Rev. José Mario O. Mandía
jmom.honlam.org
“‘Great is the mystery of the faith!’ The Church professes this mystery in the Apostles’ Creed (Part One) and celebrates it in the sacramental liturgy (Part Two), so that the life of the faithful may be conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father (Part Three). This mystery, then, requires that the faithful believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God. This relationship is prayer (Part Four)” (CCC 2558).
The CCCC (No. 534) defines prayer from several angles: “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God, or the petition of good things from him in accord with his will. It is always the gift of God who comes to encounter man. Christian prayer is the personal and living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is infinitely good, with his Son Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit who dwells in their hearts.”
First of all, the Compendium describes prayer as the “raising of one’s mind and heart to God.” This means that when I pray, I am not attempting to bring God down to my level, but instead am trying to elevate myself, with God’s help, to His level, the supernatural level. I am not making God adjust His thinking to mine – I am adjusting my thinking to God’s thoughts, and aligning my desires to the desires of His Sacred Heart. I am not only trying to explain my side, because He already knows all of it – “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). I am letting Him speak, so that I can know His side, His thoughts, His plans: “plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Secondly, the CCCC points out the common understanding of prayer, which is a petition for good things from God “in accord with his will” (No. 534). The second part of this sentence is of great importance and is the part of the definition that we often forget. Most often we do not see the big picture, we don’t know the whole story, so we don’t really know what will turn out best for us in the long run. But God does because He knows everything.
Thirdly, it points out that prayer is actually a “gift of God.” “He first loved us,” St John says in his First Letter (1 John 4:19). When we were literally nothing, He was the one who thought about us, created us, and sought us out. When we pray, we are simply responding to His goodness. The CCCC (No. 535) points out: “It is God first of all, however, who ceaselessly draws every person to the mysterious encounter known as prayer.”
And finally, it explains that prayer is the “personal and living relationship of the children of God with their Father…, with his Son…, and with the Holy Spirit.” This relationship calls for a conversation, a constant interchange, which does not always need words. In this interaction with each of the three Divine Persons, God wants “that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).
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