Lent is typically a season when we Catholics really put some extra effort into practicing our faith, and prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the three primary areas of focus. This week we’ll talk about prayer, and we’ll cover fasting and almsgiving in the weeks to come.
The U.S. Bishops’ website (https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship, drawing heavily from the Catechism of the Catholic Church) offers a nice reflection on prayer.
“St. John Damascene gave a classic definition of prayer: “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God” (CCC, no. 2559, citing St. John Damascene, De Fide Orth. 3, 24).
The Catechism clearly defines prayer as a “vital and personal relationship with the living and true God” (CCC, no. 2558). Prayer is Christian “insofar as it is communion with Christ” (CCC, no. 2565), and a “covenant relationship between God and man in Christ” (CCC, no. 2564).”
Prayer is always about nurturing our relationship with the Lord. God revealed Himself to us and invited us to be in relationship with Him, but our response is up to us. Just as in any relationship, if you want a relationship to grow there’s no substitute for spending time with the other person. And at its core, that’s exactly what prayer is: spending time with the Lord so that we can grow closer to Him.
Because there are so many different dimensions to a relationship, there are also many different dimensions to prayer. We have to pay attention to all of these dimensions of prayer in order to have our deepest and most well-rounded relationship with the Lord. We are called to pray communally, and Mass is certainly the most important communal prayer, but we also pray communally through communal devotions (such as when we gather for Stations of the Cross) and less structured communal prayer (such as when we gather for Taize prayer). We also pray individually and in small groups. Individual prayer can also take many forms, whether it involves devotions like the rosary, Scriptural prayer, imaginative prayer or unstructured prayer.
So as you consider all of these dimensions of prayer, take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of your own prayer life and see what Lenten disciplines of prayer might be the most effective for you this year. And rest assured that no time that we spend in prayer will ever be wasted, because God does all the hard work when we pray, and His part is always guaranteed.
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