1. Prayer: What it is
a. Prayer is an “elevating of the mind and heart to God.” It is speaking with God, and listening for his response.
b. Prayer can be in the form of liturgy (the formal worship of the Church), the recitation of memorized prayers like the Our Father and the Hail Mary, or it can be a simple free-form adoration and conversing.
c. The four purposes of prayer: ACTS
i. Adoration: gazing upon God with love. Adoration “fills us up” with the love of God so that we can take his love into the world. Adoration can take the form of silent, adoring worship or of vocal prayer, as in the Te Deum, which is sung in monasteries.
We praise Thee, O God:
We acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.All the earth doth worship Thee
And the Father everlasting.To Thee all Angels:
To Thee the heavens and all the Powers therein.To Thee the Cherubim and Seraphim:
Cry with unceasing voice:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Hosts.The heavens and the earth are full:
Of the majesty of Thy glory.Thee the glorious choir:
Of the Apostles.Thee the admirable company:
Of the Prophets.Thee the white-robed army of Martyrs:
Praise.Thee the Holy Church throughout all the world:
Doth acknowledge.The Father of infinite Majesty.
Thine adorable, true:
And only Son.Also the Holy Ghost:
The Paraclete.Thou art the King of Glory:
O Christ.Thou art the everlasting Son:
Of the Father.Thou having taken upon Thee to deliver man:
Didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb.Thou having overcome the sting of death:
Didst open to believers the kingdom of heaven.Thou sittest at the right hand of God:
In the glory of the Father.We believe that Thou shalt come:
To be our Judge.We beseech Thee, therefore, help Thy servants:
Whom Thou has redeemed with Thy precious Blood.Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints:
In glory everlasting.Lord, save Thy people:
And bless Thine inheritance.Govern them: and lift them up forever.
Day by day: we bless Thee.And we praise Thy name forever:
And world without end.Vouchsafe, O Lord, this day:
To keep us without sin.Have mercy on us, O Lord:
Have mercy on us.Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us:
As we have hoped in Thee.O Lord, in Thee have I hoped:
Let me never be confounded.
Pasted from <http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=1539>
ii. Contrition: expressing sorrow for sin.
1. “He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. ‘Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity–greedy, dishonest, adulterous–or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.” But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayer, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’” (Luke 18: 9-14)
2. God was pleased by the tax collector’s humble contrition, and so he went away justified.
c. Thanksgiving: expressing gratitude for God’s goodness to us
i. It is possible to live a life of continual gratitude and awareness of God’s goodness. One old monk at the monastery where I stayed a few months in 1999 had the habit of remembering the goodness of God every time he walked through a doorway.
ii. An example of a prayer of Thanksgiving: the Preparation of the Gifts at Mass.
“Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.” “Blessed be God for ever.”
“Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become our spiritual drink.” “Blessed be God for ever.”
d. Supplication: asking for spiritual and material favors
i. “Give us this day our daily bread”: we recognize that God is the source of all life and of everything that we need for our lives, whether it is material goodness or spiritual goods
2. The Lord’s Prayer: the Prayer that Jesus himself taught us
a. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:5-13)
b. So Jesus advises us not to pray like the hypocrites, who want to be seen by others; our prayer should be in our “inner room”:meant literally as a private plus but metaphorically as the depth of our hearts and “in secret”, that is, reserved for God alone.
c. Note that there is nothing wrong with expecting a reward for prayer: “Your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”
d. We are not to “babble,” which is to repeat words like they are a magic formula (note the difference between vain repetition and a prayer like the Rosary).
e. We are to remember that “our Father knows what we need before we ask him.” Good is all-good, and his providence is all-encompassing.
f. So we first attend to the holiness of God in Adoration: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”; and then we express our obedience to God, “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” We make prayers of supplication, for “our daily bread”; and of contrition, for forgiveness, and for freedom from evil.
g. So the Lord’s Prayer is really a perfect compendium of all four types of prayer, it is complete in itself; and probably somewhere there’s been a holy hermit who did nothing but pray the Our Father all day.
3. Prayer as a way of life
a. “We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with all. See that no one returns evil for evil; rather, always seek what is good [both] for each other and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14-18)
b. So we are advised to “pray without ceasing.”
i. The first thing to realize is that there is a sense in which you and I already pray without ceasing: we have been given the Holy Spirit in Baptism, the Spirit the is one with the Father and the Son, and that Spirit cries out “Father!” at all times from deep within our hearts.
ii. So our efforts to “pray without ceasing” are more an effort to get in touch with that deep prayer that is already going on.
c. Liturgical Prayer: the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours
i. The Mass is the Church’s highest form of prayer, and the most complete, for it is a re-presentation of Christ’s one Sacrifice on Calvary
ii. The Liturgy of the Hours help us to live up to the admonition to “pray without ceasing”; they are required of religious brothers and sisters, and priests, deacons, and bishops.
iii. The Liturgy of the Hours are composed of the Psalms, hymns, Canticles from the Gospels, and a reading and response. In a monastery, where there is group recital, the Liturgy is typically proclaimed “antiphonally”; that is, with monks on either side of the chapel responding to each other.
iv. The Liturgy of the Hours is about “sanctifying time” and recalling God’s presence at every moment of the workday. We are reminded the Christ is Lord of time, and all time belongs to him, that every moment of our day is not ours to squander but instead must be spent profitably in relationship with Jesus.
v. In a monastery, the Liturgy is typically prayed at 5 Hours; they are: Vigils, Lauds (Morning Prayer), Midday Prayer, Vespers (Evening Prayer), and Compline (Night prayer).
vi. St. Benedict’s motto for the monastery is “Ora et Labora,” that is, prayer and work; the prayer informs the work, gives it a structure, and makes it holy; and prayer is itself a form of work for the monk. The monk whose heart is always at prayer, who takes the Liturgy of the Hours with him as he goes to work, will do the best and most attentive work.
d. Ejaculatory Prayer
i. These are short prayers that we can learn and recite throughout the day, and that will help us to become holy.
ii. “Have mercy on me, God, a sinner.”
iii. “Jesus.”
iv. “Lord, wash away my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”
v. “Purify me Lord, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
vi. “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you.”
vii. “My Lord God, even now resignedly and willingly, I accept at Thy hand, with all its anxieties, pains, and sufferings, whatever kind of death it shall please Thee to be mine.” (a prayer for a plenary indulgence at the hour of death)
viii. “Lord Jesus, by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit your death brought life to the world. By your holy Body and Blood free me from all sin and from every evil. Keep me faithful to your teaching, and never let me be parted from you.”
e. The goal of prayer: Contemplation, and, ultimately, the Beatific Vision
i. Contemplation is a special intimacy with God, and it is the gift of being able to pray constantly without undue effort or indeed, without even words
ii. “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:14-19)
iii. Contemplative prayer transforms our hearts, minds, and souls; it prepares us for total intimacy with God
iv. Contemplation is a gift from God, but an obtainable one (ask!); it is not something achieved by the will or called forth by human initiation
v. God gives to a soul the gift of his intimate presence in a way not based in human knowledge
vi. This special union is possible for anyone, but this height of prayer is normally reached through careful guidance, i.e., spiritual direction
f. Prayer and family life
i. Make prayer a part of your family ritual, whether it is the Rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours (shortened versions are available, e.g. Magnificat), mealtime prayers, informal “free-style” prayer as a family, or whatever works best
ii. Make sure that prayer does not become too much of a burden, that it “fits” your life, and that you’re not constantly feeling like you “have” to pray now.
iii. Make sure that children understand what they are praying and why they are praying it.
iv. Remember, the sky’s the limit!
