ARTICLE 3 - IN THE AGE OF THE CHURCH
2623 On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Promise was poured out on the disciples,
gathered "together in one place."[92] While awaiting the Spirit, "all these with one
accord devoted themselves to prayer."[93] The Spirit who teaches the Church and recalls
for her everything that Jesus said[94] was also to form her in the life of prayer.
2624 In the first community of Jerusalem, believers "devoted themselves to the apostles'
teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers."[95] This sequence is
characteristic of the Church's prayer: founded on the apostolic faith; authenticated by
charity; nourished in the Eucharist.
2625 In the first place these are prayers that the faithful hear and read in the Scriptures,
but also that they make their own - especially those of the Psalms, in view of their
fulfillment in Christ.[96] The Holy Spirit, who thus keeps the memory of Christ alive in
his Church at prayer, also leads her toward the fullness of truth and inspires new
formulations expressing the unfathomable mystery of Christ at work in his Church's life,
sacraments, and mission. These formulations are developed in the great liturgical and
spiritual traditions. The forms of prayer revealed in the apostolic and canonical
Scriptures remain normative for Christian prayer.
I. BLESSING AND ADORATION
2626 Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter
between God and man. In blessing, God's gift and man's acceptance of it are united in
dialogue with each other. The prayer of blessing is man's response to God's gifts:
because God blesses, the human heart can in return bless the One who is the source of
every blessing.
2627 TWO fundamental forms express this movement: our prayer ascends in the Holy
Spirit through Christ to the Father - we bless him for having blessed us;[97] it implores
the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father - he blesses
us.[98]
2628 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[99] and the almighty power of
the Savior who sets us free from evil. Adoration is homage of the spirit to the "King of
Glory,"[100] respectful silence in the presence of the "ever greater" God.[101]
Adoration of the thrice-holy and sovereign God of love blends with humility and gives
assurance to our supplications.
II. PRAYER OF PETITION
2629 The vocabulary of supplication in the New Testament is rich in shades of meaning:
ask, beseech, plead, invoke, entreat, cry out, even "struggle in prayer."[102] Its 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, not our own last end. We are sinners who as
Christians know that we have turned away from our Father. Our petition is already a
turning back to him.
2630 The New Testament contains scarcely any prayers of lamentation, so frequent in
the Old Testament. In the risen Christ the Church's petition is buoyed by hope, even if
we still wait in a state of expectation and must be converted anew every day. Christian
petition, what St. Paul calls {"groaning," arises from another depth, that of creation "in
labor pains" and that of ourselves "as we wait for the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved."[103] In the end, however, "with sighs too deep for
words" the Holy Spirit "helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as
we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words."[104]
2631 The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax
collector in the parable: "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"[105] It is a prerequisite for
righteous and pure prayer. A trusting humility brings us back into the light of
communion between the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and with one another, so that
"we receive from him whatever we ask."[106] Asking forgiveness is the prerequisite for
both the Eucharistic liturgy and personal prayer.
2632 Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come, in
keeping with the teaching of Christ.[107] There is a hierarchy in these petitions: we pray
first for the Kingdom, then for what is necessary to welcome it and cooperate with its
coming. This collaboration with the mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit, which is now
that of the Church, is the object of the prayer of the apostolic community.[108] It is the
prayer of Paul, the apostle par excellence, which reveals to us how the divine solicitude
for all the churches ought to inspire Christian prayer.[109] By prayer every baptized
person works for the coming of the Kingdom.
2633 When we share in God's saving love, we understand that every need can become
the object of petition. Christ, who assumed all things in order to redeem all things, is
glorified by what we ask the Father in his name.[110] It is with this confidence that St.
James and St. Paul exhort us to pray at all times.[111]
III. PRAYER OF INTERCESSION
2634 Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did. He is the
one intercessor with the Father on behalf of all men, especially sinners.[112] He is "able
for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to
make intercession for them."[113] The Holy Spirit "himself intercedes for us . . . and
intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."[114]
2635 Since Abraham, intercession - asking on behalf of another has been characteristic
of a heart attuned to God's mercy. In the age of the Church, Christian intercession
participates in Christ's, as an expression of the communion of saints. 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.[115]
2636 The first Christian communities lived this form of fellowship intensely.[116] Thus
the Apostle Paul gives them a share in his ministry of preaching the Gospel[117] but also
intercedes for them.[118] The intercession of Christians recognizes no boundaries: "for
all men, for kings and all who are in high positions," for persecutors, for the salvation of
those who reject the Gospel.[119]
IV. PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
2637 Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church which, in celebrating the
Eucharist, reveals and becomes more fully what she is. Indeed, in the work of salvation,
Christ sets creation free from sin and death to consecrate it anew and make it return to
the Father, for his glory. The thanksgiving of the members of the Body participates in
that of their Head.
2638 As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of
thanksgiving. The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord
Jesus is always present in it: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus for you"; "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with
thanksgiving."[120]
V. PRAYER OF PRAISE
2639 Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God.
It lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory, quite beyond what he does, but
simply because HE IS. It shares in the blessed happiness of the pure of heart who love
God in faith before seeing him in glory. By praise, the Spirit is joined to our spirits to
bear witness that we are children of God,[121] testifying to the only Son in whom we are
adopted and by whom we glorify the Father. Praise embraces the other forms of prayer
and carries them toward him who is its source and goal: the "one God, the Father, from
whom are all things and for whom we exist."[122]
2640 St. Luke in his gospel often expresses wonder and praise at the marvels of Christ
and in his Acts of the Apostles stresses them as actions of the Holy Spirit: the
community of Jerusalem, the invalid healed by Peter and John, the crowd that gives
glory to God for that, and the pagans of Pisidia who "were glad and glorified the word
of God."[123]
2641 "[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody to the Lord with all your heart."[124] Like the inspired writers of the
New Testament, the first Christian communities read the Book of Psalms in a new way,
singing in it the mystery of Christ. In the newness of the Spirit, they also composed
hymns and canticles in the light of the unheard-of event that God accomplished in his
Son: his Incarnation, his death which conquered death, his Resurrection, and Ascension
to the right hand of the Father.[125] Doxology, the praise of God, arises from this
"marvelous work" of the whole economy of salvation.[126]
2642 The Revelation of "what must soon take place," the Apocalypse, is borne along by
the songs of the heavenly liturgy[127] but also by the intercession of the "witnesses"
(martyrs).[128] The prophets and the saints, all those who were slain on earth for their
witness to Jesus, the vast throng of those who, having come through the great
tribulation, have gone before us into the Kingdom, all sing the praise and glory of him
who sits on the throne, and of the Lamb.[129] In communion with them, the Church on
earth also sings these songs with faith in the midst of trial. By means of petition and
intercession, faith hopes against all hope and gives thanks to the "Father of lights," from
whom "every perfect gift" comes down.[130] Thus faith is pure praise.
2643 The Eucharist contains and expresses all forms of prayer: it is "the pure offering"
of the whole Body of Christ to the glory of God's name[131] and, according to the
traditions of East and West, it is the "sacrifice of praise."
IN BRIEF
2644 The Holy Spirit who teaches the Church and recalls to her all that Jesus said also
instructs her in the life of prayer, inspiring new expressions of the same basic forms of
prayer: blessing, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise.
2645 Because God blesses the human heart, it can in return bless him who is the source
of every blessing.
2646 Forgiveness, the quest for the Kingdom, and every true need are objects of the
prayer of petition.
2647 Prayer of intercession consists in asking on behalf of another. It knows no
boundaries and extends to one's enemies.
2648 Every joy and suffering, every event and need can become the matter for
thanksgiving which, sharing in that of Christ, should fill one's whole life: "Give thanks in
all circumstances" (1 Thess 5:18).
2649 Prayer of praise is entirely disinterested and rises to God, lauds him, and gives him
glory for his own sake, quite beyond what he has done, but simply because HE IS.
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