OUTLINE ON PRAYER

I. The Need for Prayer

1. Young people give a lot of premium to being true to oneself. We

want to have the freedom to be who we are and to do what we want.
However, few bother to ask these existential questions? Who am I?
What is my end? What is man really? It is interesting to listen to
what the Catechism of the Catholic Church answers: God created man in
His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He
created them. Man occupies a unique place in creation: he is “in the
image of God”; in his own nature he unites the spiritual and material
worlds; he is created “male and female”; God established him in His
friendship. Of all visible creatures, only man is “able to know and
love his creator.” He is “the only creature on earth that God willed
for its own sake,” and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and
love, in God’s own life. (CCC, 355-6)

2. Thus, if we want to know who we are and what our end should be,
then we need to deal with God, to communicate with Him, to pray. In
Jesus Christ, “in the mystery of the Word made flesh, the mystery of
man truly becomes clear (Gaudium et Spes, 22 § 1)”. This is the only
way to be truly happy on earth. When we pray, we will realize more
and more how much we need God to fulfill both our human and, above
all, our spiritual needs. He is our creator and we are His creatures;
everything good comes from Him. Moreover, He is our redeemer. We
need Him and His grace in order to live up to the high demands of the
Christian calling.

3. Why else do we have to pray? because it is the best response to

God’s invitation and love for man. God, infinitely perfect and
blessed in Himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to
make him share in His own life. For this reason, at every time and in
every place, God draws Himself close to man. He calls man to seek
Him, to know Him, to love Him with all his strength. He calls
together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of His
family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had
come, God sent His son as Redeemer and Savior. In His Son and through
Him, He invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, His adopted
children and thus heirs of His blessed life (CCC, 1). How can we
remain indifferent to a God who loves us in this way? a God who is,
at the same time, our Father, our Brother, our Friend, our Lover.
In the Way (422), Blessed Josemaria wrote: “Jesus is your friend
– the Friend – with a human heart, like yours, with most loving eyes
that wept for Lazarus. And as much as He loved Lazarus, He loves you.”
He continues to wait for each one of us everyday in the Tabernacle.

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II. What is Prayer?

1. St. John Damascene explains that prayer is the raising of one’s

mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.
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 (CCC, 2565). “Prayer was then, as it is today, the
only weapon, the most powerful means, for winning the battles of our
interior struggle (Blessed Josemaria Escriva, Friends of God, 242).”

2. Vocal Prayer: Vocal prayer is very important in a Christian’s

life. Jesus Himself taught us the beautiful prayer of the “Our Father”
and showed us with His life how indispensable it is. The need to
involve the senses in interior prayer corresponds to a requirement of
our human nature. We are body and spirit, and we experience the need
to translate our feelings externally. Moreover, we also give more
perfect homage to God through the external expression that associates
the body with interior prayer (CCC, 2701-2703).
In The Way (85), Blessed Josemaria shows us how to say vocal
prayers: “Slowly. Think about what you’re saying, who is saying it
and to whom. Because talking fast, without pausing for reflection, is
only noise – the clatter of tin cans. Along with St. Teresa I’ll tell
you that, however much you move your lips, I do not call it prayer.”

3. Meditation: Those who are just beginning in their dealings with

God normally start with meditation which, in no way, should be
associated with yoga and other Oriental practices. It is a more
intellectual kind of prayer where considerations and reasonings
predominate. This kind of prayer is often necessary to deepen our
convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart and
strengthen our will to follow Christ. This form of Christian prayer is
of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the
knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with Him (CCC,
2708). This brings us to mental prayer.

4. Mental Prayer: St. Teresa of Avila explains what it is:

“Contemplative prayer [oración mental] in my opinion is nothing else
than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently
to be alone with him who we know loves us.” It is the prayer of the
child of God who only wants to do the will of his Father. It is a
gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus. “I look at him and he looks at me”:
this is what a certain peasant of Ars used to say to his holy curé
about his prayer before the tabernacle (CCC nos. 2709, 2712, 2715).
To do good prayer, we have to use all human means such as
preparing the points we will bring up in our conversation with Him
(cf. The Way 90 & 91). There are moments when we may find it hard to
focus due to tiredness or dryness. A good remedy is to do the mental
prayer using a book, e.g, the Gospels, writings of saints, etc.
Bringing the life of Christ is especially important so that we can
know and love Him better and learn the virtues from Him. (cf. the
Way, 92)

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5. Aside from including a concrete time for prayer in our day-to-day
schedule, we can also do some other acts of piety which our Mother the
Church has recommended to us, i.e., praying the Holy Rosary and the
Angelus, spending some minutes in spiritual reading, doing an
examination of conscience. We can also attend the Holy Mass more
frequently since it is the best prayer of all. These acts of piety,
spread throughout the day, can help us live and work in the presence
of God and be constantly reminded of our divine filiation.

III. The Battle of Prayer

1. The principal difficulties in prayer are distractions and dryness

(CCC, 2729-2731). How to do we fight distractions? It is better that
we do not focus on them. When they come, all we have to do is to turn
back to our heart. A distraction reveals what we are attached to, and
this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential
love for him and lead us resolutely to offer him our heart to be
purified. Many times, we get distracted due to our own fault, e.g.,
we do not pray at the best place or time. If this is the reason, then
we have to set our priorities right.
Dryness happens when the heart is separated from God, with no
taste for thoughts, memories and feelings, even spiritual ones (CCC
2729 & 2731). If we want to be prayerful, we have to rely less on our
feelings. Feelings are not bad. In fact, since we are made of body
and soul, we are moved to the good not by our will alone but also by
our feelings or passions (CCC, 1770). But the problem is we men have
given too much importance to these feelings or passions. In reality,
we begin to have true piety when we persevere in prayer even without
feelings. In Furrow (464), Blessed Josemaria offers this advice: “Look
at the set of senseless reasons the enemy gives you for abandoning
your prayer: ‘I have no time’ – when you are constantly wasting it.
‘This is not for me’. ‘My heart is dry…’ Prayer is not a question of
what you say or feel, but of love. And you love when you try hard to
say something to the Lord, even though you might not actually say
anything.”
How do we fight against these two difficulties? By struggling to
gain humility, trust and perseverance.

2. Humility is acknowledging that, apart from Him, we can do nothing

(cf. Jn 15:5). This leads us never to abandon prayer. “You haven’t
been praying? Why, because you haven’t had time? But you do have time.
Furthermore, what sort of works will you be able to do if you have not
meditated on them in the presence of the Lord, so as to put them in
order? Without that conversation with God, how can you finish your
daily work with perfection? Look, it is as if you claimed you had no
time to study because you were too busy giving lessons. Without
study, you cannot teach well.
Prayer has to come before everything. If you do not understand
this and put it into practice don’t tell me that you have no time:
it’s simply that you do not want to pray. (Furrow, 448)”

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 We are also humble when we don’t abandon prayer as we see our
defects and failures. Humble people are never surprised by these
setbacks; it leads them to trust in God more and less in themselves.

3. Filial trust is tested – it proves itself – in tribulation. We

may find it difficult to trust God when we see that our petitions, for
ourselves and for others, are not heard (CCC, 2734). The Gospel
invites us to ask ourselves about the conformity of our prayer to the
desire of the Spirit. God knows what is best for His children; we
have to ask Him for this kind of abandonment especially when He
answers our prayers differently.

4. We have to persevere in prayer. We have to be “souls of prayer at

all times, at every opportunity, and in the most varied circumstances,
because God never abandons us. It is not a proper Christian attitude
to look upon friendship with God as a last resort. Do we think it
normal to ignore or neglect the people we love? Obviously not! Those
we love figure constantly in our conversations, desires, and thoughts.
We hold them ever present. So it should be with God. (Friends of God,
247)” We have to be contemplative souls in the middle of earthly and
ordinary realities.
And we will persevere when we are in love, for we cannot live
without the one we love.
“It is Jesus who speaks: ‘Amen I say to you, ask and it shall be
given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to
you.’
Pray! In what human venture can you have greater guarantee of
success?” (The Way, 96)

IV. Suggested Action Steps

a. We can make the resolution to start doing our mental prayer every
day and to look forward to it. For those already doing it, now is a
good time to check how we can do it with more refinement and love
every day.
b. It would be good to seek guidance in spiritual direction or from
that friend of ours who is guiding us in our spiritual life so that we
can plan what other norms of piety to include in our daily schedule.
Our aim is to pray constantly and convert our day to prayer. This
will only be possible if we pause at varied times during the day to
converse with God and try to keep that communication line open
throughout the day. Some examples could be given.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church

2. Blessed Josemaria Escriva, Friends of God
3. Blessed Josemaria Escriva, The Way
4. Blessed Josemaria Escriva, Furrow
5. Adolphe Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life

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