Feature Article February 2007

“Prayer stands at the heart of our relationship with God. In prayer, a believer seeks to grow in union with God, revealed in Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is a response of faith to God and reveals a divine-human dialogue of love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

“Jesus taught his disciples to pray with humble and faithful hearts and minds. He encouraged them to watchfulness and boldness in prayer as they offered themselves and their petitions to God.

“The Church, born in prayer, lives and grows in prayer as well. The Holy Spirit inspires the faithful in every age of the Church to a life of prayer. The basic forms of Christian prayer are adoration, petition, repentance, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise (CCC 2623-2649); the three kinds of prayer are vocal, meditative and contemplative. Christian prayer is always Trinitarian in that we pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Daily prayer helps to strengthen us to live in the midst of the world with its joys and anxieties, its successes and challenges. Prayer and Christian living are inseparable. The Word of God, the Eucharist, daily personal prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours, and the feasts of the Liturgical Year are all invitations to Christian prayer (CCC 2700-2724).”

(from Jem Sullivan, Ph.D., Study Guide for the U.S. Adult Catholic Catechism)