PRAYER

according to the
Catechism of the Catholic Church
 PRAYER AND FAITH
“Prayer is the raising of
one’s mind and heart to
God or the requesting of
good things from God”
-CCC 2559
 With the heart as the seat of
prayer, each person is able to
cry out to the Divine in words
or utterances meant to praise,
or to petition needs to the
Divine Person Who possesses
the power to grant them.
By faith, believers turn
to God for different
kinds of request,
foremost of which is
good health and
prosperity.
 Families are united in prayer,
with family devotions as binding
traditions (for example, the
Nazarene devotion, devotion to
the Holy Family, devotion to a
Patron Saint, among others) and
communities are born
dedicated to prayer.
 Prayer and Faith in One God is a
call for believers to put into heart
these realities – coming to know
God’s greatness and majesty,
living in thanksgiving, knowing
the unity and true dignity of all,
making good use of created
things, and trusting God in every
circumstance.
 FAITH as the starting
point of prayer requires
that each person
acknowledges the role
of God in the economy
of salvation.
One’s heart bends in
belief at the true
majesty and glory of
God – He Who made
everything out of
nothing.
The heart is awed at
the grandeur of His
power and
omnipotence.
There is no beginning or end for
God, and faith in Him is a gift
richly endowed to the creature
made unto His image, unto His
goodness. Because of this
realization, the believers offer
unceasing thanksgiving to the
Maker.
There is no other recourse,
but to render Him due
respect and gratitude for
such unwarranted grace of
being made a sharer in His
Divine majesty.
A heart full of gratitude is a heart
filled with prayer. It further
inspires the person to give due
dignity to all forms of human life –
there is no room for disrespect
and abandonment of seemingly
natural imperfections in human
form or human endowments.
 The Creator has made
everyone and no one can
presuppose greater wisdom
and intelligence than God.
This is precisely the sin of the
first human beings in the
Garden of Eden.
 Fellow human beings
must be treated with
equal dignity and
equality, for are not all
made unto the image
and likeness of God?
If, indeed, each person is made unto
God’s image and He Himself has
pronounced that all He made is
good, then each believer will
necessarily oblige himself or herself
to render due dignity and deference
to God’s creation. Consequently, no
person must be used nor abused for
ends that are selfish and evil.
Furthermore, in all circumstances of
life, faith demands that the created
trusts his or her Creator
unconditionally. If good comes out of
a situation or a not-so-desired
outcome is at hand, everything shall
be regarded as God’s provenance
whereby good can come out even in
a seemingly evil situation.
 With an attitude of
humility, the faith-
filled heart waits
patiently for the
response from God.
PRAYER
AS A GIFT
 St. Augustine
wrote that man is
a beggar before
God; a beggar
who is on a
waiting end for
anything to be
received. Such is
the posture of
one who prays.
 God’s response is a gift – freely
given; freely bestowed to
whomever His favor rests. The
more one prays, the more this gift
is dispensed like a treasure in a
field, suddenly discovered and
possessed with zeal, never to be
taken for granted.
Any petition raised
as a prayer must be
anticipated with
trust.
 “God is love” (1 John
4:8) and there is no
fitting tribute, but to
love Him in return
through words and
gestures we call PRAYER.
This makes “explicit
the response of love
that human persons
are called to give to
God”
However, one might wonder –
where does prayer come
from? Scriptures says that it is
the heart that prays, the heart
is made alive by the Spirit
Who aides us in prayer.
Prayer comes from the
inner voice of our
heart which cries out
to God in humility.
 The prayer of the heart
may be vocal or internal,
with the external voice or
the inner, quiet voice. Both
come from a heart that
prays.
 The heart is where God
encountered by the soul.
The heart of the created
being thirsting for the
presence of the Creator is
met at the center of one’s
soul.
Essential
Questions
 What is Prayer?
is communicating or talking
with God.
 “Prayer is the raising of one’s
mind and heart to God or the
requesting of good things from
God” (-CCC 2559)
 Enduring
Understanding
PRAYER is the raising
of one’s mind and
heart to God, or the
requesting of good
things from God.
It is a gift from God
by which human
beings must ask for
as a beggar.
As Christians, we are called
to pray with a humble and
contrite heart. To sustain
this moving and growing
relationship with our God,
we pray.
Why? So that we may keep God’s
Commandment; that we may
avoid sin; that we may not
succumb to temptation; that we
may grow in Christian perfection;
and that we may persevere in
loving God until the time of the
Parousia.
Metacognitive
logs
 ACTIVITY
Find a partner
and complete the
following lines.
  Prayer is...
 Prayer is not…
 I pray because…
Have you seen a person
or have you experienced
crying while praying at
the same time? What
could be the reason
behind those tears?
 Among the Church-
celebrated Saints, there is
one who had been gifted
with both prayers and
tears; no less than St.
Monica.