558. What are the sources of Christian prayer? (part 2 continuation)

558. What are the sources of Christian prayer? (part 2 continuation)     

(Comp 558 repetition) They are: the Word of God which gives us “the surpassing knowledge” of Christ (Philippians 3:8); the Liturgy of the Church that proclaims, makes present and communicates the mystery of salvation; the theological virtues; and everyday situations because in them we can encounter God.  “I love you, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love you eternally. … My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as often as I draw breath.” (The Curé of Ars, Saint John Mary Vianney)

“In brief”

(CCC 2662) The Word of God, the liturgy of the Church, and the virtues of faith, hope, and charity are sources of prayer.

To deepen and explain

(CCC 2655) In the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit proclaims, makes present, and communicates the mystery of salvation, which is continued in the heart that prays. The spiritual writers sometimes compare the heart to an altar. Prayer internalizes and assimilates the liturgy during and after its celebration. Even when it is lived out "in secret" (Cf. Mt 6:6]), prayer is always prayer of the Church; it is a communion with the Holy Trinity (GILH 9).

Reflection

(CCC 2656) One enters into prayer as one enters into liturgy: by the narrow gate of faith. Through the signs of his presence, it is the Face of the Lord that we seek and desire; it is his Word that we want to hear and keep. [IT CONTINUES]

(The question: What are the sources of Christian prayer? continues)

558. What are the sources of Christian prayer? (part 1)

558. What are the sources of Christian prayer? (part 1)     

(Comp 558) They are: the Word of God which gives us “the surpassing knowledge” of Christ (Philippians 3:8); the Liturgy of the Church that proclaims, makes present and communicates the mystery of salvation; the theological virtues; and everyday situations because in them we can encounter God.  “I love you, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love you eternally. … My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as often as I draw breath.” (The Curé of Ars, Saint John Mary Vianney)

“In brief”

(CCC 2662) The Word of God, the liturgy of the Church, and the virtues of faith, hope, and charity are sources of prayer.

To deepen and explain

(CCC 2652) The Holy Spirit is the living water "welling up to eternal life" (Jn 4:14) in the heart that prays. It is he who teaches us to accept it at its source: Christ. Indeed in the Christian life there are several wellsprings where Christ awaits us to enable us to drink of the Holy Spirit.  (CCC 2654) The spiritual writers, paraphrasing Matthew 7:7, summarize in this way the dispositions of the heart nourished by the word of God in prayer "Seek in reading and you will find in meditating; knock in mental prayer and it will be opened to you by contemplation" (Guigo the Carthusian, Scala Paradisi: PL 40, 998). 

Reflection

(CCC 2653) The Church "forcefully and specially exhorts all the Christian faithful… to learn 'the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ' (Phil 3:8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.... Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man. For 'we speak to him when we pray; we listen to him when we read the divine oracles"' (DV 25; cf. Phil 3:8; St. Ambrose, De officiis ministrorum 1, 20,88: PL 16, 50). [IT CONTINUES]

(The question: What are the sources of Christian prayer? continues)

557. What is the importance of Tradition in regard to prayer?

557. What is the importance of Tradition in regard to prayer?   

(Comp 557) In the Church it is through living Tradition that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God how to pray. In fact prayer cannot be reduced to the spontaneous outpouring of an interior impulse; rather it implies contemplation, study and a grasp of the spiritual realities one experiences.

“In brief”

(CCC 2661) By a living transmission -Tradition - the Holy Spirit in the Church teaches the children of God to pray.

To deepen and explain

(CCC 2650) Prayer cannot be reduced to the spontaneous outpouring of interior impulse: in order to pray, one must have the will to pray. Nor is it enough to know what the Scriptures reveal about prayer: one must also learn how to pray. Through a living transmission (Sacred Tradition) within "the believing and praying Church" (DV 8), The Holy Spirit teaches the children of God how to pray.

Reflection

(CCC 2651) The tradition of Christian prayer is one of the ways in which the tradition of faith takes shape and grows, especially through the contemplation and study of believers who treasure in their hearts the events and words of the economy of salvation, and through their profound grasp of the spiritual realities they experience (Cf. DV 8).  

(Next question: What are the sources of Christian prayer?)  

556. What is the prayer of praise? (part 2 continuation)

556. What is the prayer of praise?  (part 2 continuation)

(Comp 556 repetition) Praise is that form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It is a completely disinterested prayer: it sings God’s praise for his own sake and gives him glory simply because he is.

“In brief”

(CCC 2649) Prayer of praise is entirely disinterested and rises to God, lauds him, and gives him glory for his own sake, quite beyond what he has done, but simply because HE IS.

To deepen and explain

(CCC 2641) "[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart" (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16). Like the inspired writers of the New Testament, the first Christian communities read the Book of Psalms in a new way, singing in it the mystery of Christ. In the newness of the Spirit, they also composed hymns and canticles in the light of the unheard-of event that God accomplished in his Son: his Incarnation, his death which conquered death, his Resurrection, and Ascension to the right hand of the Father (Cf. Phil 2:6-11; Col 1:15-20; Eph 5:14; 1 Tim 3:16; 6:15-16; 2 Tim 2:11-13). Doxology, the praise of God, arises from this "marvelous work" of the whole economy of salvation (Cf. Eph 1:3-14; Rom 16:25-27; Eph 3:20-21; Jude 24-25). (CCC 2643) The Eucharist contains and expresses all forms of prayer: it is "the pure offering" of the whole Body of Christ to the glory of God's name (Cf. Mal 1:11) and, according to the traditions of East and West, it is the "sacrifice of praise." 

Reflection

(CCC 2642) The Revelation of "what must soon take place," the Apocalypse, is borne along by the songs of the heavenly liturgy (Cf. Rev 4:8-11; 5:9-14; 7:10-12) but also by the intercession of the "witnesses" (martyrs) (Rev 6:10). The prophets and the saints, all those who were slain on earth for their witness to Jesus, the vast throng of those who, having come through the great tribulation, have gone before us into the Kingdom, all sing the praise and glory of him who sits on the throne, and of the Lamb (Cf. Rev 18:24; 19:1-8). In communion with them, the Church on earth also sings these songs with faith in the midst of trial. By means of petition and intercession, faith hopes against all hope and gives thanks to the "Father of lights," from whom "every perfect gift" comes down (Jas 1:17). Thus faith is pure praise. [END]  

(Next question: What is the importance of Tradition in regard to prayer?)  

556. What is the prayer of praise? (part 1)

556. What is the prayer of praise? (part 1)    

(Comp 556) Praise is that form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It is a completely disinterested prayer: it sings God’s praise for his own sake and gives him glory simply because he is.

“In brief”

(CCC 2649) Prayer of praise is entirely disinterested and rises to God, lauds him, and gives him glory for his own sake, quite beyond what he has done, but simply because HE IS. 

To deepen and explain

(CCC 2639) Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory, quite beyond what he does, but simply because HE IS. It shares in the blessed happiness of the pure of heart who love God in faith before seeing him in glory. By praise, the Spirit is joined to our spirits to bear witness that we are children of God (Cf. Rom 8:16), testifying to the only Son in whom we are adopted and by whom we glorify the Father. Praise embraces the other forms of prayer and carries them toward him who is its source and goal: the "one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist" (1 Cor 8:6).   

Reflection

(CCC 2640) St. Luke in his gospel often expresses wonder and praise at the marvels of Christ and in his Acts of the Apostles stresses them as actions of the Holy Spirit: the community of Jerusalem, the invalid healed by Peter and John, the crowd that gives glory to God for that, and the pagans of Pisidia who "were glad and glorified the word of God" (Acts 2:47; 3:9; 4:21; 13:48). [IT CONTINUES]   

(The question: What is the prayer of praise? continues)