Prayer in Today’s World

Did you know that part four of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is devoted entirely to prayer? If you didn’t you do now. Prayer is such an important part of a Catholic Christian’s life that it rates its own section of the Catechism. Yet, many of us take our prayer lives for granted thinking we only need to worry about praying when something catastrophic affects us or maybe those around us. The other time is when we want something that will benefit us. When things don’t turn out the way we want we figure prayer doesn’t work, forgetting that prayer is not a one way street to having God do things for us. He will see us through each and very thing He places in our path both the good things and the not so good things and He will answer in his own way and time. I know we are an impatient society so this does not sit so well with the majority of us but the truth is we do need to be patient and not always expect an immediate answer or the answer we want to hear from God.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2559 “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.” Do we always raise our hearts and minds to God or do we just beg, think it’s not worth the effort or it only works for the really holy people? We all have our dry spells when it comes to prayer and it is at those times that the prayers of others lift us up. The power of prayer does work, not always the way we see fit but the way God wants us to see. As I have experienced the ups and downs of a prayer life I have come to realize that when someone asks for my prayers I tend to pray for those involved to have the strength to deal with whatever an outcome might be. We sometimes forget that we need to have the strength to deal with not only the bad but with the good as well. Good might mean a life is saved, but will need months of care and rehabilitation. Any one of us would need the strength to carry on no matter what the outcome. Stop and think about how your prayers are said and how they are answered. It isn’t always what we expect, but in the long run we will see the results are what was needed and should be seen as a gift from God.

Catechism of the Catholic Church also tells us, 2564, “Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ. It is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the human will of the Son of God made man.” Wow, a covenant that establishes a personal relationship with God. Covenant is talked about in the Bible a lot. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary a covenant is “a formal and serious agreement or promise.” Prayer puts us in a covenant relationship with God, where each side is respected equally. By denying the outcome of a prayer as God not wanting to help us we are denying a covenant relationship with God. God gave us the gift of free will to accept or reject what is right or wrong, our covenant relationship with God through prayer helps us to make those choices and accept what is best in the long run.
(Catechism of the Catholic Church: October 2010, USCCB, Libreria Editrice Vaticana)