Praying
Christianity is about having a relationship with God.
All relationships are based upon communications.
Prayer is communication with God.
We can pray on the spot can be whatever we want. Requests for help or intercession of any kind are usually called “prayers of petition.” The other 2 main categories are prayers of praise/thanksgiving, and prayers for forgiveness/contrition.
Prayers of Petition
Petition or Intercession
Inspiration/Wisdom
Supplication/Spiritual Warfare
Prayers of Praise
Praise and Adoration
Thanksgiving
Fellowship/Meditation
Prayers of Metanoia
Repentance/Forgiveness
Self-reflection/Self-analysis
Feedback/Improvement
Many people only pray when they need things, or if they are desperate. God welcomes petition-only prayer, if that’s the only way He can get time with you. No different than you would never turn away your child who needed your help. However, like any relationship, there is so much more potential. Think of a loved one whom you only spoke to when you needed something! How would you rate that relationship?
Just to be clear, praying spur of the moment with requests of any kind for help, feedback, gratitude, whatever, needs nothing else but our sincerity. This is good all the time!
However, any good relationship suggests it is also good to sit down on a regular basis and have some planned “face-to-face” time. Ideally, we should do this daily – i.e., first and last thing of each day – even if we start with a few minutes each time.
If we follow God’s suggested format for prayer, our prayers should begin by raising our minds off of ourselves and this world and up to God/heaven. For example, notice how the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer begins:
God’s example in the OT: 1)I am the Lord your God 2) Do not use the Lord’s name in vain 3) Keep holy the Sabbath Day
Jesus’ Prayer: 1) Our Father in Heaven 2) Holy be Thy Name 3) Thy Kingdom come 4) Thy Will be done
It makes sense to begin by orienting our minds to God because He is the starting and ending point for everything in the universe and everything in our lives, including rational thought and spiritual growth. The best way is to begin by offering Him praise and gratitude, such as:
All glory, honor, and praise is yours, Father,
Author of existence and Provenance of love, truth, justice, and mercy.
Thank you for my existence and the opportunity to be part of your universal blueprint of infinite love.
What often gets forgotten in our routine prayers is asking for forgiveness, so let’s deal with that.
Forgiveness
We read about the importance of forgiveness all the time. It is the cornerstone of Christianity.
“Forgiveness for the asking” is what we get from Jesus’ incarnation, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension.
Forgiveness was the first act and first power he gave to the Apostles in the Upper Room after his Resurrection.
Forgiveness is what enables us to follow him into Heaven.
Q: However, “forgiveness for the asking” requires one thing, what is it?
That we ask!
But how often do we ask? How often do you ask?
We know we can receive forgiveness for our venial sins on our own. So then we should do it, right? Since we can’t take them with us to heaven, that would mean we either get rid of them here or in Purgatory. Take your pick.
My opinion is that now is better; and the more often, the better. In fact, daily is best for two reasons. Why?
We don’t know when death will come.
We don't know when our death will come.
So, let’s look at a simple forgiveness prayer. You can make up your own but they should have similar components. This one is modeled similar to the Act of Contrition that some of you may have learned long ago.
Forgiveness prayer
O my God, I am heartily sorry for I have sinned against others, myself, and You.
I detest my sins, Lord, because I know every selfish act ripples throughout humanity,
it harms the body of Christ, and it offends You.
(List / discuss: what offenses did I commit and, perhaps, ask how you might do it differently next time – see what God thinks.)
I do firmly resolve with the help of Your grace to sin no more and avoid the temptation of sin.
Therefore, Lord…
I humbly request your forgiveness…
The grace to change my behavior…
And the wisdom and fortitude to make any necessary amends…
That I might undo the effects of my sin…
Improve the condition and character of my soul…
And be ever nearer to You. Amen.
If you do this daily, you will have very little venial baggage to take with you when you go.
Q: Why is ‘worry the sincerest form of negative prayer’?
God gives us the ability to work with the past and future to help us. But when we try and take control of this process without him, we are left with nothing but worry over a future that we don’t control.
Q: How does the saying, “Mood follows action” apply?
Because habitual prayer links our minds, souls, plans, and actions to God which informs our life. The goal is to make prayer less about life’s issues informing our prayers, and more the other way around.
Mass3
One of the challenges to Protestants about the belief in the Real Presence (body, blood, soul, divinity) of Jesus in the Eucharist is that they’ve been taught that the Catholic Church made this up many years after the Apostles. However, in this regard they are not very knowledgeable about history. The idea that the Real Presence is a later invention is a myth.
Let’s review:
In the New Testament itself, we have these references:
Gospel of St. John 6:22-69 is all about eating the real body and drinking the blood of Christ in order to be saved.
Gospels of St. Matthew (26:26-28), St. Mark (14:22-24), St. Luke (22:17-19): “This is my body, This is my blood, Do this…”
St. Paul letter - 1 Cor 10:16: The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?
St. Paul letter - 1 Cor 11:27: Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
The Apostolic Age ended when John died near 100AD. For roughly the next 500 years or so, we have the period of the influential “Early Fathers of the Church”. During this period, we have countless references and affirmations about the Real Presence just as Catholics believe today.
Ignatius of Antioch (110 AD)
“I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ . . . and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible” (Letter to the Romans 7:3 [A.D. 110]).
“Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:2–7:1 [A.D. 110]).
Justin Martyr (151 AD)
“For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus” (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).
Irenaeus (189 AD)
“If the Lord were from other than the Father, how could he rightly take bread, which is of the same creation as our own, and confess it to be his body and affirm that the mixture in the cup is his blood?” (Against Heresies 4:33–32 [A.D. 189]).
“He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own body, from which he gives increase unto our bodies. When, therefore, the mixed cup [wine and water] and the baked bread receives the Word of God and becomes the Eucharist, the body of Christ, and from these the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life—flesh which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and is in fact a member of him?” (ibid., 5:2).
Tertullian (210 AD)
“There is not a soul that can at all procure salvation, except it believe whilst it is in the flesh, so true is it that the flesh is the very condition on which salvation hinges. And since the soul is, in consequence of its salvation, chosen to the service of God, it is the flesh which actually renders it capable of such service. Our flesh, indeed, is washed in baptism, in order that the soul may be cleansed…. the flesh is shadowed with the imposition of hands [in confirmation], that the soul also may be illuminated by the Spirit; our flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul likewise may be filled with God” (The Resurrection of the Dead 8 [A.D. 210]).
Hippolytus (217 AD)
“‘And she [Wisdom] has furnished her table’ [Prov. 9:2] . . . refers to his [Christ’s] honored and undefiled body and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper [i.e., the Last Supper]” (Fragment from Commentary on Proverbs [A.D. 217]).
Origen (248 AD)
“Formerly, in an obscure way, there was manna for food; now, however, in full view, there is the true food, the flesh of the Word of God, as he himself says: ‘My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink’ [John 6:55]” (Homilies on Numbers 7:2 [A.D. 248]).
Cyprian of Carthage (251 AD)
“He [Paul] threatens, moreover, the stubborn and forward, and denounces them, saying, ‘Whosoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor. 11:27]. All these warnings being scorned and contemned—[lapsed Christians will often take Communion] before their sin is expiated, before confession has been made of their crime, before their conscience has been purged by sacrifice and by the hand of the priest, before the offense of an angry and threatening Lord has been appeased, [and so] violence is done to his body and blood; and they sin now against their Lord more with their hand and mouth than when they denied their Lord” (The Lapsed 15–16 [A.D. 251]).
Aphraahat the Persian Sage (340 AD)
“After having spoken thus [at the Last Supper], the Lord rose up from the place where he had made the Passover and had given his body as food and his blood as drink, and he went with his disciples to the place where he was to be arrested. But he ate of his own body and drank of his own blood, while he was pondering on the dead. With his own hands the Lord presented his own body to be eaten, and before he was crucified he gave his blood as drink” (Treatises 12:6 [A.D. 340]).
Cyril of Jerusalem (350 AD)
“The bread and the wine of the Eucharist before the holy invocation of the adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, but the invocation having been made, the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine the blood of Christ” (Catechetical Lectures 19:7 [A.D. 350]).
“Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that; for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the body and blood of Christ. Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by the faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy of the body and blood of Christ. . . . [Since you are] fully convinced that the apparent bread is not bread, even though it is sensible to the taste, but the body of Christ, and that the apparent wine is not wine, even though the taste would have it so, . . . partake of that bread as something spiritual, and put a cheerful face on your soul” (ibid., 22:6, 9).
Ambrose of Milan (390 AD)
“Perhaps you may be saying, ‘I see something else; how can you assure me that I am receiving the body of Christ?’ It but remains for us to prove it. And how many are the examples we might use! . . . Christ is in that sacrament, because it is the body of Christ” (The Mysteries 9:50, 58 [A.D. 390]).
Theodore of Mopsuestia (405 AD)
“When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my body,’ but, ‘This is my body.’ In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my blood,’ but, ‘This is my blood’; for he wanted us to look upon the [Eucharistic elements] after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit not according to their nature, but receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord. We ought . . . not regard [the elements] merely as bread and cup, but as the body and blood of the Lord, into which they were transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit” (Catechetical Homilies 5:1 [A.D. 405]).
Augustine (405 and 411 AD)
“Christ was carried in his own hands when, referring to his own body, he said, ‘This is my body’ [Matt. 26:26]. For he carried that body in his hands” (Explanations of the Psalms 33:1:10 [A.D. 405]).
“I promised you [new Christians], who have now been baptized, a sermon in which I would explain the sacrament of the Lord’s Table. . . . That bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ” (Sermons 227 [A.D. 411]).
“What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the body of Christ and the chalice is the blood of Christ” (ibid., 272).
Council of Ephesus (431 AD)
“We will necessarily add this also. Proclaiming the death, according to the flesh, of the only-begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, confessing his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, we offer the unbloody sacrifice in the churches, and so go on to the mystical thanksgivings, and are sanctified, having received his holy flesh and the precious blood of Christ the Savior of us all. And not as common flesh do we receive it . . . but as truly the life-giving and very flesh of the Word himself.” (Session 1, Letter of Cyril to Nestorius [A.D. 431]).
The idea that the Church made this the Real Presence of Jesus in the bread and wine is just an example of the kinds of things that non-believers and non-Catholics were taught about Catholics. Don’t let this bother you; just don’t be surprised.
Luke 24:13-35 The Road to Emmaus
Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer* these things and enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?”
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Q: Who were the two disciples?
Cleopas was either the brother, or brother-in-law, of St. Joseph, which would have made him Jesus’ uncle. Cleopas’ son, Simeon, would be a cousin of Jesus’. Both were disciples.
Q: What day is it?
It is the morning of the Resurrection.
Q: Why do you suppose the two disciples are leaving Jerusalem the morning of the Resurrection?
They were discouraged and giving up
Q: Why don’t they recognize Jesus as the man walking with them?
Not seeking him, no expectation, no belief
Q: Was it necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
No, it was love. To come down here on our behalf knowing what would happen to him can only be described as love. The closest thing we can compare it to is a parent’s love for their child.
Q: What similarities are there between the two men on the road to Emmaus and Mary Magdalene’s visit to the tomb?
Grasping who he was. “Mary”, “Rabbouni!” and the Breaking of the Bread in Emmaus.
Q: What did the Emmaus journey resemble?
The Mass. Jesus opens their minds to the meaning of Scripture, then the Breaking of the Bread. The Breaking of the Bread opening their eyes also speaks to recognizing Jesus’ Real Presence.
Send any questions to ron@hallagan.net.
Maranatha!
Ron QQ
Comments