the king after God’s own heart, the shepherd who prays for his people and prays in their name.  His submission to the will of God, his praise, and his repentance, will be a model for the prayer of the people.”  2579   The catechism in paragraphs 2581-4 tells of the prayers of Elijah, as described in 1 Kings.  It describes how through his prayer the widow’s child is brought back to life, and how Elijah, like Moses hid in a cleft in the rock until “the mysterious presence of God has passed by.”   

“From the time of David to the coming of the Messiah texts appearing in these sacred books show a deepening in prayer for oneself and in prayer for others.  Thus the psalms were gradually collected into the five books of the Psalter (or Praises), the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament.  2585   The Psalms both nourished and expressed the prayer of the People of God gathered during the great feasts at Jerusalem and each Sabbath in the synagogues.  Prayed by Christ and fulfilled in him, the Psalms remain essential to the prayer of the Church.  2587  The Psalms are a mirror of God’s marvelous deeds in the history of his people, as well as reflections of the human experiences of the Psalmist.  Though a given psalm may reflect an event of the past, it still possesses such direct simplicity that it can be prayed in truth by men of all times and conditions.  2588   The Psalms constitute the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament.  They present two inseparable qualities:  the personal, and the communal.  They extend to all dimensions of history, recalling God’s promises already fulfilled and looking for the coming of the Messiah.”  2596

Next week we’ll do the lessons intended for October 23 and 30, the remaining articles of Chapter 1 on Prayer, and all of Chapter 2.  They will move on to the New Testament prayers, and especially those of Jesus and his apostles, and then onto how we practice today what the Bible has shown us.  

October 12, 2012

Tuesday Study Agenda: Prayer



Part Four: Christian Prayer

October 16       Section One, Chapter One, Article 1

October 23       Article 2, 3

October 30       Chapter Two, Articles 1 – 3

November 6     Chapter Three, Articles 1, 2

November 13   Article 3.  Section Two, Article 1

November 20   Article 2, Article 3, I & II

November 27   Article 3, Article 4