Saint Charles Parish, Imperial Beach, San Diego, California

Ask a Catechist And You Shall Know
by Lily Miranda, Catechist

What is Prayer? - Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God. Prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy. The foundation of prayer is humility. It is only when we humbly acknowledge that we do not know how to pray as we ought, are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. St. Augustine says: “Man is a beggar before God.” Prayer is expressed in words, melodies, gestures, or iconography. It is the whole man who prays. According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer is in vain. In the heart that prays, is the Holy Spirit, who is the living water “welling up to eternal life”. It is He who teaches us to accept its source, Jesus Christ. We learn to pray at certain moments by hearing the Word of the Lord and sharing in His Paschal mystery, but His Spirit is offered at all times, in the event of each day, to make prayer springs up from us. Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to “little children”, to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the Father only if we pray “in the name” of Jesus. The sacred humanity of Jesus is therefore the way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to God our Father. In prayer, the Holy Spirit unites us to the person of the only Son, in His glorified humanity, through which and in which our filial prayer unites us in the Church with the Mother of Jesus, Virgin Mary. Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends His Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple, we welcome Jesus’ mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope. Pray constantly… always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God our Father. Pray at all times in the Spirit , with all heart and supplication.

“Those who pray are certainly saved; those who do not pray, are certainly damned.”