Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 492 – Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 492 - Part III. Does my personal prayer have something to do with the prayer of the Church?

(Youcat answer - repeated) In the Church’s public worship, in her Liturgy of the Hours and in Holy Mass, common prayers are recited that come from Sacred Scripture or from the Tradition of the Church. They unite the individual with the praying community of the Church.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2658 b) Love is the source of prayer; whoever draws from it reaches the summit of prayer. In the words of the Curé of Ars: I love you, O my God, and my only desire is to love you until the last breath of my life. I love you, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving you, than live without loving you. 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 (St. John Vianney, Prayer).

 

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Christian prayer is not a private matter, but it is very personal. Personal prayer becomes purified, expands, and is strengthened when it regularly flows into the prayer of the whole Church. It is a great and beautiful sign when believers throughout the earth are united at the same time in the same prayers and thereby sing one hymn of praise to God.

(CCC Comment)

(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.

(The next question is: What are the characteristics of Christian prayer?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 492 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 492 - Part II. Does my personal prayer have something to do with the prayer of the Church?

(Youcat answer - repeated) In the Church’s public worship, in her Liturgy of the Hours and in Holy Mass, common prayers are recited that come from Sacred Scripture or from the Tradition of the Church. They unite the individual with the praying community of the Church.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2657) The Holy Spirit, who instructs us to celebrate the liturgy in expectation of Christ's return, teaches us - to pray in hope. Conversely, the prayer of the Church and personal prayer nourish hope in us. The psalms especially, with their concrete and varied language, teach us to fix our hope in God: "I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry" (Ps 40:2). As St. Paul prayed: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope" (Rom 15:13).      

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Christian prayer is not a private matter, but it is very personal. Personal prayer becomes purified, expands, and is strengthened when it regularly flows into the prayer of the whole Church. It is a great and beautiful sign when believers throughout the earth are united at the same time in the same prayers and thereby sing one hymn of praise to God.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2658 a) "Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom 5:5). Prayer, formed by the liturgical life, draws everything into the love by which we are loved in Christ and which enables us to respond to him by loving as he has loved us.

(This question: Does my personal prayer have something to do with the prayer of the Church? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 492 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 492 - Part I. Does my personal prayer have something to do with the prayer of the Church?

(Youcat answer) In the Church’s public worship, in her Liturgy of the Hours and in Holy Mass, common prayers are recited that come from Sacred Scripture or from the Tradition of the Church. They unite the individual with the praying community of the Church.

A deepening through CCC

(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).     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Christian prayer is not a private matter, but it is very personal. Personal prayer becomes purified, expands, and is strengthened when it regularly flows into the prayer of the whole Church. It is a great and beautiful sign when believers throughout the earth are united at the same time in the same prayers and thereby sing one hymn of praise to God.

(CCC Comment)

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

(This question: Does my personal prayer have something to do with the prayer of the Church? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 491.

YOUCAT Question n. 491 - Can you learn to pray from the Bible?

(Youcat answer) The Bible is like a wellspring of prayer. To pray with the Word of God means to use the words and events of the Bible for one’s own prayer. “To be ignorant of Scripture is to be ignorant of Christ” (St. Jerome).

A deepening through CCC

(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).     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Sacred Scripture, especially the Psalms and the New Testament, are a valuable treasury; in it we find the most beautiful and most powerful prayers of the Judeo-Christian world. Reciting these prayers unites us with millions of people from all times and cultures who have prayed, but above all with Christ himself, who is present in all these prayers. 

(CCC Comment)

(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).   

(The next question is: Does my personal prayer have something to do with the prayer of the Church?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 490.

YOUCAT Question n. 490 - Is it enough to pray when you feel like praying?

(Youcat answer) No. Someone who prays only when he feels like it does not take God seriously and will leave off praying. Prayer thrives on faithfulness.

A deepening through CCC

(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.

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(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).

(The next question is: Can you learn to pray from the Bible?)