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~ Faith ~ Spirituality ~ Worship ~
The Desire For God
In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have
given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and
behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so
forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities
they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man
a religious being:
"From
one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he
allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places
where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps
grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one
of us. For 'in him we live and move and have our being.' " [Acts
17:26-28] 28
 The heritage of faith entrusted to the whole of the Church
The apostles entrusted the "Sacred deposit" of the faith (the depositum fidei),
[Dei Verbum 10; 1 Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 1:12-14 9Vilg.)] contained in Sacred
Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church. "By adhering to
[this heritage] the entire holy people, united to its pastors, remains
always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to
the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in maintaining, practicing
and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should be a
remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful." [Dei Verbum
10; Acts 2:42] 84
The New Testament
The fourfold Gospel holds a unique place in the Church, as is evident
both in the veneration which the liturgy accords it and in the
surpassing attraction it has exercised on the saints at all times: There is no
doctrine which could be better, more precious and more splendid than
the text of the Gospel. Behold and retain what our Lord and Master,
Christ, has taught by his words and accomplished by his deeds. [St.
Caearia the Younger to St. Richidis and St. adegunde, Ach 345, 480]
But above all it's the gospels that occupy my mind when I'm at prayer;
my poor soul has so many needs, and yet this is the one thing needful.
I'm always finding fresh lights there; hidden meanings which had meant
nothing to me hitherto. [St. Therese of Lisieux, ms autob A 83v] 127
Faithful to the witness of Scripture, the Church often addresses her
prayer to the "almighty and eternal God" ("omnipotens sempiterne Deus.
. ."), believing firmly that "nothing will be impossible with God" [Gen
18:14; Lk 1:37; Mt 19:26]. 276 God Carries Out His Plan: Divine Providence
We see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of Sacred Scripture, often
attributing actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes.
This is not a "primitive mode of speech", but a profound way of
recalling God's primacy and absolute Lordship over history and the
world, [Isa 10:5-15; 45:5-7; Deut 32:39; Sir 11:14] and so of educating
his people to trust in him. The prayer of the Psalms is the great
school of this trust. [Ps 22; 32; 35; 103; 138; et al.] 304
Our communion in the mysteries of Jesus
In all of his life Jesus presents himself as our model.
He is "the perfect man", [Jn 13:15; Lk 11:1; Mt 5:11-12] who invites us
to become his disciples and follow him. In humbling himself, he has
given us an example to imitate, through his prayer he draws us to pray,
and by his poverty he calls us to accept freely the privation and
persecutions that may come our way. [Jn 13:15; Lk 11:1; Mt 5:11-12] 520
The participation of lay people in Christ’s priestly office
"Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the
Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer
fruits of the Spirit maybe produced in them. For all their works,
prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily
work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the
Spirit - indeed even the hardships of life if patiently born - all
these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be
offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. And so,
worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the
world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of
their lives." [Lumen Gentium 34; LG 10; 1 Pet 2:5] 901
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary
 971 "All generations will call me blessed":
"The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian
worship." [Paul VI, Marialis Cultus 42; Sacrosanctum Concilium 103] The
Church rightly honors "the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From
the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the
title of 'Mother of God,' to whose protection the faithful fly in all
their dangers and needs.... This very special devotion ... differs
essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and
equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this
adoration." [Lumen Gentium 66] The liturgical feasts dedicated to the
Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of the
whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary. [Paul VI, MC
42, SC 103]
1073 The liturgy is also a participation in
Christ's own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit. In the
liturgy, all Christian prayer finds its source and goal. Through the
liturgy the inner man is rooted and grounded in "the great love with
which [the Father] loved us" in his beloved Son. [Eph 2:4; 3:16-17] It
is the same "marvelous work of God" that is lived and internalized by
all prayer, "at all times in the Spirit." [Eph 6:18]
1127 Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that
they signify. [Council of Trent (1547): 1605; 1606] They are efficacious
because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he
who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each
sacrament signifies. The Father always hears the prayer of his Son's
Church which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith
in the power of the Spirit. As fire transforms into itself everything
it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever
is subjected to his power.
1157 Song and music fulfill
their function as signs in a manner all the more significant when they
are "more closely connected . . . with the liturgical action," [SC 112,
3] according to three principal criteria: beauty expressive of prayer,
the unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments,
and the solemn character of the celebration. In this way they
participate in the purpose of the liturgical words and actions: the
glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful: [SC 112]
How
I wept, deeply moved by your hymns, songs, and the voices that echoed
through your Church! What emotion I experienced in them! Those sounds
flowed into my ears distilling the truth in my heart. A feeling of
devotion surged within me, and tears streamed down my face - tears that
did me good. [St Augustine, Conf 9, 6, 14:PL 32, 769-770]
1348 All gather together.
Christians come together in one place for the Eucharistic assembly. At
its head is Christ himself, the principal agent of the Eucharist. He is
high priest of the New Covenant; it is he himself who presides
invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration. It is in representing him
that the bishop or priest acting in the person of Christ the head (in persona Christi capitis)
presides over the assembly, speaks after the readings, receives the
offerings, and says the Eucharistic Prayer. All have their own active
parts to play in the celebration, each in his own way: readers, those
who bring up the offerings, those who give communion, and the whole
people whose "Amen" manifests their participation.
1349 The Liturgy of the Word
includes "the writings of the prophets," that is, the Old Testament,
and "the memoirs of the apostles" (their letters and the Gospels).
After the homily, which is an exhortation to accept this Word as what
it truly is, the Word of God, [1 Thess 2:13] and to put it into
practice, come the intercessions for all men, according to the
Apostle's words: "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions,
and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings, and all who are in
high positions." [1 Tim 2:1-2]
1352 The anaphora:
with the Eucharistic Prayer - the prayer of thanksgiving and
consecration - we come to the heart and summit of the celebration:
In the preface,
the Church gives thanks to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy
Spirit, for all his works: creation, redemption, and sanctification.
The whole community thus joins in the unending praise that the Church
in heaven, the angels and all the saints, sing to the thrice-holy God.
1373 "Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is
at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us," is present in
many ways to his Church: [Rom 8:34; LG 48] in his word, in his Church's
prayer, "where two or three are gathered in my name," [SC 7] in the
poor, the sick, and the imprisoned, [Mt 25:31-46] in the sacraments of
which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person
of the minister. But "he is present . . . most especially in the Eucharistic species." [SC 7]
1657 It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children,
and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized
in a privileged way "by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and
thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active
charity." [LG 10] Thus the home is the first school of Christian life
and "a school for human enrichment." [Gaudium et Spes 52, 1] Here one
learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous - even
repeated - forgiveness, and  above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one's life.
1666 The Christian home is the place where children receive the first
proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly
called "the domestic church," a community of grace and prayer, a school
of human virtues and of Christian charity.
1676 Pastoral discernment is needed to sustain and support popular
piety and, if necessary, to purify and correct the religious sense
which underlies these devotions so that the faithful may advance in
knowledge of the mystery of Christ. [John Paul II, Catechisi Tradendae
45] Their exercise is subject to the care and judgment of the bishops
and to the general norms of the Church. At its core the
piety of the people is a storehouse of values that offers answers of
Christian wisdom to the great questions of life. The Catholic wisdom of
the people is capable of fashioning a vital synthesis.... It creatively
combines the divine and the human, Christ and Mary, spirit and body,
communion and institution, person and community, faith and homeland,
intelligence and emotion. This wisdom is a Christian humanism that
radically affirms the dignity of every person as a child of God,
establishes a basic fraternity, teaches people to encounter nature and
understand work, provides reasons for joy and humor even in the midst
of a very hard life. For the people this wisdom is also a principle of
discernment and an evangelical instinct through which they
spontaneously sense when the Gospel is served in the Church and when it
is emptied of its content and stifled by other interests. [CELAM, Third
General Conference (Puebla, 1979), Final Document, 448; Paul VI,
Evangelii Nuntiandi 48] 1785 In the formation of
conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, [Ps 119:105] we
must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We
must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are
assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or
advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the
Church. [Dignitatis Humanae 14]
1806 Prudence
is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good
in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it;
"the prudent man looks where he is going." [Prov 14:15] "Keep sane and
sober for your prayers." [1 Pet 4:7] Prudence is "right reason in
action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. [St Thomas
Aquinas, STh II-II, 47, 2] It is not to be confused with timidity or
fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum
(the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting
rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment
of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in
accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply
moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts
about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.
1900 The
duty of obedience requires all to give due honor to authority and to
treat those who are charged to exercise it with respect, and, insofar
as it is deserved, with gratitude and good-will. Pope St.
Clement of Rome provides the Church's most ancient prayer for political
authorities: [1 Tim 2:1-2] "Grant to them, Lord, health, peace,
concord, and stability, so that they may exercise without offense the
sovereignty that you have given them. Master, heavenly King of the
ages, you give glory, honor, and power over the things of earth to the
sons of men. Direct, Lord, their counsel, following what is pleasing
and acceptable in your sight, so that by exercising with devotion and
in peace and gentleness the power that you have given to them, they may
find favor with you." [St Clement of Rome, Ad Cor 61:SCh 167, 198-200]
2031 The moral life is spiritual worship.
We "present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to
God," [Rom 12:1] within the Body of Christ that we form and in
communion with the offering of his Eucharist. In the liturgy and the
celebration of the sacraments, prayer and teaching are conjoined with
the grace of Christ to enlighten and nourish Christian activity. As
does the whole of the Christian life, the moral life finds its source
and summit in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
 2041
The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound
to and nourished by liturgical life. The obligatory character of these
positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee
to the faithful the very necessary minimum in the spirit of prayer and
moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor:
2101 In many circumstances, the Christian is called to make promises
to God. Baptism and Confirmation, Matrimony and Holy Orders always
entail promises. Out of personal devotion, the Christian may also
promise to God this action, that prayer, this alms-giving, that
pilgrimage, and so forth. Fidelity to promises made to God is a sign of
the respect owed to the divine majesty and of love for a faithful God.
2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the
practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer
the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way
magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To
attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere
external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they
demand, is to fall into superstition. 41
2177 The Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at
the heart of the Church's life. "Sunday is the day on which the paschal
mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be
observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal
Church." [CIC, can 1246, 1]
"Also to be observed are the day of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension of Christ, the feast of the Body
and Blood of Christi, the feast of Mary the Mother of God, her
Immaculate Conception, her Assumption, the feast of Saint Joseph, the
feast of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, and the feast of All
Saints." [CIC, can 1246, 2.]
2188 In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all,
Christians should seek recognition of Sundays and the Church's holy
days as legal holidays. They have to give everyone a public example of
prayer, respect, and joy and defend their traditions as a precious
contribution to the spiritual life of society. If a country's
legislation or other reasons require work on Sunday, the day should
nevertheless be lived as the day of our deliverance which lets us share
in this "festal gathering," this "assembly of the firstborn who are
enrolled in heaven." [Heb 12:22-23]
2240 Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good
make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote,
and to defend one's country: Pay to all of
them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue
is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.
[Rom 13:7]
[Christians] reside in their own nations, but as
resident aliens. They participate in all things as citizens and endure
all things as foreigners.... They obey the established laws and their
way of life surpasses the laws.... So noble is the position to which
God has assigned them that they are not allowed to desert it. [Ad
Diognetum 5, 5 and 10; 6, 10:Pg 2, 1173n and 1176]
The Apostle exhorts us to offer prayers and thanksgiving for kings and
all who exercise authority, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life, godly and respectful in every way." [1 Tim 2:2]
2613 Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke:
- The
first, "the importunate friend," [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," [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," [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!
2616 Prayer to Jesus
is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that
anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the
prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite
woman, the good thief) [Mk 1:40-41; 5:36; 7:29; Lk 23:39-43] or in
silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who
touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman). [Mk
2:5; 5:28; Lk 7:37-38] The urgent request of the blind men, "Have mercy
on us, Son of David" or "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
has-been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus Prayer:
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" [Mt 9:27;
Mk 10:48] Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds
to a prayer offered in faith: "Your faith has made you well; go in
peace." St. Augustine
wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus' prayer: "He prays
for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us
as our God. Therefore let us acknowledge our voice in him and his in
us." [St Augustine, En in Ps 85, 1:PL 37, 1081; General Introduction to
the Liturgy of Hours 7]
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