Prayer RCIA 3012
Prayer
Opening Prayer
references/sources
- CCC Part IV (esp. 2558)
- The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours
- [[1]]Pope Benedict XVI. Jesus of Nazareth
Content
- CCC-2558 “a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God”
Other descriptions (USCC – 463) Augustine: True prayer is nothing but love. John Vianney: the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself. Fran. de Sales: Everyone needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when we are busy, then we need an hour. Damascene: the raising of one’s mind and heart to God Newman: being alone in a dark room with the beloved
What do these terms mean? Personal – persona, between persons, between you and the Holy Spirit The person is the joining of body and soul… of mind and flesh… so don’t check your intellect at the door. Prayer is not where passion takes over (contrary to what the movies say).
Prayer is also, therefore, fundamentally connected with the human will. We don’t pray just when we “feel” like it. It is a duty, it is work…. As much as it is a place of comfort. Prayer is, in this context, also fundamentally sacrificial… connecting the holy work we do with the dialogue we have with the Trinity.
Vital – vita, life giving
e.g. St. Ignatius Loyola – praying in recovery at the castle > founding of
SJ’s
St. Philip Neri – praying about leaving Rome for the Holy Land >
brought about the conversion of Rome.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton – starting her little school gave life to a
revolution of education.
?Personal example?
Forgiveness for family… teaching lessons about mercy
Thus, prayer is not a matter of boring legal prescription.
Prayer is always in Christ (en kristo) Since we are entirely dependent on God, we must acknowledge an d express this sovereignty of the Creator, as the devout people of every age have done by means of prayer. Prayer directed to God must be linked with Christ, the Lord of all, the one Mediator through whom alone we have access to God. He unites to himself the whole human community in such a way that there is an intimate bond between the prayer of Christ and the prayer of all humanity. In Christ and in Christ alone human worship of God receives redemptive value and attains its goal. (GILOH - 6)
The excellence of Christian prayer lies in its sharing in the reverent love of the only-begotten Son for the Father and in the prayer that the Son put into words in his earthly life and that still continues without ceasing in the name of the whole human race and for its salvation through the universal Church and all its members. (GILOH – 7)
From Pope Benedict XVI “Christian mysticism….is not in the first instance immersion in the depths of oneself, but encounter with the Spirit of God in the word that goes ahead of us. It is encounter with the Son and the Holy Spirit and thus a becoming one with the living God who is always both in us and above us….The fact that Luke places the Our Father in the context of Jesus’ own praying is significant.… Jesus thereby involves us in his own prayer; he leads us into the interior dialogue of triune love; he draws our human hardships deep into God’s heart, as it were. This also means, however, that the words of the Our Father are signposts to interior prayer, they provide a basic direction for our being, and they aim to configure us to the image of the Son. The meaning of the Our Father goes much further than the mere provision of a prayer text. It aims to form our being, to train us in the inner attitude of Jesus (cf. Phil. 2:5).” Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 131-132.
The ultimate prayer en kristo is the Our Father… located at the end of the Sermon on the Mount as the summation of Jesus’ teaching on prayer and Christian living. (c.f. Mt. 5) n.b. the Our Father is fundamentally related to the living and learning of the virtues, themselves at the heart of the moral life.
In other words – only Christ prays perfectly, so pray in union with him Girls - Exemplified in the Garden… Boys- and in the praetorium/via dolorosa.
Listen to Christ in Jn. 17. Can you find a “personal and vital relationship” at work here?
Continuing to follow the model of the passion and death, we see that prayer is always part of our response to God. …The passion and death were Christ’s ultimate response to the love of the Father (again, exemplified in Jn. 17)
Christ’s prayer also shows the marks of prayer Humility Lk 18:9-14 prayer of the Pharisee vs. Tax Collector Watchfulness (eschatological awareness) Mk 13:33 - Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come Lk 21:36 - Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man Perservering confidence in God’s goodness Lk 18:1-8 – the widow who persistently made her case to the judge Jn 16:23 – whatever you ask of the Father in my name he will give you. Conforms to the nature of God Mt 6:5-8 – pray with your Father in the room of your heart Jn 4:23 – the time is coming when all will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth Prayer is always, in some sense, communal It is the Body of Christ that prays Prayer speaks to the longing of all human hearts Integrates as part of man’s social identity Prayer engages in five primary actions (often-times they are mixed together) Adoration Petition [that God should do something] Intercession Thanksgiving Praise