Lord, Teach us to Pray (Part III)

The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name--he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you. (John 14:26)
The Catechism opens up the Scriptures to us. Read Scripture and the Catechism together daily!

 The Catechism of the Catholic Church 
on Prayer in the Christian Life 

          

"The Finding in the Temple"

The Gospel of Luke: Prayer in Jesus' Life and Ministry

2599 The Son of God who became Son of the Virgin also 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. 

2600 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). 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. 

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. 

James Tissot, "Jesus went out into a Desert Place"

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.

Tissot, "The Pharisee and the Publican"

2613 Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke: 

- The first, "the importunate friend" (Cf. Lk 11:5-13), invites us to urgent prayer: "Knock, and it will be opened to you." To the one who prays like this, the heavenly Father will "give whatever he needs," and above all the Holy Spirit who contains all gifts.

- The second, "the importunate widow" (Cf. Lk 18:1-8), is centered on one of the qualities of prayer: it is necessary to pray always without ceasing and with the patience of faith. "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

  

- The third parable, "the Pharisee and the tax collector" (Cf. Lk 18:9-14), concerns the humility of the heart that prays. "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" The Church continues to make this prayer its own: Kyrie eleison! Lord have mercy!

Lord, Teach us to Pray (Part II)

The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name--he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you. (John 14:26)

The Catechism opens up the Scriptures to us.
Read Scripture and the Catechism together daily!
 

James Tissot, "The Lord's Prayer" 1886-96

The Catechism of the Catholic Church 

on Prayer in the Christian Life 

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. 

Prayer requires conversion and faith

2607 When Jesus prays, he is already teaching us how to pray. His prayer to his Father is the theological path (the path of faith, hope, and charity) of our prayer to God. But the Gospel also gives us Jesus' explicit teaching on prayer. Like a wise teacher he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. Addressing the crowds following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of prayer from the Old Covenant and opens to them the newness of the coming Kingdom. Then he reveals this newness to them in parables. Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the teachers of prayer in his Church.

2608 From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of heart: reconciliation with one's brother before presenting an offering on the altar, love of enemies, and prayer for persecutors, prayer to the Father in secret, not heaping up empty phrases, prayerful forgiveness from the depths of the heart, purity of heart, and seeking the Kingdom before all else (Cf. Mt 5:23-24, 44-45; 6:7, 14-15, 21, 25, 33). This filial conversion is entirely directed to the Father.

2609 Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith. Faith is a filial adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand. It is possible because the beloved Son gives us access to the Father. He can ask us to "seek" and to "knock," since he himself is the door and the way (Cf. Mt 7:7-11, 13-14).

2610 Just as Jesus prays to the Father and gives thanks before receiving his gifts, so he teaches us filial boldness: "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will” (Mk 11:24). Such is the power of prayer and of faith that does not doubt: "all things are possible to him who believes” (Mk 9:23; cf. Mt 21:22). Jesus is as saddened by the "lack of faith" of his own neighbors and the "little faith" of his own disciples (Mk 6:6; Mt 8:26), as he is struck with admiration at the great faith of the Roman centurion and the Canaanite woman (Cf. Mt 8:10; 15:28).

2611 The prayer of faith consists not only in saying "Lord, Lord," but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father (Cf. Mt 7:21). Jesus calls his disciples to bring into their prayer this concern for cooperating with the divine plan (Cf. Mt 9:38; Lk 10:2; Jn 4:34).

Tissot, "He Went Through the Villages on the Way to Jerusalem"

Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest"  (Mt 9:38). 

On Recognizing and Receiving the Gift of God

He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. (John 1:10-11)

The Gospel account of Luke tells us that Mary had to give birth to Jesus, the Son of the Most High, in, of all places, a shelter intended for animals, "because there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7). Bethlehem was apparently filled to capacity with people who, by decree of the Roman government, had returned to their hometown, in order to be registered as taxpayers. But yet, among all those people, there was not a single incidental witness to His miraculous birth there in their midst. Everyone was too busy responding to the voice of the world, to the "decree that went out from Caesar Augustus." Meanwhile, the Messiah had been humbly and silently "brought forth" by Mary, with the very people that had been longing for their King and His kingdom passing the night oblivious and unaffected.

No Room in the Inn

It was only to some shepherds tending their sheep in the area that the angel of the Lord appeared and announced that their promised Messiah had finally come. Like Mary (Luke 1:45), these simple people believed and rejoiced in what the Lord had told them through His heavenly messenger. The shepherds also made haste, "to see this thing" that had taken place, which the Lord had made known to them (Luke 2:15), as did Mary nine months prior, upon hearing the joyful news that her older childless relative Elizabeth had conceived a son (Luke 1:36-39), "for with God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37).

It was clearly because of their faith in the Lord, in their openness and readiness of heart to the accepting of His Word, that the shepherds were blessed with the gifts of both receiving the news of the long-expected Messiah's birth, and of beholding Him with their own eyes. In their great joy, the shepherds then told everyone what they had heard and seen, and "all who heard it were amazed" (Luke 2:18). Like all the men and women in the entire Gospel of Luke who would approach and encounter Jesus with faith in their hearts, the shepherds were forever changed that night in a very dramatic way. They were still poor shepherds, returning to their flocks and their way of life, but now the joy-filled act of "glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them" (Luke 2:20) had also become a part of their day-to-day living.

But what about us? What is the focus of our attention at Christmas? Is it the tree and the gifts, or is it the Manger and the Eucharist? Are we indifferent to and unaffected by the birth of the Lord, or do we continue to be amazed by the mysteries of the Incarnation and God's infinite love for us?

A.R. Mengs, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1770

Like the people in the Gospel who spent the night in the Inn, have we also perhaps returned to our own hometown to celebrate Christmas, finding ourselves resting comfortably in the company of family and friends, only to forget that there is One we have excluded from our company; that there is One we have left outside in the cold? Or are we like the humble shepherds, open to the voice and the grace of God, and eager to welcome our Savior Christ the Lord into our hearts, and at Mass, into our bodies as well? If it is His birth, His coming, that we are truly celebrating, then we, too, can be forever changed by our encounter anew with Jesus at the coming of Christmas, and after the celebration of this day and season has passed, can then return to our everyday lives, glorifying and praising God for all we have heard and seen, just as it had been told to us!

But to those who did accept him 
he gave power to become children of God,  
to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice 
nor by a man's decision but of God.  
And the Word became flesh 
and made his dwelling among us, 

and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, 

full of grace and truth (John 1:12-14).