PRAYER OF THE BELIEVER

The Liturgy itself is prayer; the confession of faith finds its proper place in the celebration of worship. Grace, the fruit of the sacraments, is the irreplaceable condition for Christian living, just as participation in the Church's Liturgy requires faith. If faith is not expressed in works, it is dead [ Jas 2:14-16] and cannot bear fruit unto eternal life. [Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum, 2]

The Christian Name
The Christian begins his day, his prayers, and his activities with the Sign of the Cross: "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." The baptized person dedicates the day to the glory of God and calls on the Savior's grace which lets him act in the Spirit as a child of the Father. The sign of the cross strengthens us in temptations and difficulties. 2157

Jesus
The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer. All liturgical prayers conclude with the words "through our Lord Jesus Christ". The Hail Mary reaches its high point in the words "blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." The Eastern prayer of the heart, the Jesus Prayer, says: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Many Christians, such as St. Joan of Arc, have died with the one word "Jesus" on their lips. 435

Prayer as God’s Gift
"Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God." [St John Damascene, De Fide Orth 3, 24:Pg 94, 1089C] But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or "out of the depths" of a humble and contrite heart? [Ps 130:1] He who humbles himself will be exalted; [Lk 18:9-14] humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought," [Rom 8:26] are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. "Man is a beggar before God." [St Augustine, Sermo 56, 6, 9:PL 38, 381] 2559

"If you knew the gift of God!" [Jn 4:10] 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 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, De Diversis Quaestionibus Octoginta Tribus 64, 4:PL 40, 56] 2560

Where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain. 2562

Prayer to the Father
There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus. The sacred humanity of Jesus is therefore the way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray to God our Father. 2664

Prayer to Jesus
The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, [Mt 6:7] but holds fast to the word and "brings forth fruit with patience." [Lk 8:15] This prayer is possible "at all times" because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus. 2668

Lord
Christian prayer is characterized by the title "Lord", whether in the invitation to prayer ("The Lord be with you"), its conclusion ("through Christ our Lord") or the exclamation full of trust and hope: Maran atha ("Our Lord, come!") or Marana tha ("Come, Lord!") - "Amen Come Lord Jesus!" [1 Cor 16:22; Rev 22:20] 451

The Holy Spirit and the Church
"The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep for words." [Rom 8:26] The Holy Spirit, the artisan of God's works, is the master of prayer. 741

Mary’s Motherhood with Regard to the Church – Wholly united with her Son . . .
After her Son's Ascension, Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers." [Lumen Gentium 69] In her association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation." [LG 59] 965

Prayer as communion
In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. The grace of the Kingdom is "the union of the entire holy and royal Trinity . . . with the whole human spirit." [St Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio, 16, 9:Pg 35, 945] Thus, the life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him. This communion of life is always possible because, through Baptism, we have already been united with Christ. [Rom 6:5] Prayer is Christian insofar as it is communion with Christ and extends throughout the Church, which is his Body. Its dimensions are those of Christ's love. [Eph 3:18-21] 2565

The Universal Call to Prayer
God calls man first. Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, the faithful God's initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response. As God gradually reveals himself and reveals man to himself, prayer appears as a reciprocal call, a covenant drama. Through words and actions, this drama engages the heart. It unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation. 2567

In The Fullness of Time
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. 2598

Jesus Prays
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. [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. 2599

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. [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. [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. 2600

"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. 2601

Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night. [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. [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. 2602

The evangelists have preserved two more explicit prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with thanksgiving. In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves learned and has revealed them to infants, the poor of the Beatitudes. [Mt 11:25-27; Lk 10:21-23] His exclamation, "Yes, Father!" expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father's "good pleasure," echoing his mother's Fiat at the time of his conception and prefiguring what he will say to the Father in his agony. The whole prayer of Jesus is contained in this loving adherence of his human heart to the mystery of the will of the Father. [Eph 1:9] 2603

The second prayer, before the raising of Lazarus, is recorded by St. John. [Jn 11:41-42] Thanksgiving precedes the event: "Father, I thank you for having heard me," which implies that the Father always hears his petitions. Jesus immediately adds: "I know that you always hear me," which implies that Jesus, on his part, constantly made such petitions. Jesus' prayer, characterized by thanksgiving, reveals to us how to ask: before the gift is given, Jesus commits himself to the One who in giving gives himself. The Giver is more precious than the gift; he is the "treasure"; in him abides his Son's heart; the gift is given "as well." [Mt 6:21, 33] 2604

When the hour had come for him to fulfill the Father's plan of love, Jesus allows a glimpse of the boundless depth of his filial prayer, not only before he freely delivered himself up ("Abba . . . not my will, but yours."), [Lk 22:42] but even in his last words on the Cross, where prayer and the gift of self are but one: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do", [Lk 23:34] "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise"; [Lk 23:43] "Woman, behold your son" - "Behold your mother", [Jn 19:26-27] "I thirst."; [Jn 19:28] "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" [Mk 15:34; Ps 22:2] "It is finished"; [Jn 19:30] "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" [Lk 23:46] until the "loud cry" as he expires, giving up his spirit. [Lk 23:46] 2605

All the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions and intercessions of salvation history are summed up in this cry of the incarnate Word. Here the Father accepts them and, beyond all hope, answers them by raising his Son. Thus is fulfilled and brought to completion the drama of prayer in the economy of creation and salvation. The Psalter gives us the key to prayer in Christ. In the "today" of the Resurrection the Father says: "You are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession." [Ps 2:7-8; Acts 13:33]
The Letter to the Hebrews expresses in dramatic terms how the prayer of Jesus accomplished the victory of salvation: "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him." [Heb 5:7-9] 2606

Jesus teaches us how to pray
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. 2607

In Jesus "the Kingdom of God is at hand." [Mk 1:15] He calls his hearers to conversion and faith, but also to watchfulness. In prayer the disciple keeps watch, attentive to Him Who Is and Him Who Comes, in memory of his first coming in the lowliness of the flesh, and in the hope of his second coming in glory. [Mk 13; Lk 21:34-36] In communion with their Master, the disciples' prayer is a battle; only by keeping watch in prayer can one avoid falling into temptation. [Lk 22:40, 46] 2612

When Jesus openly entrusts to his disciples the mystery of prayer to the Father, he reveals to them what their prayer and ours must be, once he has returned to the Father in his glorified humanity. What is new is to "ask in his name." [Jn 14:13] Faith in the Son introduces the disciples into the knowledge of the Father, because Jesus is "the way, and the truth, and the life." [Jn 14:6] Faith bears its fruit in love: it means keeping the word and the commandments of Jesus, it means abiding with him in the Father who, in him, so loves us that he abides with us. In this new covenant the certitude that our petitions will be heard is founded on the prayer of Jesus. [Jn 14:13-14] 2614

Even more, what the Father gives us when our prayer is united with that of Jesus is "another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth." [Jn 14:16-17] This new dimension of prayer and of its circumstances is displayed throughout the farewell discourse. [Jn 14:23-26; 15:7, 16; 16:13-15; 16:23-27] In the Holy Spirit, Christian prayer is a communion of love with the Father, not only through Christ but also in him: "Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." [Jn 16:24] 2615

Prayer of Petition
Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come, in keeping with the teaching of Christ. [Mt 6:10, 33; Lk 11:2, 13] There is a hierarchy in these petitions: we pray first for the Kingdom, then for what is necessary to welcome it and cooperate with its coming. This collaboration with the mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit, which is now that of the Church, is the object of the prayer of the apostolic community. [Acts 6:6; 13:3] It is the prayer of Paul, the apostle par excellence, which reveals to us how the divine solicitude for all the churches ought to inspire Christian prayer. [Rom 10:1; Eph 1:16-23; Phil 1:9-11; Col 1:3-6; 4:3-4, 12] By prayer every baptized person works for the coming of the Kingdom. 2632

Forgiveness, the quest for the Kingdom, and every true need are objects of the prayer of petition. 2646

Prayer of Praise
The Revelation of "what must soon take place," the Apocalypse, is borne along by the songs of the heavenly liturgy [Rev 4:8-11; 5:9-14; 7:10-12] but also by the intercession of the "witnesses" (martyrs). [Rev 6:10] The prophets and the saints, all those who were slain on earth for their witness to Jesus, the vast throng of those who, having come through the great tribulation, have gone before us into the Kingdom, all sing the praise and glory of him who sits on the throne, and of the Lamb. [Rev 18:24; 19:1-8] In communion with them, the Church on earth also sings these songs with faith in the midst of trial. By means of petition and intercession, faith hopes against all hope and gives thanks to the "Father of lights," from whom "every perfect gift" comes down. [Jas 1:17] Thus faith is pure praise. 2642

Today
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. [Lk 13:20-21] 2660

A cloud of witnesses
The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, [Heb 12:1] especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were "put in charge of many things." [Mt 25:21] Their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world. 2683

The Prayer of the Hour of Jesus
By entering into the holy name of the Lord Jesus we can accept, from within, the prayer he teaches us: "Our Father!" His priestly prayer fulfills, from within, the great petitions of the Lord's Prayer: concern for the Father's name; [Jn 17:6, 11, 12, 26] passionate zeal for his kingdom (glory); [Jn 17:1, 5, 10, 22, 23-26] the accomplishment of the will of the Father, of his plan of salvation; [Jn 17:2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 24] and deliverance from evil. [Jn 17:15] 2750

The Lord’s Prayer “Our Father!”
Jesus "was praying at a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.'" [Lk 11:1] In response to this request the Lord entrusts to his disciples and to his Church the fundamental Christian prayer. St. Luke presents a brief text of five petitions, [Lk 11:2-4] while St. Matthew gives a more developed version of seven petitions. [Mt 6:9-13] The liturgical tradition of the Church has retained St. Matthew's text:

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. 2759

Very early on, liturgical usage concluded the Lord's Prayer with a doxology. In the Didache, we find, "For yours are the power and the glory for ever." [Didache 8, 2:SCh 248, 174] The Apostolic Constitutions add to the beginning: "the kingdom," and this is the formula retained to our day in ecumenical prayer. [Apostolic Constitutions, 7, 24, 1:Pg 1, 1016] The Byzantine tradition adds after "the glory" the words "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." The Roman Missal develops the last petition in the explicit perspective of "awaiting our blessed hope" and of the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Titus 2:13; Roman Missal 22, Embolism after the Lord’s Prayer] Then comes the assembly's acclamation or the repetition of the doxology from the Apostolic Constitutions. 2760

The Prayer of the Church
In the Eucharistic liturgy the Lord's Prayer appears as the prayer of the whole Church and there reveals its full meaning and efficacy. Placed between the anaphora (the Eucharistic prayer) and the communion, the Lord's Prayer sums up on the one hand all the petitions and intercessions expressed in the movement of the epiclesis and, on the other, knocks at the door of the Banquet of the kingdom which sacramental communion anticipates. 2770

Thy Name, Thy Kingdom, Thy Will!
2804 The first series of petitions [of the Our Father] carries us toward him, for his own sake: thy name, thy kingdom, thy will! It is characteristic of love to think first of the one whom we love. In none of the three petitions do we mention ourselves; the burning desire, even anguish, of the beloved Son for his Father's glory seizes us: [Lk 22:44; 12:50] "hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done...." These three supplications were already answered in the saving sacrifice of Christ, but they are henceforth directed in hope toward their final fulfillment, for God is not yet all in all. [1 Cor 15:28]

The Kingdom Come
In the New Testament, the word basileia can be translated by "kingship" (abstract noun), "kingdom" (concrete noun) or "reign" (action noun). The Kingdom of God lies ahead of us. It is brought near in the Word incarnate, it is proclaimed throughout the whole Gospel, and it has come in Christ's death and Resurrection. The Kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and, in the Eucharist, it is in our midst. The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his Father:
It may even be . . . that the Kingdom of God means Christ himself, whom we daily desire to come, and whose coming we wish to be manifested quickly to us. For as he is our resurrection, since in him we rise, so he can also be understood as the Kingdom of God, for in him we shall reign. [St Cyprian, De Dom Orat 13:PL 4, 528A] 2816

This petition is "Marana tha," the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: "Come, Lord Jesus."
Even if it had not been prescribed to pray for the coming of the kingdom, we would willingly have brought forth this speech, eager to embrace our hope. In indignation the souls of the martyrs under the altar cry out to the Lord: "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge and avenge our blood cm those who dwell upon the earth?" For their retribution is ordained for the end of the world. Indeed as soon as possible, Lord, may your kingdom come! [Tertullian, De Orat 5:PL 1, 1159A; Heb 4:11; Rev 6:9; 22:20] 2817

In the Lord's Prayer, "thy kingdom come" refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ's return. [Titus 2:13] But, far from distracting the Church from her mission in this present world, this desire commits her to it all the more strongly. Since Pentecost, the coming of that Reign is the work of the Spirit of the Lord who "complete[s] his work on earth and brings us the fullness of grace." [Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV, 118] 2818

"The kingdom of God [is] righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." [Gal 5:16-25] The end-time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of the Spirit. Ever since Pentecost, a decisive battle has been joined between "the flesh" and the Spirit. [Gal 5:16-25]

Only a pure soul can boldly say: "Thy kingdom come." One who has heard Paul say, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies," and has purified himself in action, thought and word will say to God: "Thy kingdom come!" [St Cyril of Jerusalem, catech Myst 5, 13:Pg 33, 1120A; Rom 6:12] 2819

Thy Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven
By prayer we can discern "what is the will of God" and obtain the endurance to do it. [Rom 12:2; Eph 5:17; Heb 10:36] Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing "the will of my Father in heaven." [Mt 7:21] 2826

In the Our Father, the object of the first three petitions is the glory of the Father: the sanctification of his name, the coming of the kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. The four others present our wants to him: they ask that our lives be nourished, healed of sin, and made victorious in the struggle of good over evil. 2857

In the fourth petition, by saying "give us," we express in communion with our brethren our filial trust in our heavenly Father. "Our daily bread" refers to the earthly nourishment necessary to everyone for subsistence, and also to the Bread of Life: the Word of God and the Body of Christ. It is received in God's "today," as the indispensable, (super-) essential nourishment of the feast of the coming Kingdom anticipated in the Eucharist. 2861