The life of prayer of the Christian disciple is not a disorganized, loose act of personal whim or preference. Christian prayer is born from a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. It is grounded upon his historical revelation to us, upon the very words and deeds God has spoken and accomplished among us.
The revelation of God is fully given to us in Jesus Christ. Our life of prayer is based on the way of life he showed us, the teachings he gave us, and the “making present” of his Eucharistic Sacrifice through the ages.
Quoting the Acts of the Apostles, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “In the first community of Jerusalem, believers ‘devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers.’ This sequence is characteristic of the Church’s prayer: founded on the apostolic faith; authenticated by charity; nourished in the Eucharist.”
The apostolic faith is needed for us to know who God is, how we can approach him, how he speaks to us, and how we can understand and apply his words and deeds to our life. If we don’t have the apostolic faith, God becomes weird to us and all his ways appear weird. He is a stranger whose overtures become shrouded in suspicion and fear. If we don’t know the revelations of the living God, we can easily fall into misunderstandings about him and his desire to walk with us.
Alongside the apostolic faith is holy fellowship. We need the support, kindness, and witness of our fellow believers and vice versa. We are not meant to struggle with the things of God, by ourselves. We are called into a covenant as a people. As such, we should regularly seek the companionship of other Christians. We are called to be active in our local parishes and communities of faith.
Our faith should not be marked by mad dashes from the pew to the parking lot desperately trying to depart from our parish after Sunday Mass. Our life of prayer depends on holy fellowship. The more we with other believers, the more our prayer will be enriched.
Our life of prayer flows from the Eucharistic Sacrifice, what the early Church called “the Breaking of the Bread.” This is the New Covenant, the Eucharist, the Mass. As our theological tradition asserts, it is the summit and source of our entire way of life. Our life of prayer is weakened and injured when we absent ourselves from the Eucharist. We need to be connected with the Lord in his sacrifice and receive his Body and Blood into our souls in Holy Communion.
It’s by these sacred actions, that our call to prayer is renewed, reinvigorated, and deepened. A life of prayer without the Eucharist is a needless, pointless walk in the desert without water or purpose. It is the ultimate dehydration of the soul. Our souls need the water of grace given by the Eucharist in order to fully speak and listen to the living God.
As the Catechism quotes the Acts of the Apostles and makes reference to “the prayers,” we suspect this is not only a reference to prayer in general, but also and more specifically to the rhythmic praying of the psalms that was common at the time of the Lord Jesus.
Such a way of prayer continued in the Church today and is called the Liturgy of the Hours.
One of the express commands of Vatican II was for pastors to teach and provide public opportunities for the faithful to learn and pray the Liturgy of the Hours. The command was given since the praying of the psalms in this way had over time become the sole practice of priests and religious. But such a state was never the intention. As the Catechism echoes, the early Church assembled for “the prayers,” not only the apostles or the holy widows. Everyone joined in the prayers. In a similar way, the Church today has the summons to teach and open up the Liturgy of the Hours to all the faithful.
As the Liturgy of the Hours is restored to the daily lives of the baptized, it will become another rich source in praying to God. The psalms help to structure and inspire the spontaneous prayer that comes from the heart of the believer.
The apostolic faith, holy fellowship, the Mass, and the prayers all serve as the foundation of the Christian’s life of prayer.
