PART FOUR: CHRISTIAN PRAYER
SECTION ONE - PRAYER IN THE
CHRISTIAN LIFE
2558
"Great is the mystery of the faith!" The Church professes this mystery in the
Apostles' Creed (Part One) and celebrates it in the sacramental liturgy (Part
Two), so that the life of the faithful may be conformed to Christ in the Holy
Spirit to the glory of God the Father (Part Three). This mystery, then, requires
that the faithful believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a
vital and personal relationship with the living and true God. This relationship is
prayer.
WHAT IS PRAYER?
For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward
heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and
joy.[1]
Prayer as God's gift
2559 "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good
things from God."[2] But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and
will, or "out of the depths" of a humble and contrite heart?[3] He who humbles himself
will be exalted;[4] humility is the foundation of prayer, Only when we humbly
acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought,"[5] are we ready to receive
freely the gift of prayer. "Man is a beggar before God."[6]
2560 "If you knew the gift of God!"[7] The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well
where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he
who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths
of God's desire for 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.[8]
2561 "You would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."[9]
Paradoxically our prayer of petition is a response to the plea of the living God: "They
have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water!"[10] Prayer is the response of faith to the free
promise of salvation and also a response of love to the thirst of the only Son of God.[11]
Prayer as covenant
2562 Where does prayer come from? 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 soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand
times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the
words of prayer are in vain.
2563 The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic
or Biblical expression, the heart is the place "to which I withdraw." The heart is our
hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can
fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper
than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the
place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of
covenant.
2564 Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ.
It is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and
ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the human will of the Son of
God made man.
Prayer as communion
2565 In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with
their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy
Spirit. The grace of the Kingdom is "the union of the entire holy and royal Trinity . . .
with the whole human spirit."[12] Thus, the life of prayer is the habit of being in the
presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him. This communion of life is
always possible because, through Baptism, we have already been united with Christ.[13]
Prayer is Christian insofar as it is communion with Christ and extends throughout the
Church, which is his Body. Its dimensions are those of Christ's love.[14]
ENDNOTES
1 St. Therese of Lisieux, Manuscrits autobiographiques, C 25r.
2 St. John Damascene, De fide orth. 3, 24: PG 94,1089C.
3 Ps 130:1.
4 Cf. Lk 18:9-14.
5 Rom 8:26.
6 St. Augustine, Sermo 56, 6, 9: PL 38, 381.
7 Jn 4:10.
8 Cf. St. Augustine De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus 64, 4: PL
40, 56.
9 Jn 4:10.
10 Jer 2:13.
11 Cf. Jn 7:37-39; 19:28; Isa 12:3; 51:1; Zech 12:10; 13:1.
12 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio, 16, 9: PG 35, 945.
13 Cf. Rom 6:5.
14 Cf. Eph 3:18-21.
CHAPTER ONE - THE REVELATION OF
PRAYER
THE UNIVERSAL CALL TO PRAYER
2566 Man is in search of God. In the act of creation, God calls every being from
nothingness into existence. "Crowned with glory and honor," man is, after the angels,
capable of acknowledging "how majestic is the name of the Lord in all the earth."[1]
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.[2]
2567 God calls man first. Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may
run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet 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. As God gradually reveals himself and reveals man to himself, prayer appears as
a reciprocal call, a covenant drama. Through words and actions, this drama engages the
heart. It unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation.
ARTICLE 1 - IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
2568 In the Old Testament, the revelation of prayer comes between the fall and the
restoration of man, that is, between God's sorrowful call to his first children: "Where are
you? . . . What is this that you have done?"[3] and the response of God's only Son on
coming into the world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God."[4] Prayer is bound up
with human history, for it is the relationship with God in historical events.
Creation - source of prayer
2569 Prayer is lived in the first place beginning with the realities of creation. The first
nine chapters of Genesis describe this relationship with God as an offering of the firstborn
of Abel's flock, as the invocation of the divine name at the time of Enosh, and as
"walking with God.[5] Noah's offering is pleasing to God, who blesses him and through
him all creation, because his heart was upright and undivided; Noah, like Enoch before
him, "walks with God."[6] This kind of prayer is lived by many righteous people in all
religions. In his indefectible covenant with every living creature,[7] 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.
God's promise and the prayer of Faith
2570 When God calls him, Abraham goes forth "as the Lord had told him";[8]
Abraham's heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he obeys. Such attentiveness
of the heart, whose decisions are made according to God's will, is essential to prayer,
while the words used count only in relation to it. Abraham's prayer is expressed first by
deeds: a man of silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey.
Only later does Abraham's first prayer in words appear: a veiled complaint reminding
God of his promises which seem unfulfilled.[9] Thus one aspect of the drama of prayer
appears from the beginning: the test of faith in the fidelity of God.
2571 Because Abraham believed in God and walked in his presence and in covenant
with him,[10] the patriarch is ready to welcome a mysterious Guest into his tent.
Abraham's remarkable hospitality at Mamre foreshadows the annunciation of the true
Son of the promise.[11] After that, 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.[12]
2572 As a final stage in the purification of his faith, Abraham, "who had received the
promises,"[13] is asked to sacrifice the son God had given him. Abraham's faith does
not weaken ("God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering."), for he
"considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead."[14] And so the father
of believers is conformed to the likeness of the Father who will not spare his own Son
but wiLl deliver him up for us all.[15] Prayer restores man to God's likeness and enables
him to share in the power of God's love that saves the multitude.[16]
2573 God renews his promise to Jacob, the ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel.[17]
Before confronting his elder brother Esau, Jacob wrestles all night with a mysterious
figure who refuses to reveal his name, but he blesses him before leaving him at dawn.
From this account, the spiritual tradition of the Church has retained the symbol of
prayer as a battle of faith and as the triumph of perseverance.[18]
Moses and the prayer of the mediator
2574 Once the promise begins to be fulfilled (Passover, the Exodus, the gift of the Law,
and the ratification of the covenant), the prayer of Moses becomes the most striking
example of intercessory prayer, which will be fulfilled in "the one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus."[19]
2575 Here again the initiative is God's. From the midst of the burning bush he calls
Moses.[20] This event will remain one of the primordial images of prayer in the spiritual
tradition of Jews and Christians alike. When "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Jacob" calls Moses to be his servant, it is because he is the living God who wants men to
live. God reveals himself in order to save them, though he does not do this alone or
despite them: he caLls Moses to be his messenger, an associate in his compassion, his
work of salvation. There is something of a divine plea in this mission, and only after long
debate does Moses attune his own will to that of the Savior God. But in the dialogue in
which God confides in him, Moses also learns how to pray: he balks, makes excuses,
above all questions: and it is in response to his question that the Lord confides his
ineffable name, which will be revealed through his mighty deeds.
2576 "Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his
friend."[21] Moses' prayer is characteristic of contemplative prayer by which God's
servant remains faithful to his mission. Moses converses with God often and at length,
climbing the mountain to hear and entreat him and coming down to the people to repeat
the words of his God for their guidance. Moses "is entrusted with all my house. With
him I speak face to face, clearly, not in riddles," for "Moses was very humble, more so
than anyone else on the face of the earth."[22]
2577 From this intimacy with the faithful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast
love,[23] Moses drew strength and determination for his intercession. He does not pray
for himself but for the people whom God made his own. Moses already intercedes for
them during the battle with the Amalekites and prays to obtain healing for Miriam.[24]
But it is chiefly after their apostasy that Moses "stands in the breach" before God in
order to save the people.[25] The arguments of his prayer - for intercession is also a
mysterious battle - will inspire the boldness of the great intercessors among the Jewish
people and in the Church: God is love; he is therefore righteous and faithful; he cannot
contradict himself; he must remember his marvellous deeds, since his glory is at stake,
and he cannot forsake this people that bears his name.
David and the prayer of the king
2578 The prayer of the People of God flourishes in the shadow of God's dwelling place,
first the ark of the covenant and later the Temple. At first the leaders of the people - the
shepherds and the prophets - teach them to pray. The infant Samuel must have learned
from his mother Hannah how "to stand before the LORD" and from the priest Eli how
to listen to his word: "Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening."[26] Later, he will also
know the cost and consequence of intercession: "Moreover, as for me, far be it from me
that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in
the good and the right way."[27]
2579 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. His prayer, the prayer of
God's Anointed, is a faithful adherence to the divine promise and expresses a loving and
joyful trust in God, the only King and Lord.[28] In the Psalms David, inspired by the
Holy Spirit, is the first prophet of Jewish and Christian prayer. The prayer of Christ, the
true Messiah and Son of David, will reveal and fulfill the meaning of this prayer.
2580 The Temple of Jerusalem, the house of prayer that David wanted to build, will be
the work of his son, Solomon. The prayer at the dedication of the Temple relies on
God's promise and covenant, on the active presence of his name among his People,
recalling his mighty deeds at the Exodus.[29] The king lifts his hands toward heaven and
begs the Lord, on his own behalf, on behalf of the entire people, and of the generations
yet to come, for the forgiveness of their sins and for their daily needs, so that the nations
may know that He is the only God and that the heart of his people may belong wholly
and entirely to him.
Elijah, the prophets and conversion of heart
2581 For the People of God, the Temple was to be the place of their education in
prayer: pilgrimages, feasts and sacrifices, the evening offering, the incense, and the bread
of the Presence ("shewbread") - all these signs of the holiness and glory of God Most
High and Most Near were appeals to and ways of prayer. But ritualism often encouraged
an excessively external worship. The people needed education in faith and conversion of
heart; this was the mission of the prophets, both before and after the Exile.
2582 Elijah is the "father" of the prophets, "the generation of those who seek him, who
seek the face of the God of Jacob."[30] Elijah's name, "The Lord is my God," foretells
the people's cry in response to his prayer on Mount Carmel.[31] St. James refers to
Elijah in order to encourage us to pray: "The prayer of the righteous is powerful and
effective."[32]
2583 After Elijah had learned mercy during his retreat at the Wadi Cherith, he teaches
the widow of Zarephath to believe in The Word of God and confirms her faith by his
urgent prayer: God brings the widow's child back to life.[33] The sacrifice on Mount
Carmel is a decisive test for the faith of the People of God. In response to Elijah's plea,
"Answer me, O LORD, answer me," the Lord's fire consumes the holocaust, at the time
of the evening oblation. The Eastern liturgies repeat Elijah's plea in the Eucharistic
epiclesis. Finally, taking the desert road that leads to the place where the living and true
God reveals himself to his people, Elijah, like Moses before him, hides "in a cleft of he
rock" until the mysterious presence of God has passed by.[34] But only on the mountain
of the Transfiguration will Moses and Elijah behold the unveiled face of him whom they
sought; "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God [shines] in the face of Christ,"
crucified and risen.[35]
2584 In their "one to one" encounters with God, the prophets draw light and strength
for their mission. Their prayer is not flight from this unfaithful world, but rather
attentiveness to The Word of God. At times their prayer is an argument or a complaint,
but it is always an intercession that awaits and prepares for the intervention of the Savior
God, the Lord of history.[36]
The Psalms, the prayer of the assembly
2585 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.[37] Thus
the psalms were gradually collected into the five books of the Psalter (or "Praises"), the
masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament.
2586 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. Their
prayer is inseparably personal and communal; it concerns both those who are praying
and all men. The Psalms arose from the communities of the Holy Land and the
Diaspora, but embrace all creation. Their prayer recalls the saving events of the past, yet
extends into the future, even to the end of history; it commemorates the promises God
has already kept, and awaits the Messiah who will fulfill them definitively. Prayed by
Christ and fulfilled in him, the Psalms remain essential to the prayer of the Church.[38]
2587 The Psalter is the book in which The Word of God becomes man's prayer. In
other books of the Old Testament, "the words proclaim [God's] works and bring to light
the mystery they contain."[39] The words of the Psalmist, sung for God, both express
and acclaim the Lord's saving works; the same Spirit inspires both God's work and
man's response. Christ will unite the two. In him, the psalms continue to teach us how
to pray.
2588 The Psalter's many forms of prayer take shape both in the liturgy of the Temple
and in the human heart. Whether hymns or prayers of lamentation or thanksgiving,
whether individual or communal, whether royal chants, songs of pilgrimage or wisdom
meditations, 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.
2589 Certain constant characteristics appear throughout the Psalms: simplicity and
spontaneity of prayer; the desire for God himself through and with all that is good in his
creation; the distraught situation of the believer who, in his preferential love for the
Lord, is exposed to a host of enemies and temptations, but who waits upon what the
faithful God will do, in the certitude of his love and in submission to his will. The prayer
of the psalms is always sustained by praise; that is why the title of this collection as
handed down to us is so fitting: "The Praises." Collected for the assembly's worship, the
Psalter both sounds the call to prayer and sings the response to that call: Hallelu-Yah!
("Alleluia"), "Praise the Lord!" What is more pleasing than a psalm? David expresses it
well: "Praise the Lord, for a psalm is good: let there be praise of our God with gladness
and grace!" Yes, a psalm is a blessing on the lips of the people, praise of God, the
assembly's homage, a general acclamation, a word that speaks for all, the voice of the
Church, a confession of faith in song.[40]
IN BRIEF
2590 "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good
things from God" (St. John Damascene, Defide orth. 3, 24: PG 94, 1089C).
2591 God tirelessly calls each person to this mysterious encounter with Himself. Prayer
unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation as a reciprocal call between God and
man.
2592 The prayer of Abraham and Jacob is presented as a battle of faith marked by trust
in God's faithfulness and by certitude in the victory promised to perseverance.
2593 The prayer of Moses responds to the living God's initiative for the salvation of his
people. It foreshadows the prayer of intercession of the unique mediator, Christ Jesus.
2594 The prayer of the People of God flourished in the shadow of the dwelling place of
God's presence on earth, the ark of the covenant and the Temple, under the guidance of
their shepherds, especially King David, and of the prophets.
2595 The prophets summoned the people to conversion of heart and, while zealously
seeking the face of God, like Elijah, they interceded for the people.
2596 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.
2597 Prayed and fulfilled in Christ, the Psalms are an essential and permanent element of
the prayer of the Church. They are suitable for men of every condition and time.
ARTICLE 2 - IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME
2598 The drama of prayer is fully revealed to us in the Word who became flesh and
dwells among us. To seek to understand his prayer through what his witnesses proclaim
to us in the Gospel is to approach the holy Lord Jesus as Moses approached the burning
bush: first to contemplate him in prayer, then to hear how he teaches us to pray, in order
to know how he hears our prayer.
Jesus prays
2599 The Son of God who became Son of the Virgin also learned to pray according to
his human heart. He learns the formulas of prayer from his mother, who kept in her
heart and meditated upon all the ‘great things’ done by the Almighty.[41] He learns to
pray in the words and rhythms of the prayer of his people, in the synagogue at Nazareth
and the Temple at Jerusalem. But his prayer springs from an otherwise secret source, as
he intimates at the age of twelve: "I must be in my Father's house."[42] Here the
newness of prayer in the fullness of time begins to be revealed: his filial prayer, which
the Father awaits from his children, is finally going to be lived out by the only Son in his
humanity, with and for men.
2600 The Gospel according to St. Luke emphasizes the action of the Holy Spirit and the
meaning of prayer in Christ's ministry. Jesus prays before the decisive moments of his
mission: before his Father's witness to him during his baptism and Transfiguration, and
before his own fulfillment of the Father's plan of love by his Passion.[43] He also prays
before the decisive moments involving the mission of his apostles: at his election and
call of the Twelve, before Peter's confession of him as "the Christ of God," and again
that the faith of the chief of the Apostles may not fail when tempted.[44] Jesus' prayer
before the events of salvation that the Father has asked him to fulfill is a humble and
trusting commitment of his human will to the loving will of the Father.
2601 "He was praying in a certain place and when he had ceased, one of his disciples
said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray."'[45] In seeing the Master at prayer the disciple of
Christ also wants to pray. By contemplating and hearing the Son, the master of prayer,
the children learn to pray to the Father.
2602 Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night.[46]
He includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on humanity in his incarnation, and
he offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus, the Word who has become
flesh, shares by his human prayer in all that "his brethren" experience; he sympathizes
with their weaknesses in order to free them.[47] It was for this that the Father sent him.
His words and works are the visible manifestation of his prayer in secret.
2603 The evangelists have preserved two more explicit prayers offered by Christ during
his public ministry. 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.[48] His exclamation, "Yes, Father!" expresses the depth of
his heart, his adherence to the Father's "good pleasure," echoing his mother's Fiat at the
time of his conception and prefiguring what he will say to the Father in his agony. The
whole prayer of Jesus is contained in this loving adherence of his human heart to the
mystery of the will of the Father.[49]
2604 The second prayer, before the raising of Lazarus, is recorded by St. John.[50]
Thanksgiving precedes the event: "Father, I thank you for having heard me," which
implies that the Father always hears his petitions. Jesus immediately adds: "I know that
you always hear me," which implies that Jesus, on his part, 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"; in him abides his Son's heart;
the gift is given "as well."[51] The priestly prayer of Jesus holds a unique place in the
economy of salvation.[52] A meditation on it will conclude Section One. It reveals the
ever present prayer of our High Priest and, at the same time, contains what he teaches us
about our prayer to our Father, which will be developed in Section Two.
2605 When the hour had come for him to fulfill the Father's plan of love, Jesus allows a
glimpse of the boundless depth of his filial prayer, not only before he freely delivered
himself up ("Abba . . . not my will, but yours."),[53] but even in his last words on the
Cross, where prayer and the gift of self are but one: "Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do",[54] "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise",
"Woman, behold your son" - "Behold your mother",[56] "I thirst.";[57] "My God, My
God, why have you forsaken me?"[58] "It is finished";[59] "Father, into your hands I
commit my spirit!"[60] until the "loud cry" as he expires, giving up his spirit.[61]
2606 All the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the
petitions and intercessions of salvation history are summed up in this cry of the
incarnate Word. Here the Father accepts them and, beyond all hope, answers them by
raising his Son. Thus is fulfilled and brought to completion the drama of prayer in the
economy of creation and salvation. The Psalter gives us the key to prayer in Christ. In
the "today" of the Resurrection the Father says: "You are my Son, today I have begotten
you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your
possession."[62]
The Letter to the Hebrews expresses in dramatic terms how the prayer of Jesus
accomplished the victory of salvation: "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers
and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from
death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned
obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of
eternal salvation to all who obey him."[63]
Jesus teaches us how to pray
2607 When Jesus prays he is already teaching us how to pray. His prayer to his Father is
the theological path (the path of faith, hope, and charity) of our prayer to God. But the
Gospel also gives us Jesus' explicit teaching on prayer. Like a wise teacher he takes hold
of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. Addressing the crowds
following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of prayer from the Old Covenant
and opens to them the newness of the coming Kingdom. Then he reveals this newness
to them in parables. Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his
disciples who will be the teachers of prayer in his Church.
2608 From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of heart:
reconciliation with one's brother before presenting an offering on the altar, love of
enemies, and prayer for persecutors, prayer to the Father in secret, not heaping up
empty phrases, prayerful forgiveness from the depths of the heart, purity of heart, and
seeking the Kingdom before all else.[64] This filial conversion is entirely directed to the
Father.
2609 Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith. Faith is a filial
adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand. It is possible because the
beloved Son gives us access to the Father. He can ask us to "seek" and to "knock," since
he himself is the door and the way.[65]
2610 Just as Jesus prays to the Father and gives thanks before receiving his gifts, so he
teaches us filial boldness: "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and
you will."[66] Such is the power of prayer and of faith that does not doubt: "all things are
possible to him who believes."[67] Jesus is as saddened by the "lack of faith" of his own
neighbors and the "little faith" of his own disciples[68] as he is struck with admiration at
the great faith of the Roman centurion and the Canaanite woman.[69]
2611 The prayer of faith consists not only in saying "Lord, Lord," but in disposing the
heart to do the will of the Father.[70] Jesus calls his disciples to bring into their prayer
this concern for cooperating with the divine plan.[71]
2612 In Jesus "the Kingdom of God is at hand."[72] He calls his hearers to conversion
and faith, but also to watchfulness. In prayer the disciple keeps watch, attentive to Him
Who Is and Him Who Comes, in memory of his first coming in the lowliness of the
flesh, and in the hope of his second coming in glory.[73] In communion with their
Master, the disciples' prayer is a battle; only by keeping watch in prayer can one avoid
falling into temptation.[74]
2613 Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke:
- The first, "the importunate friend,"[75] invites us to urgent prayer: "Knock, and it will
be opened to you." To the one who prays like this, the heavenly Father will "give
whatever he needs," and above all the Holy Spirit who contains all gifts.
- The second, "the importunate widow,"[76] is centered on one of the qualities of prayer:
it is necessary to pray always without ceasing and with the patience of faith. "And yet,
when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
- The third parable, "the Pharisee and the tax collector,"[77] concerns the humility of the
heart that prays. "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" The Church continues to make this
prayer its own: Kyrie eleison!
2614 When Jesus openly entrusts to his disciples the mystery of prayer to the Father, he
reveals to them what their prayer and ours must be, once he has returned to the Father
in his glorified humanity. What is new is to "ask in his name."[78] Faith in the Son
introduces the disciples into the knowledge of the Father, because Jesus is "the way, and
the truth, and the life."[79] Faith bears its fruit in love: it means keeping the word and
the commandments of Jesus, it means abiding with him in the Father who, in him, so
loves us that he abides with us. In this new covenant the certitude that our petitions will
be heard is founded on the prayer of Jesus.[80]
2615 Even more, what the Father gives us when our prayer is united with that of Jesus is
"another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth."[81] This new
dimension of prayer and of its circumstances is displayed throughout the farewell
discourse.[82] In the Holy Spirit, Christian prayer is a communion of love with the
Father, not only through Christ but also in him: "Hitherto you have asked nothing in my
name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."[83]
Jesus hears our prayer
2616 Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that
anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith,
expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief)[84] or in
silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his
clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman).[85] The urgent request of the blind
men, "Have mercy on us, Son of David" or "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
has-been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus Prayer: "Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!"[86] Healing infirmities or
forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: "Your faith has made
you well; go in peace."
St. Augustine wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus'
prayer: "He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is
prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us acknowledge our voice in
him and his in us."[87]
The prayer of the Virgin Mary
2617 Mary's prayer is revealed to us at the dawning of the fullness of time. Before the
incarnation of the Son of God, and before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, her prayer
cooperates in a unique way with the Father's plan of loving kindness: at the
Annunciation, for Christ's conception; at Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, his
Body.[88] In the faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance he
had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made "full of grace"
responds by offering her whole being: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be
[done] to me according to your word." "Fiat": this is Christian prayer: to be wholly
God's, because he is wholly ours.
2618 The Gospel reveals to us how Mary prays and intercedes in faith. At Cana,[89] the
mother of Jesus asks her son for the needs of a wedding feast; this is the sign of another
feast - that of the wedding of the Lamb where he gives his body and blood at the request
of the Church, his Bride. It is at the hour of the New Covenant, at the foot of the
cross,[90] that Mary is heard as the Woman, the new Eve, the true "Mother of all the
living."
2619 That is why the Canticle of Mary,[91] the Magnificat (Latin) or Megalynei
(Byzantine) is the song both of the Mother of God and of the Church; the song of the
Daughter of Zion and of the new People of God; the song of thanksgiving for the
fullness of graces poured out in the economy of salvation and the song of the "poor"
whose hope is met by the fulfillment of the promises made to our ancestors, "to
Abraham and to his posterity for ever."
IN BRIEF
2620 Jesus' filial prayer is the perfect model of prayer in the New Testament. Often done
in solitude and in secret, the prayer of Jesus involves a loving adherence to the will of the
Father even to the Cross and an absolute confidence in being heard.
2621 In his teaching, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray with a purified heart, with lively
and persevering faith, with filial boldness. He calls them to vigilance and invites them to
present their petitions to God in his name. Jesus Christ himself answers prayers
addressed to him.
2622 The prayers of the Virgin Mary, in her Fiat and Magnificat, are characterized by the
generous offering of her whole being in faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment