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Chapter 35. God Calls Us to Pray • 463
GOD’S UNIVERSAL CALL TO PRAYER
“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look
turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of
love, embracing both trial and joy.”
—CCC, no. 2558, citing St. Thérèse of Lisieux,
Manuscrits Autobiographiques
, C 25r
Descriptions of prayer are abundant throughout Christian history. “True
prayer,” wrote St. Augustine, “is nothing but love.” Prayer should arise
from the heart. “Prayer,” said St. John Vianney, “is the inner bath of love
into which the soul plunges itself.”
“Everyone of us needs half an hour
of prayer each day,” remarked St. Francis de Sales, “except when we are
busy—then we need an hour.” Definitions of prayer are important, but
insufficient. There is a huge difference between knowing about prayer
and praying. On this issue, the Rule of St. Benedict is clear: “If a man
wants to pray, let him go and pray.”
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 rela-
tionship 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).
It is important to remember that all of Part Two of the
Catechism
also deals with prayer as it is found in the celebration of the Sacraments
and in the Liturgy of the Hours. Liturgical prayer, which is the action of
the Church, joins us to Christ, interceding with the Father—in the Holy
Spirit—on behalf of our salvation.
We should consider Part Four’s reflection on the foundations of
prayer and the meaning of the Our Father as essentially related to litur-
gical prayer and a basic complement to it. Because catechetical teach-
ing may never be disconnected from prayer, which is the soul of truth,