Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 469 – Part IV.

YOUCAT Question n. 469  – Part IV. What is prayer?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Prayer is turning the heart toward God. When a person prays, he enters into a living relationship with God.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2564) Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ. It is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the human will of the Son of God made man.   

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Prayer is the great gate leading into faith. Someone who prays no longer lives on his own, for himself, and by his own strength. He knows there is a God to whom he can talk. People who pray entrust themselves more and more to God. Even now they seek union with the one whom they will encounter one day face to face. Therefore, the effort to pray daily is part of Christian life. Of course, one cannot learn to pray in the same way one learns a technique. As strange as it sounds, prayer is a gift one obtains through prayer.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2565) In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. The grace of the Kingdom is "the union of the entire holy and royal Trinity … with the whole human spirit" (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio, 16, 9: PG 35, 945). Thus, the life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him. This communion of life is always possible because, through Baptism, we have already been united with Christ (Cf. Rom 6:5). Prayer is Christian insofar as it is communion with Christ and extends throughout the Church, which is his Body. Its dimensions are those of Christ's love (Cf. Eph 3:18-21).     

(The next question is:  What prompts a person to pray?)