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.  

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

Pornography and Envy: Unwanted Desires

Catechism paragraphs 2514 - 2557

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbors.  Ex 20:17

The Ninth and Tenth Commandments at their heart are about greed, excesses of what we want.  It is good for man to have sexual desires or desires for things, but there is a line which can be crossed, whether we desire too much for ourselves or are envious of what our neighbor has.  These commandments have to do with temperance and modesty, limits on our wants.

“The spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart, in the biblical sense of the depths of one’s being, where the person decides for or against God.  358   The heart is the seat of moral personality: ‘Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication’ (Mt 15:19) … The struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance. 2517   The sixth beatitude proclaims, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  ‘Pure in heart’ refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God’s holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith.  2518   Even now it enables us to see according to God, to accept others as ‘neighbors’; it lets us perceive the human body – ours and our neighbor’s – as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty.” 2519

“The baptized must continue to struggle against concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires.  With God’s grace he will prevail: by the virtue and gift of chastity, for chastity lets us love with upright and undivided heart; by purity of intention which consists in seeking the true end of man; by purity of vision, by refusing all complicity in impure thoughts; and by prayer.  2520   Modesty means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden.  It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons.  Modesty is decency; it inspires one’s choice of clothing.  It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. 2521-2   Teaching modesty to children and adolescents means awakening in them respect for the human person.  2524   So-called moral permissiveness rests on an erroneous conception of human freedom; the necessary precondition for the development of true freedom is to let oneself be educated in the moral law.” 2526

“Envy is a capital sin.  It refers to the sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly.  When it wishes harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin. 2539   Envy comes from pride; the baptized person should train himself to live in humility. 2540   Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command.  This is what man’s first sin consisted of.  397   Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone, and bids them ‘renounce all that (they have)’ for his sake and that of the Gospel (Lk 14:33).  The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of heaven.  All Christ’s faithful are to ‘direct their affections rightly, lest they be hindered in their pursuit of perfect charity by the use of worldly things and by an adherence to riches which is contrary to the spirit of evangelical poverty.’  2544-5   The Lord grieves over the rich, because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods.  Trust in God is preparation for the blessedness of the poor.  They shall see God.  2547   It remains for the holy people to struggle, with graces from on high, to obtain the good things God promises.  In order to possess and contemplate God, Christ’s faithful mortify their cravings and, with the grace of God, prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power.”  2549

YOUCAT Q464   “What good is shame?  Many young Christians live in an environment where it is taken for granted that everything should be on display and people are systematically trained to ignore feelings of shame.  But shamelessness is inhuman.  Animals experience no shame.  In a human being, in contrast, it is an essential feature.  It does not hide something inferior but rather protects something valuable, namely, the dignity of the person in his capacity to love.  Q466:  What is envy, and how can you fight against it?  Envy is sadness and annoyance at the sight of another’s well-being …  Envy decreases when we try to rejoice more and more in the accomplishments and gifts of others.  Hate no one.  Do not be jealous.  Do not act out of envy.  Do not love quarreling.  Flee arrogance.  (St. Benedict of Nursia)

This wraps up our reading and learning the section of the catechism titled:  Life in Christ.  This section began with the beatitudes and feelings of the heart, how we should desire to live good lives.  The section ended with the Ten Commandments, the underpinnings of the beatitudes.  Accepting these and obeying the call of these, together, this is living a Life in Christ. 

The section we just finished heavily addressed how man is to live in relation to man.  Next we will pursue the last of the four sections of the catechism:  Christian Prayer --- how man is to live in relation with God.  This section talks about prayer in general, and then the specific prayer Jesus taught us, the Our Father.  On a separate blog post I will lay out the timing for proceeding through this section.       

And Truth Shall Set You Free

The Eighth Commandment:  You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

This chapter of the catechism deals with truth, and the ways truth are expressed, including in beauty.  “The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others.  Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness:  they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant.” 2464

“Man tends by nature toward the truth.  He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it … once (he) comes to know it, and direct his life accordingly.  2467   The virtue of truth gives another his just due.  It entails honesty and discretion.  2469   The duty of Christians to take part in the life of the Church impels them to act as witnesses of the Gospel and of the obligations that flow from it.  This witness is a transmission of the faith in words and deeds.  Witness is an act of justice that establishes the truth or makes it known.”  2472  

“Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury.  He becomes guilty: of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor; of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another’s faults and failings to persons who did not know them; of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.  2477   To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor’s thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way.  2478   Boasting or bragging is an offense against truth.  So is irony aimed at disparaging someone by maliciously caricaturing some aspect of his behavior. 2481  (I think most politicians and newsmen need to go to confession over this one.)   Lying is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others.  2485  Lying is destructive of society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships.”  2486  

“The Gospel precept of fraternal love requires us to judge whether or not it is appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it.  2488   The good and safety of others, respect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being silent about what ought not be known or for making use of discreet language.  No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it.  2489   The secret of the sacrament of reconciliation is sacred, and cannot be violated under any pretext.”  2490

“Users should practice moderation and discipline in their approach to the mass media.  They will want to form enlightened and correct consciences the more easily to resist the unwholesome influences.  2496   Civil authorities have particular responsibilities in this field because of the common good.   It is for the civil authority to defend and safeguard a true and just freedom of information.”  2498 

“Truth is beautiful in itself.  Truth in words is necessary to man.  But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words:  the depths of the human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the mystery of God.  God reveals himself through the universal language of creation, from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.  2500   Created ‘in the image of God,’ man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works.  2501  The fine arts, but above all sacred art, ‘of their nature are directed toward expressing in some way the infinite beauty of God in works made by human hands.  Their dedication to the increase of God’s praise and of his glory is more complete, the more exclusively they are devoted to turning men’s minds devoutly toward God.’” 2513

YOUCAT Q460:  “What dangers result from the media?  Many people, especially children, think that whatever they see in the media is real.  If in the name of entertainment violence is glorified, anti-social behavior is approved of, and human sexuality is trivialized, this is a sin both of those in the media who are responsible and also of those supervisory authorities that ought to put a stop to it.  Those who consume violence, hatred, and pornography in the media become spiritually deadened and do themselves harm.”    

Next week is the final week in this series of catechism readings, completing the section titled Life in Christ.  We’ll look at the Ninth and Tenth Commandments, and consider “coveting.”