Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 475 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 475 - Part II. How did Jesus pray?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Jesus’ life was one single prayer. At decisive moments (his temptation in the desert, his selection of the apostles, his death on the Cross) his prayer was especially intense. Often he withdrew into solitude to pray, especially at night. Being one with the Father in the Holy Spirit  - that was the guiding principle of his earthly life.   

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2601) "He was praying in a certain place and when he had ceased, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray"' (Lk 11:1). In seeing the Master at prayer the disciple of Christ also wants to pray. By contemplating and hearing the Son, the master of prayer, the children learn to pray to the Father. 

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2602) Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night (Cf. Mk 1:35; 6:46; Lk 5:16). He includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on humanity in his incarnation, and he offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus, the Word who has become flesh, shares by his human prayer in all that "his brethren" experience; he sympathizes with their weaknesses in order to free them (Cf. Heb 2:12, 15; 4:15). It was for this that the Father sent him. His words and works are the visible manifestation of his prayer in secret.

 
(This question: How did Jesus pray? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 475 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 475 - Part I. How did Jesus pray?

(Youcat answer) Jesus’ life was one single prayer. At decisive moments (his temptation in the desert, his selection of the apostles, his death on the Cross) his prayer was especially intense. Often he withdrew into solitude to pray, especially at night. Being one with the Father in the Holy Spirit  - that was the guiding principle of his earthly life.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2600 a) The Gospel according to St. Luke emphasizes the action of the Holy Spirit and the meaning of prayer in Christ's ministry. Jesus prays before the decisive moments of his mission: before his Father's witness to him during his baptism and Transfiguration, and before his own fulfillment of the Father's plan of love by his Passion (Cf. Lk 3:21; 9:28; 22:41-44).

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2600 b) He also prays before the decisive moments involving the mission of his apostles: at his election and call of the Twelve, before Peter's confession of him as "the Christ of God," and again that the faith of the chief of the Apostles may not fail when tempted (Cf. Lk 6:12; 9:18-20;  22:32). Jesus' prayer before the events of salvation that the Father has asked him to fulfill is a humble and trusting commitment of his human will to the loving will of the Father.

(This question: How did Jesus pray? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 474.

YOUCAT Question n. 474 - How did Jesus learn to pray?

(Youcat answer) Jesus learned to pray in his family and in the synagogue. Yet Jesus broke through the boundaries of traditional prayer. His prayer demonstrates a union with his Father in heaven that is possible only to someone who is the Son of God.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2598) The drama of prayer is fully revealed to us in the Word who became flesh and dwells among us. To seek to understand his prayer through what his witnesses proclaim to us in the Gospel is to approach the holy Lord Jesus as Moses approached the burning bush: first to contemplate him in prayer, then to hear how he teaches us to pray, in order to know how he hears our prayer.

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Jesus, who was God and man at the same time, grew up like other Jewish children of his time amid the rituals and prayer formulas of his people, Israel. Nevertheless, as the story of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple demonstrated (Lk 2:41ff.), there was something in him that could not be learned: an original, profound, and unique union with God, his Father in heaven. Like all other men, Jesus hoped for another world, a hereafter, and prayed to God. At the same time, though, he was also part of that hereafter. This occasion already showed that one day people would pray to Jesus, acknowledge him as God, and ask for his grace.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2599) The Son of God who became Son of the Virgin learned to pray according to his human heart. He learns the formulas of prayer from his mother, who kept in her heart and meditated upon all the “great things” done by the Almighty (Cf. Lk 1:49; 2:19; 2:51). He learns to pray in the words and rhythms of the prayer of his people, in the synagogue at Nazareth and the Temple at Jerusalem. But his prayer springs from an otherwise secret source, as he intimates at the age of twelve: "I must be in my Father's house" (Lk 2:49). Here the newness of prayer in the fullness of time begins to be revealed: his filial prayer, which the Father awaits from his children, is finally going to be lived out by the only Son in his humanity, with and for men.     

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Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 473 – Part IV.

YOUCAT Question n. 473 - Part IV. How are the Psalms important for our prayer?

(Youcat answer - repeated) The Psalms, along with the Our Father, are part of the Church’s great treasury of prayers. In them the praise of God is sung in an ageless way.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2596) The Psalms constitute the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament. They present two inseparable qualities: the personal, and the communal. They extend to all dimensions of history, recalling God's promises already fulfilled and looking for the coming of the Messiah.

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) There are 150 Psalms in the Old Testament. They are a collection of songs and prayers, some of them several thousand years old, which are still prayed today in the Church community - in the socalled Liturgy of the Hours. The Psalms are among the most beautiful texts in world literature and move even modern readers immediately by their spiritual power.

(CCC Comment) (CCC 2597) Prayed and fulfilled in Christ, the Psalms are an essential and permanent element of the prayer of the Church. They are suitable for men of every condition and time. 2597  

(The next question is: How did Jesus learn to pray?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 473 – Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 473 - Part III. How are the Psalms important for our prayer?

(Youcat answer - repeated) The Psalms, along with the Our Father, are part of the Church’s great treasury of prayers. In them the praise of God is sung in an ageless way.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2589 a) Certain constant characteristics appear throughout the Psalms: simplicity and spontaneity of prayer; the desire for God himself through and with all that is good in his creation; the distraught situation of the believer who, in his preferential love for the Lord, is exposed to a host of enemies and temptations, but who waits upon what the faithful God will do, in the certitude of his love and in submission to his will. The prayer of the psalms is always sustained by praise; that is why the title of this collection as handed down to us is so fitting: "The Praises." Collected for the assembly's worship, the Psalter both sounds the call to prayer and sings the response to that call: Hallelu-Yah! (“Alleluia"), "Praise the Lord!"

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) There are 150 Psalms in the Old Testament. They are a collection of songs and prayers, some of them several thousand years old, which are still prayed today in the Church community - in the socalled Liturgy of the Hours. The Psalms are among the most beautiful texts in world literature and move even modern readers immediately by their spiritual power.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2589 b) What is more pleasing than a psalm? David expresses it well: "Praise the Lord, for a psalm is good: let there be praise of our God with gladness and grace!" Yes, a psalm is a blessing on the lips of the people, praise of God, the assembly's homage, a general acclamation, a word that speaks for all, the voice of the Church, a confession of faith in song (St. Ambrose, In Psalmum 1 enarratio, 1, 9: PL 14, 924; LH, Saturday, wk 10, OR).

(This question: How are the Psalms important for our prayer? is continued)