05-01-2022
CCC 2697-2865
The Life of Prayer
567. What times are more suitable for prayer?
2697-2698
2720
Any time is suitable for prayer but the Church proposes to the
faithful certain rhythms of praying intended to nourish continual prayer:
morning and evening prayer, prayer before and after meals, the Liturgy of the
Hours, Sunday Eucharist, the Rosary, and feasts of the liturgical year.
“We must remember God more often than we draw breath.” (Saint
Gregory of Nazianzus)
568. What are the expressions of the life of prayer?
2697-2699
Christian tradition has preserved three forms for expressing and
living prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. The feature
common to all of them is the recollection of the heart.
EXPRESSIONS
OF PRAYER
569. How can vocal prayer be described?
2700-2704
2722
Vocal prayer associates the body with the interior prayer of the
heart. Even the most interior prayer, however, cannot dispense with vocal
prayer. In any case it must always spring from a personal faith. With the Our
Father Jesus has taught us a perfect form of vocal prayer.
570. What is meditation?
2705-2708
2723
Meditation is a prayerful reflection that begins above all in the
Word of God in the Bible. Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion and
desire in order to deepen our faith, convert our heart and fortify our will to
follow Christ. It is a first step toward the union of love with our Lord.
571. What is contemplative prayer?
2709-2719
2724
2739-2741
Contemplative prayer is a simple gaze upon God in silence and
love. It is a gift of God, a moment of pure faith during which the one praying
seeks Christ, surrenders himself to the loving will of the Father, and places
his being under the action of the Holy Spirit. Saint Teresa of Avila defines
contemplative prayer as the intimate sharing of friendship, “in which time is
frequently taken to be alone with God who we know loves us.”
THE
BATTLE OF PRAYER
572. Why is prayer a “battle”?
2725
Prayer is a gift of grace but it always presupposes a determined
response on our part because those who pray “battle” against themselves, their
surroundings, and especially the Tempter who does all he can to turn them away
from prayer. The battle of prayer is inseparable from progress in the spiritual
life. We pray as we live because we live as we pray.
573. Are there objections to prayer?
2726-2728
2752-2753
Along with erroneous notions of prayer, many think they do not
have the time to pray or that praying is useless. Those who pray can be
discouraged in the face of difficulties and apparent lack of success. Humility,
trust and perseverance are necessary to overcome these obstacles.
574. What are the difficulties in prayer?
2729-2733
2754-2755
Distraction is a habitual difficulty in our prayer.
It takes our attention away from God and can also reveal what we are attached
to. Our heart therefore must humbly turn to the Lord. Prayer is often affected
by dryness. Overcoming this difficulty allows us to cling to the
Lord in faith, even without any feeling of consolation. Acedia is
a form of spiritual laziness due to relaxed vigilance and a lack of custody of
the heart.
575. How may we strengthen our filial trust?
2734-2741
2756
Filial trust is tested when we think we are not heard. We must
therefore ask ourselves if we think God is truly a Father whose will we seek to
fulfill, or simply a means to obtain what we want. If our prayer is united to
that of Jesus, we know that he gives us much more than this or that gift. We
receive the Holy Spirit who transforms our heart.
576. Is it possible to pray always?
2742-2745
2757
Praying is always possible because the time of the Christian is
the time of the risen Christ who remains “with us always” (Matthew 28:20).
Prayer and Christian life are therefore inseparable:
“It is possible to offer frequent and fervent prayer even at the
market place or strolling alone. It is possible also in your place of business,
while buying or selling, or even while cooking.” (Saint
John Chrysostom)
577. What is the prayer of the Hour of Jesus?
2604
2746-2751
2758
It is called the priestly prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper.
Jesus, the High Priest of the New Covenant, addresses it to his Father when
the hour of his sacrifice, the hour of his
“passing over” to him is approaching.
Section
Two
The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father”
Our Father
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day
our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Pater Noster
Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificétur Nomen Tuum:
advéniat Regnum Tuum:
fiat volúntas Tua,
sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum
cotidiánum da nobis hódie,
et dimítte nobis débita nostra,
sicut et nos
dimíttimus debitóribus nostris.
et ne nos indúcas in tentatiónem;
sed líbera nos a Malo.
578. What is the origin of the Our Father?
2759-2760
2773
Jesus taught us this Christian prayer for which there is no
substitute, the Our Father, on the day on which one of his
disciples saw him praying and asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).
The Church’s liturgical tradition has always used the text of Saint Matthew
(6:9-13).
“THE
SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE GOSPEL”
579. What is the place of the Our Father in
the Scriptures?
2761-2764
2774
The Our Father is the “summary of the whole
Gospel” (Tertullian), “the perfect prayer” (Saint Thomas Aquinas). Found in the
middle of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), it presents in the
form of prayer the essential content of the Gospel.
580. Why is it called the “Lord’s Prayer”?
2765-2766
2775
The Our Father is called the “Oratio Dominica”,
that is, the Lord’s Prayer because it was taught to us by the Lord Jesus
himself.
581. What place does the Our Father have in
the prayer of the Church?
2767-2772
2776
The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer of the
Church par excellence. It is “handed on” in Baptism to signify the
new birth of the children of God into the divine life. The full meaning of
the Our Father is revealed in the eucharist since its
petitions are based on the mystery of salvation already accomplished, petitions
that will be fully heard at the coming of the Lord. The Our Father is
an integral part of the Liturgy of the Hours.
“OUR
FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN”
582. Why can we dare to draw near to God in full confidence?
2777-2778
2797
Because Jesus, our Redeemer, brings us into the Father’s presence
and his Spirit makes us his children. We are thus able to pray the Our
Father with simple and filial trust, with joyful assurance and humble
boldness, with the certainty of being loved and heard.
583. How is it possible to address God as “Father”?
2779-2785
2789
2798-2800
We can invoke the “Father” because the Son of God made man has
revealed him to us and because his Spirit makes him known to us. The
invocation, Father, lets us enter into his mystery with an ever new sense of
wonder and awakens in us the desire to act as his children. When we pray the
Lord’s Prayer, we are therefore aware of our being sons of the Father in the
Son.
584. Why do we say “our” Father?
2786-2790
2801
“Our” expresses a totally new relationship with God. When we
pray to the Father, we adore and glorify him with the Son and the Holy Spirit.
In Christ we are “his” people and he is “our” God now and for eternity. In
fact, we also say “our” Father because the Church of Christ is the communion of
a multitude of brothers and sisters who have but “one heart and mind” (Acts 4:32).
585. With what spirit of communion and mission do we pray to
God as “our” Father?
2791-2793
2801
Since praying to “our” Father is a common blessing for the
baptized, we feel an urgent summons to join in Jesus’ prayer for the unity of
his disciples. To pray the “Our Father” is to pray with all people and for all
people that they may know the one true God and be gathered into unity.
586. What does the phrase “Who art in heaven” mean?
2794-2796
2802
This biblical expression does not indicate a place but a way of
being: God transcends everything. The expression refers to the majesty, the
holiness of God, and also to his presence in the hearts of the just. Heaven, or
the Father’s house, constitutes our true homeland toward which we are moving in
hope while we are still on earth. “Hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3),
we live already in this homeland.
THE
SEVEN PETITIONS
587. What is the structure of the Lord’s Prayer?
2803-2806
2857
It contains seven petitions made to God the Father. The first
three, more God-centered, draw us toward him for his glory; it is
characteristic of love to think first of the beloved. These petitions suggest
in particular what we ought to ask of him: the sanctification of his Name, the
coming of his Kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. The last four petitions
present to the Father of mercies our wretchedness and our expectations. They
ask him to feed us, to forgive us, to sustain us in temptations, and to free us
from the Evil One.
588. What does “Hallowed be thy Name” mean?
2807-2812
2858
To hallow or make holy the Name of God is above all a prayer of
praise that acknowledges God as holy. In fact, God revealed his holy Name to
Moses and wanted his people to be consecrated for him as a
holy nation in which he would dwell.
589. How is the Name of God made holy in us and in the world?
2813-2815
To make holy the Name of God, who calls us “to holiness” (1
Thessalonians 4:7) is to desire that our baptismal consecration
animate our whole life. In addition, it is to ask –with our lives and our
prayers – that the Name of God be known and blessed by every man.
590. What does the Church ask for when she prays “Thy Kingdom
come”?
2816-2821
2859
The Church prays for the final coming of the Kingdom of God
through Christ’s return in glory. The Church prays also that the Kingdom of God
increase from now on through people’s sanctification in the Spirit and through
their commitment to the service of justice and peace in keeping with the
Beatitudes. This petition is the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: “Come, Lord
Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
591. Why pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”?
2822-2827
2860
The will of the Father is that “all men be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4).
For this Jesus came: to perfectly fulfill the saving will of his Father. We
pray God our Father to unite our will to that of his Son after the example of
the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints. We ask that this loving plan be fully
realized on earth as it is already in heaven. It is through prayer that we can
discern “what is the will of God” (Romans 12:2) and have the
“steadfastness to do it” (Hebrews 10:36).
592. What is the sense of the petition “Give us this day our
daily bread”?
2828-2834
2861
Asking God with the filial trust of children for the daily
nourishment which is necessary for us all we recognize how good God is, beyond
all goodness. We ask also for the grace to know how to act so that justice and
solidarity may allow the abundance of some to remedy the needs of others.
593. What is the specifically Christian sense of this
petition?
2835-2837
2861
Since “man does not live by bread alone but by every word that
comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4), this petition equally
applies to hunger for the Word of God and for the Body
of Christ received in the Eucharist as well as hunger for the Holy
Spirit. We ask this with complete confidence for this day –
God’s “today” – and this is given to us above all in the Eucharist which
anticipates the banquet of the Kingdom to come.
594. Why do we say “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those who trespass against us”?
2838-2839
2862
By asking God the Father to pardon us, we acknowledge before him
that we are sinners. At the same time we proclaim his mercy because in his Son
and through the sacraments “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14).
Still our petition will be answered only if we for our part have forgiven
first.
595. How is forgiveness possible?
2840-2845
2862
Mercy can penetrate our hearts only if we ourselves learn how to
forgive – even our enemies. Now even if it seems impossible for us to satisfy
this requirement, the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit can, like
Christ, love even to love’s extreme; it can turn injury into compassion and
transform hurt into intercession. Forgiveness participates in the divine mercy
and is a high-point of Christian prayer.
596. What does “Lead us not into temptation” mean?
2846-2849
2863
We ask God our Father not to leave us alone and in the power of
temptation. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us know how to discern, on the one
hand, between a trial that makes us grow in goodness and
a temptation that leads to sin and death and, on the other
hand, between being tempted and consenting to
temptation. This petition unites us to Jesus who overcame temptation by his
prayer. It requests the grace of vigilance and of final perseverance.
597. Why do we conclude by asking “But deliver us from evil”?
2850-2854
2864
“Evil” indicates the person of Satan who opposes God and is “the
deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). Victory over the
devil has already been won by Christ. We pray, however, that the human family
be freed from Satan and his works. We also ask for the precious gift of peace
and the grace of perseverance as we wait for the coming of Christ who will free
us definitively from the Evil One.
598. What is the meaning of the final Amen?
2855-2856
2865
“At the end of the prayer, you say ‘Amen’ and thus you ratify by
this word that means ‘so be it’ all that is contained in this prayer that God
has taught us.” (Saint Cyril of Jerusalem)
