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?)