YOUCAT Question n. 506 - Part III. Is prayer not just a sort of conversation with yourself?
(Youcat
answer repeated) The distinctive feature about prayer is precisely the fact
that one goes from Me to You, from self-centeredness to radical openness.
Someone who is really praying can experience the fact that God speaks—and that
often he does not speak as we expect and would like.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 2746)
When "his hour" came, Jesus prayed to the Father (Cf. Jn 17). His
prayer, the longest transmitted by the Gospel, embraces the whole economy of
creation and salvation, as well as his death and Resurrection. The prayer of
the Hour of Jesus always remains his own, just as his Passover "once for
all" remains ever present in the liturgy of his Church.
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment) Those who are experienced in prayer report
that a person very often comes out of a prayer session different from the way
he went in. Sometimes expectations are met: you are sad and find consolation;
you lack confidence and receive new strength. It can also happen, though, that
you would like to forget pressures but are made even more uneasy; that you
would like to be left in peace and instead receive an assignment. A real
encounter with God - the kind that occurs again and again in prayer - can
shatter our preconceptions about both God and prayer.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 2747)
Christian Tradition rightly calls this prayer the "priestly" prayer
of Jesus. It is the prayer of our high priest, inseparable from his sacrifice,
from his passing over (Passover) to the Father to whom he is wholly
"consecrated" (Cf. Jn 17:11, 13, 19). (CCC 2748) In this Paschal and
sacrificial prayer, everything is recapitulated in Christ (Cf. Eph 1:10): God
and the world; the Word and the flesh; eternal life and time; the love that
hands itself over and the sin that betrays it; the disciples present and those
who will believe in him by their word; humiliation and glory. It is the prayer
of unity.
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