YOUCAT Lesson 470
YOUCAT the catechism
for Catholic youth
How to Pray: The Gift
of God’s Presence
470 What prompts a person to
pray?
We pray because we are full of an infinite longing and God
has created us men for himself: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in
you” (St. Augustine). But we pray also
because we need to: Mother Teresa says, “Because I cannot rely on myself, I
rely on him, twenty-four hours a day.” [2566-2567, 2591]
Sermon On The Mount by Carl Heinrich
Bloch. …..470
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that
others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay
you. In
praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard
because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you
ask him.
The Lord’s Prayer. “This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give
us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive
others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions. --Matthew 6:5-15
Often we forget God, run away from him and hide. Whether we avoid thinking about God or deny
him—he is always there for us. He seeks
us before we seek him; he yearns for us, he calls us. You speak with your conscience and suddenly
notice that you are speaking with God.
You feel lonely, have no one to talk with, and then sense that God is
always available to talk. You are in
danger and experience that a cry for help is answered by God. Praying is as human as breathing, eating, and
loving. Praying purifies. Praying makes it possible to resist
temptations. Praying strengthens us in
our weakness. Praying removes fear,
increases energy, and gives a second wind.
Praying makes one happy.
“Do what you can, and pray for what you cannot, and so God
will grant you the ability to do it.”
St. Augustine (354-430)
“They should seek God in the hope that they might feel after
him and find him. Yet he is not far from
each one of us.” Acts of the Apostles 17:27
“Praying does not mean listening to yourself speak; praying
means calming down and being still and waiting until you hear God.” Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
“Suddenly I experienced the silence like a presence. At the heart of this silence was the One who
is himself silence, peace, and tranquility.”
Georges Bernanos (1888-1948)
[2566-2567, 2591]
THE REVELATION OF PRAYER
THE UNIVERSAL CALL TO
PRAYER
2566 Man is in search
of God. In the act of creation, God calls every being from
nothingness into existence. "Crowned with glory and honor," man is,
after the angels, capable of acknowledging "how majestic is the name of
the Lord in all the earth."(Psalm 8:5; Ps 8:1.)1 Even after losing through his sin his
likeness to God, man remains an image of his Creator, and retains the desire
for the one who calls him into existence. All religions bear witness to men's
essential search for God.( Compare Acts of the
Apostles 17:27.)2 –Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Second Edition
2567 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. --CCC
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