Prayer in the Christian Life (Catechism Series Part 40) - Auspice Maria Ep 70

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Welcome back to the Auspice Maria podcast. I’m Bishop James Ruggieri of the Diocese of Portland in Maine. And this week we begin Part Four of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that focuses on prayer. I’m really excited for a lot of reasons because we’re at the last part, the last section of the Catechism. And also this topic of prayer is so important for us as Catholic Christians.

So as always, I want to begin with prayer, invoke the Holy Spirit to help us, to inspire us, to open our hearts. So we begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well-beloved spouse. Inspire us, O Spirit of God, open our hearts and minds, and help us as we study more about Christian prayer that we may also grow in our relationship with you. We ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

So in this episode, we’ll be dealing with paragraphs 2558 to 2597. As I said, we begin Part Four of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Christian Prayer, and Section One, Prayer in the Christian Life.

Now, this is an important transition because the Catechism does not add prayer as an appendix after doctrine, sacraments, and morality. Rather, prayer gathers them together. Part One professes the mystery of faith. Part Two celebrates that mystery in the sacramental life of the Church. Part Three shows us how to live that mystery in Christ. And Part Four now asks how that mystery becomes a living relationship with God. The Catechism says simply, "this relationship is prayer." And that’s found in paragraph 2558.

So prayer is where what we believe, celebrate, and live becomes personal communion with the living and true God. The Catechism begins by asking what prayer is and immediately draws upon the Church’s spiritual tradition.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux writes, and this is quoted in the Catechism in paragraph 2558, it’s a beautiful line describing prayer. She writes, “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart. It is a simple look toward heaven.”

And then the Catechism talks about St. John Damascene, who describes prayer as “the raising of the mind and heart to God and asking of good things from him.” And that’s from paragraph number 2559.

So these descriptions are really complimentary. Prayer can involve words, petitions, silence, praise, tears, gratitude, or simply placing ourselves consciously before God. What makes all of these prayer is not technique, but relationship. That’s really a key word as we talk about Christian prayer, relationship.

That is why humility is essential. The Catechism reminds us that we do not even know how to pray as we ought without the help of grace; calling to mind, of course, Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter eight, verse 26. Prayer begins when we recognize our need for God. Sometimes people say, “I do not know how to pray.” And that can be very honest and a very honest beginning. Prayer does not require that we arrive before God polished, composed, and spiritually accomplished. We don’t have to have it all together as we come to God in prayer. Actually, God is waiting for us as we are. We come as we are with our distractions, our needs, our gratitude, our wounds, and hopes.

The encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well in John’s Gospel in chapter 4 really allows the Catechism to offer us a beautiful image of prayer. In that encounter, Jesus asked the woman for a drink. Interestingly, she comes looking for water, but Christ is already waiting for her, spiritually thirsty for her heart. The Catechism describes prayer as the encounter between God’s thirst and ours. Before we seek Him, He seeks us. Before we speak, He has already addressed us.

This is why the basic pattern of prayer is covenant, sacred relationship. God initiates and we respond.

Paragraph 2567 states this with unusual clarity. God calls us first. The whole history of salvation reveals this pattern. God calls Abraham. God speaks to Moses. Through prayer, God forms David and the people of Israel. The initiative belongs to God. Our prayer is a response to his love.

Christian prayer, therefore, is not fundamentally an attempt to get God’s attention. It is our response to the God who has already turned toward us. The Catechism says that the heart is the place of this covenantal encounter.

In biblical language, as has been said before here on this podcast, and I think also in other places, in biblical language, the heart is deeper than emotion. It is the person’s hidden center, the place of decision, truth, relationship, and encounter with God.

Prayer can be vocal, liturgical, spontaneous, or memorized, but without the heart, something essential is missing. Christian prayer is ultimately communion with the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit, and this communion is possible because baptism has already united us to Christ.

The Old Testament then becomes really a great school of prayer, and Abraham is one of the first great teachers. When God calls him, Abram, his name at the time of his call, goes as the Lord directs him, and that’s found in Genesis chapter 12, verse four, in the Catechism, paragraph 2570.

So Abraham’s prayer begins with listening and obedience. He trusts a promise whose fulfillment he cannot yet see. And later Abraham welcomes God’s mysterious visitors at Mamre and boldly intercedes for Sodom. That’s found in Genesis 18. Abram teaches us that prayer is not only speaking, it is listening, trusting, obeying, and learning to bring others’ needs before God.

Moses teaches another dimension of prayer, intimacy and intercession. Scripture says, and I quote, “The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a person speaks to a friend.” And that’s from Exodus 33, verse 11, in the Catechism, paragraph 2576.

What a beautiful line of scripture regarding a relationship with God as personal intimate friendship. “The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a person speaks to a friend.” Moses repeatedly goes before God on the people’s behalf. After Israel’s sin, sin of idolatry and committing the sin with the golden calf, he stands before the Lord and pleads for his people rather than abandoning them. It’s found in Exodus 32, verses 11 to 14, in the Catechism, paragraph 2577.

Moses’ prayer shows that friendship with God does not remove us from the needs of others. Actually, it sends us more deeply into those needs.

Parents, you know this much better than I do, your prayers for your children probably take up a great deal of your prayer life, the time that you pray. Parents pray for their children, spouses pray for one another, priests pray for their people. We carry before God those who are suffering, confused, estranged, or unable to pray for themselves. So into our relationship with God, we bring all of these other significant relationships and the needs that have arisen or that have been made known to us through these relationships. But also we bring gratitude. How beautiful it is to thank God for your children, to thank God for your vocations, to thank God for your spouse.

In the Old Testament scriptures, there’s another example that for me really is a wonderful example of a woman who prays and her prayer is heard. It’s the mother of Samuel, Hannah. Hannah gives us another deeply human school of prayer, an example. She comes before the Lord in anguish because she is childless. And she pours out her heart so intensely that Eli, who is attending to the Lord’s sanctuary, Eli initially misunderstands what he sees. This is an interesting scene. It’s found in 1st book of Samuel, chapter 1, verses 10 to 16.

Now, Hannah is pouring out her heart. Her prayer is honest. She does not hide her sorrow from God. She is childless and is beseeching God for a child. After Samuel is born and she brings him to the sanctuary in fulfillment of her vow, Hannah’s sorrow opens into praise. She sings, she prays, “My heart exalts in the Lord.” And that’s 1 Samuel 2, verse 1. There’s more to her song or her canticle, as we talk about it. But her canticle praises the God who overturns human expectations, strengthens the weak, feeds the hungry, and raises the lowly. That’s found in 1 Samuel 2, verses 1 and 10.

Now, interestingly, centuries later, many of these themes that we find in Hannah’s Canticle echo in Mary’s Magnificat, that beautiful prayer of Mary when she visits Elizabeth and we could say erupts beautifully in praise, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Luke chapter 1, verses 46 to 47.

So Hannah in the Old Testament reminds us that prayer can begin in anguish. It can mature through surrender and become thanksgiving and praise.

David, King David too, becomes a model of prayer. The Catechism describes David as the king after God’s own heart, whose submission to God’s will, praise, repentance, and trust become a model for the prayer of the people. It’s in paragraph 2579.

With David, we naturally come to the Psalms, which the Catechism calls “the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament.” It’s a quote from the Catechism, “the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament.” Beautiful description of the Psalms from paragraph 2585.

The Psalms in the Old Testament give language to nearly the whole range of human experience before God: wonder, gratitude, repentance, fear, anger, loneliness, confidence, lament, and praise. The Psalms teach us that prayer does not require pretending. We may come before God with the truth of what is happening within us.

Christ prayed the same Psalms that arose from Israel’s prayer, and today they still remain an essential and permanent part of the Church’s prayer. We hear and sing the Psalms throughout the Church’s liturgy, including the Mass, and the Psalms form the heart of the Liturgy of the Hours, a prayer by which the Church sanctifies the hours of the day.

The Church entrusts this prayer, particularly Liturgy of the Hours, to clergy and consecrated religious according to their obligations, while also encouraging the lay faithful to participate. Many people pray the Psalms. Liturgy of the Hours is a very beautiful prayer and very accessible these days. In the Psalms, personal prayer and the prayer of the whole Church meet.

This is perhaps one of the most important lessons these opening paragraphs give us. Prayer is profoundly personal, but Christian prayer is never merely private. It’s a great distinction. Prayer is profoundly personal, but Christian prayer is never merely private. Sort of like faith. Faith is profoundly personal, faith in God, but faith is never meant to be lived privately or expressed simply through private devotion.

Abraham prays within the promise given for a people. Moses intercedes for Israel. Hannah’s prayer becomes part of Israel’s sacred memory. David prays for and with the people. The Psalms become the prayer of Israel, the prayer of Christ, and the prayer of the Church. When we pray, even alone, we pray as members of the Body of Christ.

So as we begin Part Four of the Catechism, we do not begin primarily with methods or techniques. We begin with God, the living God. He reveals Himself, He waits for us, He awakens desire in the human heart, and He teaches us to answer. Sometimes that answer is praise, sometimes it is petition, sometimes it is tears, repentance, intercession, thanksgiving, or silence. But beneath all of these forms is the same covenantal movement. God gives himself and we respond.

In the next episode of the Auspice Maria podcast, the Catechism will bring this revelation of prayer to really its fullness in Jesus Christ. Jesus who prays, Jesus who teaches us to pray, and Jesus who hears our prayer. For now, the Old Testament leaves us with a real invitation. Prayer is not first something we accomplish. It is a relationship into which God has already invited us. He has taken the first step, and prayer is our response.

Thank you so much for joining me for this Auspice Maria podcast. As always, I want to conclude with the Hail Mary, a prayer to our Blessed Mother asking for her intercession and her help. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.