Gen 4, 25-26 Men began to invoke the LORD by name

(Gen 4, 25-26) Men began to invoke the LORD by name

[25] Adam again had relations with his wife, and she gave birth to a son whom she called Seth. "God has granted me more offspring in place of Abel," she said, "because Cain slew him." [26] To Seth, in turn, a son was born, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to invoke the LORD by name.

(CCC 2567) 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. (CCC 2568) In the Old Testament, the revelation of prayer comes between the fall and the restoration of man, that is, between God's sorrowful call to his first children: "Where are you?... What is this that you have done?" (Gen 3:9, 13) and the response of God's only Son on coming into the world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God" (Heb 10:5-7). Prayer is bound up with human history, for it is the relationship with God in historical events. (CCC 2569) Prayer is lived in the first place beginning with the realities of creation. The first nine chapters of Genesis describe this relationship with God as an offering of the first-born of Abel's flock, as the invocation of the divine name at the time of Enosh, and as “walking with God” (Cf. Gen 4:4, 26; Gen 5:24). Noah's offering is pleasing to God, who blesses him and through him all creation, because his heart was upright and undivided; Noah, like Enoch before him, "walks with God" (Gen 6:9; 8:20- 9:17). This kind of prayer is lived by many righteous people in all religions. In his indefectible covenant with every living creature (Gen 9:8-16). God has always called people to prayer. But it is above all beginning with our father Abraham that prayer is revealed in the Old Testament.