Modlitwa

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2560…2643)

“The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; His asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.” (St. Augustine). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain. The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully.

Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us and the almighty power of the Savior who sets us free from evil. Adoration is homage of the spirit to the „King of Glory,” respectful silence in the presence of the „ever greater” God. Adoration of the thrice-holy and sovereign God of love blends with humility and gives assurance to our supplications.

By prayer of petition we express awareness of our relationship with God. We are creatures who are not our own beginning, not the masters of adversity, not our own last end. We are sinners who as Christians know that we have turned away from our Father. Our petition is already a turning back to Him.

The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax collector in the parable…Asking forgiveness is the prerequisite for both the Eucharistic liturgy and personal prayer.

Since Abraham, intercession – asking on behalf of another – has been characteristic of a heart attuned to God’s mercy. In the age of the Church, Christian intercession participates in Christ’s, as an expression of the communion of saints. In intercession, he who prays looks „not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others,” even to the point of praying for those who do him harm.

As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving. the letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord Jesus is always present in it: „Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”; „Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It lauds God for His own sake and gives Him glory, quite beyond what He does, but simply because HE IS.  Praise embraces the other forms of prayer and carries them toward Him who is its source and goal: the „one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist.”

The Eucharist contains and expresses all forms of prayer: it is „the pure offering” of the whole Body of Christ to the glory of God’s name and, according to the traditions of East and West, it is the „sacrifice of praise.”

Wellsprings of Grace
(CCC 2652 -2660)

The Holy Spirit is the living water „welling up to eternal life” 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.

The Word of God

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.”’

The Liturgy of the Church

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 theological virtues

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 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.

2658 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. Love is the source of prayer; whoever draws from it reaches the summit of prayer.

„Today”

We learn to pray at certain moments by hearing the Word of the Lord and sharing in his Paschal mystery, but his Spirit is offered us at all times, in the events of each day, to make prayer spring up from us.

Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to „little children,” to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom.