Pillars of Catholicism: Prayer Michael Barber, Ph.D. / John Paul the Great Catholic University 2012 www.jpcatholic.com / www.thesacredpage.com Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you. 1 Peter 3:15 Knowing Jesus vs. knowing about Jesus. Those who pray are certainly saved; those who do not pray are certainly damned. Catechism 2744 (citing St. Alphonsus Ligouri) The Call to Prayer 1. God calls man first (CCC 2567) 1 a. Man runs from God b. God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer c. God s initiative of love always comes first d. No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 12:3) 2. The Woman at the Well a. John 4: Jesus approaches a Samaritan woman, asks for a drink, speaks of living water b. Model for understanding prayer 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. Catechism 2560 Prayer from the Heart (CCC 2563-65) 1. Prayer and the heart a. The heart: the place to which I withdraw and our hidden center (2563) b. Scripture: Source of prayer most often as heart (2562) c. If our heart is far from God, prayer is in vain (2562) 2. Prayer as communion a. Prayer as a covenant: covenant relationship between God and man in Christ (2564) b. The life of prayer as the habit of being (2565)... i. In the presence of God ii. In communion with him I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me... He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:1 5) 1 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. 1
Jesus at Prayer [After healing] But he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed. (Luke 5:16) [Prior to choosing the 12] In these days he went out to the mountain to pray and he chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles; 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother (Luke 6:13 14) [Prior to the Transfiguration] Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. (Luke 9:28) [After feeding the five thousand]: Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone (Matt 14:22 23) Vocal Prayer 1. Vocal prayer is essential (CCC 2700) 2. Christ s example (CCC 2701) a. Prayed in synagogues b. Our Father 3. Use senses as fitting to our nature (CCC 2702) 4. Divine requirement: Outward expression fitting to our bodies (CCC 2703) 5. Prayer is internalized to the extent we become of aware of him to whom we speak (CCC 2704) Meditation 1. A quest: seek to understand why and how, what God is asking ( today ) (CCC 2705) 2. Hard to sustain attentiveness but helped by books (CCC 2705) 3. Confronting what we read with ourselves (CCC 2706) 4. Meditate daily or else become like the bad soil in the parable of the sower (CCC 2707) 5. Method is only a guide (CCC 2707) 6. Thought, imagination, emotion, desire are employed (CCC 2708) 7. Lectio divina and rosary (CCC 2708) In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them. Catechism 104 [citing Dei Verbum 21]. Contemplation 1. What is it? a. St. Teresa (CCC 2709): i. A sharing between close friends ii. Taking time to be alone with him iii. Inner prayer, attention fixed on him b. Pre-eminently intense time of prayer (CCC 2714) c. Gaze of faith: I look at him, he looks at me (Cure of Ars) (CCC 2715) d. Not passively hearing the Word of God (CCC 2716) e. Silence: words not speeches that feeds fire of love (CCC 2717) 2. A grace a. Contemplation is a gift (2713) 2
b. Union with Christ in prayer in Holy Spirit (CCC 2718) 3. Our response a. Making time for contemplation a priority (CCC 2710) 2 b. Time and duration linked with our will: Reveals secrets of heart (CCC 2710) c. Must keep watch just one hour? (CCC 2719) d. Entering into contemplation is like entering the liturgy (CCC 2711) i. Need to gather up the heart ii. Let masks fall iii. Being transformed 4. Filial prayer: welcome love, and desire to surrender more (2712) The Battle of Prayer 1. Prayer, though a grace, presupposes effort (CCC 2725) 2. We fight against ourselves (CCC 2725) 3. Objections to prayer: Erroneous notions: Prayer as... (CCC 2726 7) a. Mere psychological activity : It is the activity of God! b. Concentration to achieve a mental void : It involves focus on a person c. Merely reducible to rituals and postures : Must come from the heart d. Not productive ( waste of time ) : Apostolic work e. Cannot be made subject to the natural sciences f. As a flight from the world 4. Need to confront failures in prayer (CCC 2728) a. Dryness b. Sadness due to possessions c. Disappointment d. Wounded pride e. Not seeing prayer as a gift f. What good does it do to pray? 5. Need for (CCC 2728) a. Humility b. Trust c. Perseverance 6. Dealing with difficulties a. Distraction (CCC 2729 30) i. Habitual difficulty ii. Cannot hunt them all down iii. Reveal our attachments b. Dryness (CCC 2731: i. Oftentimes result of heart being separated from God (2731) ii. Lack of roots 2 One does not undertake contemplative prayer only when one has the time: one makes time for the Lord, with the firm determination not to give up, no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter. One cannot always meditate, but one can always enter into inner prayer, independently of the conditions of health, work, or emotional state. The heart is the place of this quest and encounter, in poverty and in faith (CCC 2710). 3
Need for Filial Trust 1. Filial trust is tested and proven in tribulation (CCC 2734) 2. Why do we complain of not being heard? a. Prayer is not just asking for stuff! b. We demand to see results of petitions; who is God? (CCC 2735) c. God seeks what is good for us freedom in trusting (CCC 2736) d. Asking wrongly (CCC 2737) iii. To spend on our passions iv. Asking with a divided heart 3. How is our prayer efficacious? a. Prayer rests in God s providence (CCC 2738) b. Paul: trusting boldly (CCC 2739) c. Jesus prayer is the model: seek the will of the Father (CCC 2740) 4. Preserving in Love a. Tireless fervor, praying at all times (CCC 2742) b. Always possible to pray despite temptations that come (CCC 2743) c. Vital necessity: HS cannot be our life if heart is far away (CCC 2744) d. Those who pray are certainly saved... (CCC 2745) e. Prayer and Christian life are inseparable (CCC 2745) 5. The Prayer of the Hour of Jesus a. Jesus prayed when his hour had come longest prayer in Gospels (CCC 2745) b. Entering into union with Christ enables us to pray as he taught (CCC 2750) 3. Psalm 1:1-2: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners 2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 4. 5. CCC 2705: Meditation is above all a quest. The mind seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking. The required attentiveness is difficult to sustain. We are usually helped by books, and Christians do not want for them: the Sacred Scriptures, particularly the Gospels, holy icons, liturgical texts of the day or season, writings of the spiritual fathers, works of spirituality, the great book of creation, and that of history the page on which the "today" of God is written. 6. 7. CCC 2706: To meditate on what we read helps us to make it our own by confronting it with ourselves To the extent that we are humble and faithful, we discover in meditation the movements that stir the heart and we are able to discern them. It is a question of acting truthfully in order to come into the light: "Lord, what do you want me to do?" 8. 9. CCC 2708: Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him. 10. 11. CCC 133: The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful... to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ [DV 25; cf. Phil 3:8 and St. Jerome, Commentariorum in Isaiam libri xviii prol.:pl 24,17B]. 12. 4
13. John Paul II, Ecclesia in America (Apostolic Exhortation): "Jesus Christ, the good news of the Father, tells us that without Him we can do nothing (cf. John 15:5) He himself in the decisive moments of his life, before acting, withdraws to a solitary place to dedicate himself to prayer and contemplation, and asked the Apostles to do the same. Enter into your room, and after shutting the door, pray, alone, to your Father who is there (Matt: 6:6) This intense life of prayer has to adapt itself to the capacity and condition of each Christian, in such a way that in the diverse situations of his life he can always return to the source of his encounter with Christ to drink from the only Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). In this sense, the contemplative dimension is not a privilege of just a few in the Church; to the contrary, in parishes in communities, and in the movements, there has to be promoted an open spirituality oriented towards the contemplation of the fundamental truths of the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Word, the Redemption of men, and the great salvific works of God." 14. 15. CCC 2707: Christians owe it to themselves to develop the desire to meditate regularly, lest they come to resemble the three first kinds of soil in the parable of the sower [Cf. Mk 4:4-7, 15-19]. 16. 17. Mark 4:4ff: Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it had not much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil; 6 and when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. 9 And he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 18. 10 And when he was alone, those who were about him with the twelve asked him concerning the parables. 11 And he said to them, To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables; 12 so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again, and be forgiven. 13 And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown; when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word which is sown in them. 16 And these in like manner are the ones sown upon rocky ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17 and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns; they are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things, enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown upon the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. 5