In this review of the final pillar of the Catechism, Fr. Stephen and John paint a picture of the transformative power of prayer, revealing how it feeds our faith in Christ's mercy and healing. They navigate the challenges of maintaining faith, stressing how our perceived unworthiness can't limit God's infinite love and forgiveness.
Did you know that prayer is our response to God's call and a manifestation of our longing to connect with Him? This episode delves into this concept, referencing the parable of the prodigal son to underscore God's boundless love and patience. By retracing prayer in human history, starting from Abram's interaction with God, they underline the vital role of prayer in our dignity as children of God.
Fr. Stephen illuminates how even in moments of dryness or distraction, your desire to pray is still prayer. They discuss how the Eucharist serves as an expression of all prayer forms and highlight our mission as Church members to demonstrate the Father's love. This enlightening conversation promises to deepen your understanding and practice of prayer in your spiritual journey.
Have something you'd love to hear Fr. Stephen and John talk about? Email us at myfriendthefriar@gmail.com or click here!
In this review of the final pillar of the Catechism, Fr. Stephen and John paint a picture of the transformative power of prayer, revealing how it feeds our faith in Christ's mercy and healing. They navigate the challenges of maintaining faith, stressing how our perceived unworthiness can't limit God's infinite love and forgiveness.
Did you know that prayer is our response to God's call and a manifestation of our longing to connect with Him? This episode delves into this concept, referencing the parable of the prodigal son to underscore God's boundless love and patience. By retracing prayer in human history, starting from Abram's interaction with God, they underline the vital role of prayer in our dignity as children of God.
Fr. Stephen illuminates how even in moments of dryness or distraction, your desire to pray is still prayer. They discuss how the Eucharist serves as an expression of all prayer forms and highlight our mission as Church members to demonstrate the Father's love. This enlightening conversation promises to deepen your understanding and practice of prayer in your spiritual journey.
Have something you'd love to hear Fr. Stephen and John talk about? Email us at myfriendthefriar@gmail.com or click here!
Welcome to the my Friend the Friar podcast and thanks for listening. If you like my Friend the Friar and want to support us, please consider subscribing or following us if you haven't already done so, and if you found us on YouTube then, don't forget to click the notification bell when you subscribe, so you'll be notified of new episodes when they release. Thanks again and God bless.
Speaker 2:The Lord be with you.
Speaker 1:And, with your spirit, I'm going to turn my volume down my headphones, so if I'm picking anything up, okay, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining me and my Friend, the Friar Father Stephen Sanchez, a Discalced Caramelite Priest. Good morning, father.
Speaker 2:Good morning, how are you?
Speaker 1:Happy, happy advent.
Speaker 2:Happy advent to you.
Speaker 1:I am doing. Great Thanks for asking. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good. I'm good, I'm not allergies, not traveling.
Speaker 1:Give it time.
Speaker 2:I know I'll be leaving. I'll be traveling to Little Rock next week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and Sophie's sick right now, so she's got just some kind of little crud kind of thing. So probably just a matter of time before I get it. So it's a good thing that we're remote, so I don't give it to you.
Speaker 2:Thank, you for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a beautiful cold morning for us Vikings. For you? Yeah, not for you. Not for me, but your habit seems like it would be warm.
Speaker 2:Is it?
Speaker 1:warm.
Speaker 2:It is warm in the summer and cold in the winter.
Speaker 1:So it's not helpful. It's not helpful Exactly, nor stylish Exactly.
Speaker 2:If it kind of lets you know how it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I think it's stylish. So it's classic, yeah there you go, especially with the hood man. I'll never forget first time seeing you with the hood on is that is the coolest thing ever. All right, so today we are. We're going to try to start finishing out the catechism. This is Pillar 4. We've been releasing chunks all year long, right? So this is the part on Christian prayer. Maybe we'll get it in one part. It might take two. I think it's going to take two.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you like your prayer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm weird. I'm weird that way.
Speaker 1:No, I love prayer and I think I have to. Part of like the mass is a prayer right. And there's one part in the mass and I don't know if this is something that we can address sometime through this, Maybe it's a nice little preface, tangent kind of thing. But the part of the mass right before you receive communion it's kind of confession, confession time when it says Lord, I'm not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word my soul shall be healed. And I don't know if I've said this before or shared this with you before.
Speaker 1:But the second part to that I really struggle with. I something about it I get hung up on and it's so I think it started because I want to say, I want to participate meaningfully in the mass, so I want to mean what I'm saying, and so it's really easy for me to say Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. But the second part For some reason there's this, this flavor of doubt in my mind but only say the words and my soul shall be healed. It's like I don't know how to say it and believe it almost. You know what I mean. It's like I'm saying it but not from the heart like the first part. All right, and I don't know what that means, man.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, so I guess this is going to become a little spiritual direction here. Before we begin.
Speaker 1:Because it's prayer right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I would say it. It depends how you interpret it, how you accept it. Right to say the word is not just like a part of speech, right. But to say the word is it's Christ himself, it is, it is the word of Christ, it is Christ, it is the Holy Spirit. And when we say or recite that part of the prayer, but only say the word, it goes back to the act of faith of the Centurion who is who's interceding for his slave.
Speaker 2:So it's an act of faith. So my faith is I'm broken, I'm wounded, and I'm broken in, wounded, probably in ways I can't even see or understand yet, or things that I am struggling with to look at. And the act of faith is but only say the word, your word of healing, your word of mercy, your word of forgiveness, jesus Christ himself. So the word of the Spirit, the word of enlightenment, but only say the word In my soul will be healed, my soul shall be healed". In other words, it is a process of conversion and transformation. So I'm continuously asking for the healing, I'm continuously asking for that enlightenment so that I can come into the fullness of my filial relationship, the wholeness that God is asking of me. So that's part of that whole kind of preparing ourselves to receive the Eucharist.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just amazing to me that, with all the wonderful things that God has done in my life, that I still lack faith. You know what I mean. It's like if only you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you'd tell the mountain to move right and it would do it. And I'm just like oh why am I still?
Speaker 2:So what part of it is it that you struggle with? What is it that you're struggling with in that?
Speaker 1:No, that's the thing that's really interesting to me. So every time I go to Mass I think about it and I'm like what?
Speaker 2:is that.
Speaker 1:Why am I thinking about that every time? Do I question that I could ever be worthy? You know what I mean. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's about okay, but it's not about worthiness, it's about healing. So is it that you don't think you'll be healed?
Speaker 1:I don't know, it's just weird. Like I said, it's like I can of all the things I've seen him do. It's like I absolutely believe God can do anything, but there's that hint of doubt still Right.
Speaker 2:Well, the fullness of healing won't happen until we stand before the Lord. So that's when the fullness of healing happens. But we continue our journey even now.
Speaker 1:Well, and maybe it's good that I, because it means I'm really present when I'm saying it even if there's some hint of doubt to really draw us into that moment.
Speaker 2:So yeah, convicting it's a convicting moment, so that might be a good thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, tangent over. We can come back to that someday, maybe. Catechism part four ready go.
Speaker 2:Okay, Christian prayer. Before we start talking on the part itself, I want to go back to the prologue. Right In the first part of the Catechism, the introduction of the prologue that goes over all the different parts, kind of gives a little synopsis of the parts that come in the Catechism. So number 17 of the prologue speaks of this part four on Christian prayer, and prologue number. In the prologue, number 17 says the last part of the Catechism deals with the meaning and importance of prayer in the life of believers, which is section one. It concludes with a brief commentary on the seven petitions of the Lord's prayer, which is section two. For indeed we find in these, the petitions, the sum of all good things which we must hope for and which our heavenly Father wants to grant us. So, as the prologue states, section one is entitled Prayer in the Christian Life. This section is divided into three chapters. Each chapter again is then subdivided into three articles. So here we go, the three. Three thing again.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So they like that so the three I know they are so western.
Speaker 2:The three chapters of section one are the revel excuse me the revelation of prayer to the tradition of prayer, and three, the life of prayer. So number 2558, section and part four is a sort of I just need coffee. 2558 is a short summation of the three previous parts of the Catechism, which builds the foundation for and leads to this fourth part on prayer. So, going back then to the different parts of the Catechism, the first part dealt with revelation. We talked about the creed and how God reveals himself and how man is a naturally religious looking for God, and so all that is the revelation. And then the second part of the Catechism dealt with sacraments and what the sacraments of God communicates to us through the sacraments, as revealed to us through this church, through his Christ right. And so then the third part then, was after the revelation, talking about revelation, after talking about the sacraments.
Speaker 2:Then the Catechism talks about what the section is called life in Christ, which means how does a believing Christian live out that sacramental life in their daily life?
Speaker 2:And so now we get to the fourth part, which is Christian prayer, which then would mean that first it's about revelation, god revealing himself, man being naturally religious, looking for God, how the church or God provides for that revelation and communication to humanity through the sacraments, how the human person is supposed to live that sacramental life and how that sacramental life is based upon Christian prayer, dialogue with, with God, right? So the introduction then to this part states that prayer is a gift, that prayer is a covenant, but it is also communion. So one of the things I always tell people is, if you don't remember anything, I tell you, just remember that prayer is more than a task, prayer is relationship. So those are big concepts gift, covenant, communion. So again, you know, I would ask, or we would ask, that you go back and you listen to our podcast on relationships and the ones on prayer to get a deeper understanding of what the catechism is attempting to communicate to us about Christian prayer.
Speaker 1:So there's this thing that I've read in the catechism and I'm sure you'll get to it, but it is, I think, the most profound concept that's been communicated so far, because it changes how you view everything else, and that God always is the initiator of prayer and you're always responding to it and so even thinking about that the Revelation Sacraments, life and Christ, christian Prayer, that being the communion right or the conversation, the relationship, he's still starting everything.
Speaker 1:So when your things are good and you're praying, you know Thanksgiving, like, god is starting that first. If you're sad, if you're hurt, if you're sinful, if you're whatever, like he's starting it, you're responding to it. And so I don't know, I just I'm excited for you to teach here, because that was so profound to me that I want to keep that frame of mind when I hear all this other stuff Right.
Speaker 2:And even in, for example, in the liturgy, in one of the Eucharistic Prayers, it says even our Thanksgiving is your gift to us. In other words, part of the desire to pray, part of the desire to and to seek God, is God's own spirit, the Holy Spirit that is stirring up in the heart excuse me, stirring up in the heart of the person, that desire that searching. So part of that is that when I go to pray, whether I'm successful at it or not, the very fact that I desire to pray, that a very desire of wanting to desire to pray, is God's gift to us. As it is. God is the initiator of all that, of all the revelation and the relationship with us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so good. Okay, I'll be quiet now.
Speaker 2:So chapter one, the revelation of prayer, the universal call to prayer. So this section, this chapter, begins with what is called the universal call to prayer, that is, it goes back to that whole religiosity of the human person, the natural religiosity, and then for us, building on, you know, sacraments and the life of the Christian, that the universal call to prayer is that seeking them, that filial relationship with our Heavenly Father. So if you begin with the statement that we are created in the image and likeness of God and that this is the basis, the foundation for the human person's inherent dignity, that my dignity no one can take my dignity because I am made in the image and likeness of God, and so that requires, and that all people respect that dignity. So, regardless of the fallenness due to sin, no matter how sinful someone is, they are, they still have an inherent dignity, whether they recognize it themselves, whether they lack respect for themselves, that doesn't matter. What matters is that we are called to treat them with respect and dignity. And then then the next thing is that God desires us to share in his divine life because we're made in his image and likeness. Then our searching, our prayer, our yearning, our desire to become one with him or return to the Father's house manifest itself in prayer.
Speaker 2:So this prayer again, the way the Catechism lays it out, lays it out very orderly, right. But the manifestation of prayer can be, for someone who doesn't really have or hasn't been cataclyzed or formed, at night looking up at the stars and being at wonder, just in wonder, at the stars and the immensity of it, that is already the beginning of prayer. To look out on the ocean and to be just overwhelmed by the immensity of the ocean or the beauty of a sunrise or a sunset, those are inklings and beginnings of prayer. It might have, we might have what we call a contemplative moment there, right as we wonder and ponder. And that already is, again, that there's within us that desire for transcendence, right? So here in chapter one they're talking about the Revelation of Prayer, and the first article deals with the Old Testament.
Speaker 2:In number 2567 of the Catechism says that God calls us first, that it is God who desires that relationship with us. So, in spite of the fall after Adam and Eve disobeyed and in spite of the fact that we are not necessary to God, god doesn't need us, just like he doesn't need Adam, didn't need Adam and Eve or creation. He continues to call us. This is part of God's nature, because love wants itself to make itself known, so he desires to communicate to us, to make his love known to us. He continues to desire for us to share in his life, and that's part of love. Part of love is I want you to share in my life, I want you to share in my being right, and that's what love is about. So then, here we can take the inference from the parable of the prodigal son, in that the Father is patient and loving and kind to both sons, right, and both sons have sort of disappointed the Father. And yet for us and as we look at prayer, we need to be aware of that we need to be less of the angry older brother and more of the understanding Father, because that is what we're called to imitate. We're called to imitate the love of the Father that has been made manifest in Jesus Christ, and so we have to be careful about not becoming the older, angry brother at the mercy of the Father, right? So that's part of that.
Speaker 2:Then the next number, 2568, the cataclysm, says that prayer is bound up with human history, for it is in the relationship with God in historical events. Okay, so now, god, in our sacred history, in the Bible, in our sacred history, we are told that God speaks to Abram and Abram responds right. So part of then, of here, we have God initiating this relationship with Abram, right, and it's important that we understand this, because to understand that, we also have to look at the fact that before this, before the call of Abram, we have the story of the Tower of Babel, and the Tower of Babel is about humanity trying to conquer heaven, trying to win heaven, trying to be the master, right, and then we have the results of the fall, the Tower of Babel, and then, immediately after that, we have the call of Abram, which then the theological teaching is that it is God who initiates, it is God who calls us. It is not something that we can do on our own, but that God begins this, this relationship.
Speaker 2:So here, in this part of the cataclysm. The commission that put the cataclysm together puts forward that God considers our constraints, our ability to understand, right Not only of our fallenness, but also of our being bound in time and space, our limitedness, and by that the commission means that the God is taking into account our situation. He reveals himself to us in a manner that we are able to receive, even if we are not able to fully capture the entirety of what it is that he is communicating to us. In other words, all of our salvation history, the oral and written traditions of the sacred history, have been this recounting of our encounter with God's revelation to us.
Speaker 1:And don't you think that's still true?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:How many times have you heard something and whatever it is and it could have been for the hundredth time you've finally heard it. Or you heard it but it finally clicks, or somebody you're close to just share something randomly with you about God or something they heard or something they read or whatever right. So it's like just that little. It's coming down to your level and presenting you with what you're able to comprehend and anything past that, of course, you miss it, right, and if you're trying to go find it by yourself, you'll never get there kind of thing. So I don't know. Just something about that seems still very accurate.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, and it's very true, here we go Movies again.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Tangent Squirrel.
Speaker 1:Is it a space alien movie?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:It's always a space alien movie. All right, let's hear it.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think it's. Is it called Encounter? I forget, but anyway, this ship shows up right and these oh oh oh, like the big, tall vertical ship thing. Yes, what?
Speaker 1:is that? Oh, what is that movie called Is?
Speaker 2:it.
Speaker 1:Encounter. Hold on, I got to look it up. Anyway, I'll let you keep going.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you the title here in a second, what made me think about that is that you have this scientist who's trying to communicate with this other alien being right, and so they each have to learn each other's signs. So the alien they have like circles or something to do with like circles and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:It's like inky. Yeah, the way they talk.
Speaker 2:And there's. They're in this encounter room, where there's they're behind this glass wall or something or other, and their alien is trying to get a communicate to humanity, and the human scientist is trying to figure out what the signs and symbols are right, so that's a lot to me. It made me think of this whole encounter like trying to two different entities trying to to to communicate to each other what they are experiencing or what they're thinking, and so this goes back to this whole idea of revelation that this transcendent, infinite being is trying to communicate to this limited, finite creature, and so everything that is involved in that. And so the commission, the commission for the catechism, is saying that God is taking all that into account.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's called a rival Arrival, thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think that's part two about that. I wonder where they drew their inspiration from, because what's what's really neat about that is, it's been a minute since I've seen the movie, but the the, their words or their language, is like a circle. So, it's it's past, present, future, all at the same time.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And it's forwards and backwards. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, and for me it made me think a lot of of us trying to to understand. You know, for example, the Christ event, what you know the incarnation well. Jesus came into the world. Yes, yes, but do do we really understand what that really means, if I have that the transcendent infinite being erupting into our human history? Anyway, sorry, for the sorry for the tangent people.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Let's move forward. And then number 2570 of the catechism, of this first part, on prayer. What the commission tells us is that attentiveness of the heart is essential in our search for God and in answer to any promptings we discern that are from God. So, again, attentiveness. This is one of the things that the Second Vatican Council was trying to get across to us in the, the renewal of the liturgy that you have to be attentive to what is happening and not just pay attention to the ritual, but the intentiveness, the attentiveness of heart. Do you know what it is that we're celebrating? Do you understand what it is, what this, what these signs and the symbols are? Do you understand what the readings are about? Right, so, that and so the example that is given in this section is the example of Abraham, our father, in the faith. And Abraham is then presented to us as exemplifying the, the necessary element of faith, so for Abraham and his old aids to pick up and leave the land of Ur and to go to somewhere he didn't know. That is the, the, the example of that radical faith, right, and so like we're not told anything about, like, who are you to tell me to go? No, no, all that is. So all those questions? Let me, let me try this kind of block Betty's questions before she starts asking about those things, cause we don't know what God said, we don't know what we don't, we don't anyway those things.
Speaker 2:It's not about that, it's about the act. Right, it's a sacred history, it's trying to teach us something. So the fidelity then allows Abram to accept and embrace mystery into his life. And it is this relationship with God that brings a regard and attentiveness towards others. And this is, then again, is exemplified both in Adam's welcoming into his tent the three strangers, as well as then he's intercession for inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. And that's a very interesting thing. That's part of the story there, that once God speaks to Abraham and Abraham enters into dialogue and Abraham tells him you are going to, through you, the world is going to be blessed, and then the three strangers are like, yeah, we're going to go destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And Abram was like, oh wait, like didn't you just say that I'm supposed to intercede? Well, here, let me intercede. And it's a very, very interesting dynamic in that dialogue there of how Abram then becomes the intercessor.
Speaker 1:Is that the part where he's like well, what if there's 10 people or something he goes like from?
Speaker 2:50 to 40 to 30 to 20 to 10. So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And with the three strangers, is that technically the angel of the load? That is the angel of the load.
Speaker 2:You can tell.
Speaker 1:Betty, but I love that it's three.
Speaker 2:I think that's like mind blowing, yeah, and for us for us it's already, it is a pre-evangelization or the pre-gospel. Already. The trinity is already present in this mysterious way. Yeah, then so, with Abraham being the intercessor. Then the Catechism goes on to present to us then the figure of Moses as a model of prayer and as a model of mediator and intercessor, who he continuously intercedes for Israel, who is continuously rebelling and complaining and whining and doing all these things and tires Moses. But Moses is then presented as this mediator, intercessor.
Speaker 2:And then in the Old Testament, then the next figure that is presented to us is King David, and King David is presented as the model of the prayer of repentance, when he puts on sackcloth and refuses to eat and stuff, and as he intercedes for the life of his child with Bathsheba.
Speaker 2:And then Elijah and the prophets are then presented in the Old Testament as models of God's call for our continual journey of conversion.
Speaker 2:So in the prophets we have the oracles of God saying yes, you need to maintain to, you need to continue to be a mediator, intercessor, you need to continue to pray for, to be repentant of the bad choices you have made or the mistakes you have made right, and to try to learn from and to try to try to grow from them and make better choices. So then, all these figures in the Old Testament from our sacred history, and we add to that that notion that we spoke about at the very beginning about the graduated revelation to humanity, then actually then prepares the way for the revelation of Christ in the fullness of time, which is the title of Article 2 of this section. In the fullness of time, so if you remember a little bit about the graduated revelation, is that God slowly walks us from paganism and polytheism to to the belief in one God and to the belief in covenant, to believe in an ethical life that comes from the covenantal, actually gradually teaching us and bringing us to this fullness.
Speaker 2:Right, okay. So then we get to the second article, which is about the prayer of Jesus, jesus' praise, which speaks of Christ in his sacred humanity being formed in the prayerful domestic church of the family. So why does Jesus pray? Well, jesus prays because he came from a very prayerful family, in the domestic church. So Joseph and Mary were models of prayer, not just because Jesus is the incarnate word of God, but because the human formation, part of Christ's sacred humanity, is taught, it learns from the example of the true piety of Mary and Joseph.
Speaker 2:And so then, now we have this model of prayer that he, even though he is God's son, he continues to model for us, the necessity for prayer. So his prayer is a filial prayer as God's son, his prayer is a filial prayer that seeks the will of the Father before any major decision, as we're told in the Gospels right, as the Gospels present to us, jesus is always praying before any major occurrence, whether it's the choosing of the apostles, or whether it's before the passion, the transfiguration, whether, whatever it might be, the garden, gethsemane, all these different moments when we're told that Jesus goes off to pray by himself. But this does not mean that those were the only times he prayed because, being a devout, faithful Jew, his prayer would have encompassed his entire day.
Speaker 2:Prayer, because it is a relationship, is an integral part of who he is, so much so that he prays and intercedes up until his final breath. I mean, we're told the Gospels recount to us that even as he is dying he's praying and interceding for those that are killing him. So what this article does? This second article then moves on to Jesus modeling for his disciples how to pray and touches on the need for a continual conversion or a continual conviction to deepen our relationship with God. It is a fidelity to this filial relationship as well as a need for vigilance to continuously watch my relationship with Christ. How is that manifesting itself in my daily life? So again, article two feels to me as I read through it. It feels a little bit clumsy or disjointed. It's like there's not a real central or unifying theme. It's kind of like several things are being kind of clustered together and I found it a little distracting trying to find a theme in it. So anyway, just to let you know.
Speaker 2:Article two that's my humble, not so humble opinion.
Speaker 1:Do you think it's trying to cover too much? Maybe Probably yeah, because I'm pretty sure you could take any of these articles or chapters in the Catechism and just spend a whole month or something just on one.
Speaker 2:Just unpacking it right, and so what happens and we're kind of a little I found annoying is, in towards the end of the article they mentioned the Blessed Virgin Mary as an example of a prayer and I go why didn't you start with that? And that would have been the unifying theme. But anyway, okay, nobody asked me to write the Catechism.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I'm telling you, man, be careful, because someone's going to hear this and then they're going to knock on your door and be like, hey, dude, but it's not going to be now, like they're going to knock on it when you're like 96 or something like that Exactly, and I'm still trying to.
Speaker 2:I'm still trying to read all my books. Yeah, okay. So article three, okay. So, this is chapter one, the first part.
Speaker 2:So article three in the age of the church, so number 2623 of the Catechism, and speaking of Pentecost, says the Spirit who teaches the church and recalls for her everything that Jesus said was also to form her, the church, in the life of prayer.
Speaker 2:So here we go, touch again on the whole idea of tradition and oral tradition and Magisterium and the Apostles and the teaching office. All of that is encompassed in this the life of the Spirit in the church, right? And so one of the things that we have to again remember is that we as church, again, we are traveling in space and time In this age, you know, right, and we continue to pray in the upper room until the final coming of the Lord. So this can even touch a little bit about that episode we had on the Senate. It's, it's the church trying to listen, trying traveling in space and time in this age. How do we proclaim the gospel? But before we proclaim the gospel, like we did With the words that we used in the 11th century and the 3rd century, what are the things that we need to address in the present moment of the church, as, as the world continues to evolve or devolve, depending on On your perspective.
Speaker 2:So this article number three, this third article of chapter one, addresses different forms of prayer the prayer of blessing, the prayer of Adoration, the prayer of petition, the prayer of intercession, the prayer of thanksgiving and the prayer of praise. Now, before we move on, you don't have to encompass all those things. You don't have to worry about. Am I doing this? Or maybe like no, you let the Holy Spirit guide you. If he's guiding you to adoration, adore. If he's guiding you to petition, okay, then ask or intercede. If you're guided to Praise, and thanksgiving will do that. You don't have to encompass it all. Like any relationship, it has its moments, it has its different phases, it has its difficulties, it's sad, it has its struggles, it has its joys, it has its its exultant Part, right. So all of it, like any relationship. And that's how we need to allow the Holy Spirit To lead us right there to, to enlighten us right to, to convict us all of that, right, it's all of it is prayer.
Speaker 1:And, and what does it say we? It teaches us to pray yes, or he teaches us to pray yes because we don't know how to pray right with groans, yeah yeah so. So if so, it's okay. If, for example, I just I don't know love adoration but I never really asked for something for someone else, because there's something drawing me to that that I'm that, that God wants me to learn in that, and when it's time for me to intercede or petition or something like that, god will take care of it.
Speaker 1:Yes he will call me because, again, he's that initiator, right, he's going to initiate, so he wants me to come adore him when it's time for me to intercede or pray for someone else. He's going to move my heart to do that.
Speaker 2:So I don't have to stress about it, or anything correct and even in moments of dryness, when we feel distracted or dry, we cannot pray. The Spirit is praying for us.
Speaker 1:Because, just because we should not equate our experience during prayer with prayer, because prayer is a relationship- yeah, you know, and that's that's actually a really interesting point, because, right, we're friends, so we have a relationship, but you're not making me happy like a hundred percent of the time or feel good, like that's not the point of a friendship, correct? It doesn't work that way. Same thing with with my marriage or my kid or whatever right family they don't. If the only reason you're in a relationship is because you're trying to be self-serving and you're trying to have something that is Nice for you or makes you feel good or have fun or whatever, then there's a disorder there.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, you it. The fidelity of the relationship is to be faithful even through the difficulty of the relationship. And sometimes we have that difficulty with with our Prayer life, because we again, and we can talk about for years and years and years about prayer, but and we probably will but the the thing is, I don't want anybody to confuse their dryness or their difficulty In their prayer experience with prayer itself. The very desire that you want to pray is prayer, because dry prayer is still prayer, distracted prayer is still prayer. So number 2643 of the catechism, then, have we been talking about, then have we been talking about prayer and the different forms of prayer and Pentecost and all that. So it from 2623 to jump to 2643.
Speaker 2:And here the commission then presents to us the Eucharist as an expression of all forms of prayer. It is the pure offering of the whole body of Christ to the glory of God's name and, according to the traditions of East and West, it is the sacrifice of praise. Eucharist means Thanksgiving, right, and so in the Eucharist, when we celebrate the Eucharist, what we're celebrating? It is the perfect prayer, it is the perfect response to God, the Father, because it is Jesus himself who is responding. So when we celebrate the Eucharist. It is the prayer of Jesus to the Father, but we are joined to Jesus, and so we are responding to the Father with Jesus, and so it is the pure, perfect praise and Thanksgiving that God the Son offers to God the Father and therefore, we are joined to that perfect expression of Thanksgiving and praise and by entering deeper into the Eucharist, we become more and more Integrated in our response.
Speaker 2:Right. The more we understand what it is that we're celebrating, the more that we understand Our consecration to do good, the more we understand that we're called to echo the mercy, the forgiveness and the compassion of Christ. Right Of that, the father of the prodigal son, right. So this is what this part of of prayers about, and I think one of the things with the reform of the liturgy Was trying to get People back to understanding that it is more than ritual and ceremony. It is truly entering into the sacrifice and the consecration of the species of the bread on the wine and Me offering myself up to the father With the bread and the wine that is consecrated, which becomes the body and blood and soul to the divinity of Jesus Christ. Then I join myself to that offering to the father and if I can enter into that, then I understand, I come to a better understanding of the mission that is entrusted to us as church, as individual members of the church, as I said before, to To manifest the love of the father.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something that just occurred to me too, as breath has joined us, is, with the, the Celebration of the Eucharist, that pure offering, there's something so wonderfully I Don't know if the cyclical or wonderfully Like it symbolizes the mass also symbolizes prayer perfectly, in the sense that it starts from God and it, through us, returns to God.
Speaker 1:Yes and if you think about Jesus and think about you know the Eucharist, it comes from God, it is God and we offer it back to God. Yes, right, and so it's just something, something about that. Just a Little light bulb turned on, a little brain in it. I'm just like whoa, mind blown, kind of thing. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know why. I've never really thought about that before. Man, that's really cool.
Speaker 1:That is something I have to Kind of chew on for a little bit. And then I wonder to maybe the the whole what we started off with, where there's that the part, that kind of I get hung up on. Well, it's prayer, and so it starts from God. So perhaps it's this reminder in my heart that I Could never Believe perfectly, anyway, I could never have faith perfectly, anyway. I could, like I am not God, right, right, and so I need him, right, and so that, just that little gentle reminder of man it, no matter what I do, I could never Deserve it or earn it or merit it, all right, I just have to have faith when Paul, when Paul says we see through a glass darkly, that's what he's getting at.
Speaker 2:What he's getting at is Our understanding is distorted again. It goes back to the whole idea of the Infinite, transcendent being trying to communicate to a finite creature. We, because of our humanity, because of all the things that we, that God takes into consideration as well, that we won't really perfectly know Until we're in that full communion with with God in the next life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, cool. I think this is a good place to take a break, so okay. Yeah, let's wrap this episode up and then we'll take a stab at a Chapter stew and three.
Speaker 2:Okay, the next one. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks for God bless Thanks for listening All right, bye everybody.
Speaker 2:Bye.