Now that Our Lord has risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven, now what? Well, the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised, was sent among us, and among other things, the Spirit recalls, and makes present for us, all that Jesus prayed and said about prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who makes present the entire mystery of Christ, including his prayer for us, and instructions to us how to pray.
As she makes Him present, forms of prayer that correspond to how he taught us arise in the life of the Church. There are five forms of prayer according to the Catechism.
1) Blessing and adoration In blessing, God gives us gifts, and we respond to them. Our prayer of blessing is that response. We bless Him in exchange for Him blessing us. Adoration is an acknowledgement of the greatness of God, in contrast to our creatureliness.
2) Petition In this type of prayer, we acknowledge our dependence on God for everything. We are not our beginning, nor our end. When we realize our dependence, we likewise realize our sinfulness, and thus, the first part of any petition must be to ask for forgiveness. Then, as the "Our Father" is structured, we pray for the Kingdom to come, and then finally, we pray for our needs.
3) Intercession This is closely related to petition. Here, we are asking on behalf of another, not necessarily for ourselves. It includes praying even for those who seek to harm us.
4) Thanksgiving This prayer can be prayed always, even in times of suffering, as when we suffer with Christ, we join in His sacrifice, and help with salvation for ourselves and the world. We thank God for all his gifts.
5) Praise This is giving God glory for who He is, beyond anything He does. This is the most disinterested of all the prayers, as it focuses on God alone, and not what He does for us. This is pure prayer, the prayer saints do, and what we will be doing in heaven. If we are going to make it there, we need to praise God regularly now. Even though praise is the best type of prayer, it embraces all the other prayers. Praise is what takes the other forms of prayer to God.
Where in the Church do we get the inspiration to pray, regardless of the form of prayer? The Catechism lists several sources.
1) The Word of God The Sacred Scriptures, as we have stated, is God's speech to us written down. If we want to get close to God, and know how He thinks, there is no better place to look!
2) The liturgy In the liturgy, the mysteries of salvation are made present, and those mysteries continue in the human heart that prays the liturgy. This continuation occurs both during and after the celebration of the liturgy.
3) The theological virtues We have discussed them. Faith is how we enter prayer. We first off believe in the reality of God. We pray in hope, and prayer gives us hope, as well. Love is the foundational, real, ultimate source of prayer. We are drawn into the love of Christ for us, and we respond by loving Him.
So, we know have the forms of prayer, as well as the sources of prayer in the life of the Church. What is the way of prayer in the Church?
1) Prayer to the Father We have access to the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus.
2) Prayer to Jesus When we address Our Lord with the different titles attributed to Him (i.e. Son of God, Lord, Savior, Prince of Peace, etc.), we are praying to him. When we pray simply "Jesus" we "invoke him, and call him within us." (p.2666) That name encompasses everything in the economy of salvation, it contains all our hopes and desires.
3) Prayer to the Holy Spirit When we say "Come Holy Spirit", we are asking for the Spirit to make present the mystery of Christ. Even when we pray to Christ directly, it is the Holy Spirit inspiring us to do so, because as Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, "Noone can say Jesus is Lord except by the power of the Holy Spirit." (1 Cor 12:3). Since this is the reality, it makes sense to pray to the Spirit directly.
Through it all, what we are ultimately doing is this,we are praying to the Father, through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now that we have the forms, sources, and way of prayer in the Church, who are the guides to prayer? The Catechism lists several:
1) The saints They give us example, and intercede for us.
2) Our families As it is with all education, the family is the first place of education in prayer.
3) Priests and deacons Their ministry is directed at the building up of the People of God in prayer.
4) Religious Many of these devote their whole lives to prayer.
5) Catechesis Through catechesis, we learn about how to mediate on Scripture, how to practice liturgical prayer, and internalize it all.
6) Prayer groups They are their own "schools of prayer."
7) Spiritual direction Some of the faithful have the gifts of wisdom, faith, and discernment ( we have spoken of these gifts in previous posts) that allow them to serve the common good of the prayer of the people.
Finally, the Catechism lists several places favorable for prayer. It lists churches, "prayer corners", monasteries, and places of pilgrimages as favorable places, all of which give us special necessary moments to deepen our prayer life, even as we seek to pray always.
Those of you who are familiar with Part Four of the Catechism, where I am getting this information from, may have noticed both in yesterday's post, and today's, I did not review the sections in each on Mary and prayer. I will have a post dedicated to Mary and prayer either as the next one, or an upcoming one. I will also have a post dedicated more to personal prayer, even as all prayer takes place within the life of the Church, as we have discussed here.
Like I stated yesterday, Joseph I am sure was a model for the human Jesus to imitate in prayer. As we see here, the family is listed as a guide to prayer. Joseph, as the head of the Holy Family (another title in the litany to him), can be a model and intercessor for all families to become true schools of prayer, and not just schools, but true wellsprings of prayer, because the sources of prayer (the Word of God, the liturgy, and the theological virtues) are all practiced there. We know that is not the case with every family today. Let us pray, through the intercession of Saint Joseph, that more families strive for a deeper prayer life, and become holier as a result, and produce saints who will change the world.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment