Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 477 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 477 – Part I. What does it mean to learn from Jesus how to pray?

(Youcat answer) Learning from Jesus how to pray means entering into his boundless trust, joining in his prayer, and being led by him, step by step, to the Father.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2621) In his teaching, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray with a purified heart, with lively and persevering faith, with filial boldness. He calls them to vigilance and invites them to present their petitions to God in his name. Jesus Christ himself answers prayers addressed to him.    

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) The disciples, who lived in community with Jesus, learned to pray by listening to and imitating Jesus, whose whole life was prayer. Like him, they had to be watchful and strive for purity of heart, to give up everything for the coming of God’s kingdom, to forgive their enemies, to trust boldly in God, and to love him above all things. By this example of devotion, Jesus invited his disciples to say to God Almighty, “Abba, dear Father”. If we pray in the Spirit of Jesus, especially the Lord’s Prayer, we walk in Jesus’ shoes and can be sure that we will arrive unfailingly in the heart of the Father. 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2607) When Jesus prays he is already teaching us how to pray. His prayer to his Father is the theologal path (the path of faith, hope, and charity) of our prayer to God. But the Gospel also gives us Jesus' explicit teaching on prayer. Like a wise teacher he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. Addressing the crowds following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of prayer from the Old Covenant and opens to them the newness of the coming Kingdom. Then he reveals this newness to them in parables. Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the teachers of prayer in his Church.

 
(This question: What does it mean to learn from Jesus how to pray? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 476.

YOUCAT Question n. 476 - How did Jesus pray as he was facing his death?

(Youcat answer) When face to face with death, Jesus experienced the utmost depths of human fear. Yet he found the strength even in that hour to trust his heavenly Father: “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; remove this chalice from me; yet not what I will, but what you will [be done]” (Mk 14:36).

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2620) Jesus' filial prayer is the perfect model of prayer in the New Testament. Often done in solitude and in secret, the prayer of Jesus involves a loving adherence to the will of the Father even to the Cross and an absolute confidence in being heard. 

  Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) “Times of need teach us to pray.” Almost everyone experiences that in his life. How did Jesus pray when he was threatened by death? What guided him in those hours was his absolute willingness to entrust himself to the love and care of his Father. Yet Jesus recited the most unfathomable prayer of all, which he took from the Jewish prayers for the dying: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mk 15:34, citing Ps 22:1). All the despair, all the laments, all the cries of mankind in all times, and yearning for God’s helping hand are contained in this word of the Crucified. With the words, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46), he breathed forth his spirit. In them we hear his boundless trust in his Father, whose power knows the way to conquer death. Thus Jesus’ prayer in the midst of dying already anticipates the Easter victory of his Resurrection.   

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2606) All the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions and intercessions of salvation history are summed up in this cry of the incarnate Word. Here the Father accepts them and, beyond all hope, answers them by raising his Son. Thus is fulfilled and brought to completion the drama of prayer in the economy of creation and salvation. The Psalter gives us the key to prayer in Christ. In the "today" of the Resurrection the Father says: "You are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession" (Ps 2:7-8; cf. Acts 13:33). The Letter to the Hebrews expresses in dramatic terms how the prayer of Jesus accomplished the victory of salvation: "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him" (Heb 5:7-9).

(The next question is: What does it mean to learn from Jesus how to pray?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 475 – Part V.

YOUCAT Question n. 475 - Part V. How did Jesus pray?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Jesus’ life was one single prayer. At decisive moments (his temptation in the desert, his selection of the apostles, his death on the Cross) his prayer was especially intense. Often he withdrew into solitude to pray, especially at night. Being one with the Father in the Holy Spirit  - that was the guiding principle of his earthly life.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2600) The Gospel according to St. Luke emphasizes the action of the Holy Spirit and the meaning of prayer in Christ's ministry. Jesus prays before the decisive moments of his mission: before his Father's witness to him during his baptism and Transfiguration, and before his own fulfillment of the Father's plan of love by his Passion (Cf. Lk 3:21; 9:28; 22:41-44). He also prays before the decisive moments involving the mission of his apostles: at his election and call of the Twelve, before Peter's confession of him as "the Christ of God," and again that the faith of the chief of the Apostles may not fail when tempted (Cf. Lk 6:12; 9:18-20;  22:32). Jesus' prayer before the events of salvation that the Father has asked him to fulfill is a humble and trusting commitment of his human will to the loving will of the Father.    

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2605) When the hour had come for him to fulfill the Father's plan of love, Jesus allows a glimpse of the boundless depth of his filial prayer, not only before he freely delivered himself up (“Abba . . . not my will, but yours.") (Lk 22:42), but even in his last words on the Cross, where prayer and the gift of self are but one: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34); "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Lk 23:43); "Woman, behold your son" - "Behold your mother" (Jn 19:26-27); "I thirst." (Jn 19:28); "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mk 15:34; cf. Ps 22:2); "It is finished" (Jn 19:30); "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" (Lk 23:46) until the "loud cry" as he expires, giving up his spirit (Cf. Mk 15:37; Jn 19:30b).

(The next question is: How did Jesus pray as he was facing his death?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 475 – Part IV.

YOUCAT Question n. 475 - Part IV. How did Jesus pray?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Jesus’ life was one single prayer. At decisive moments (his temptation in the desert, his selection of the apostles, his death on the Cross) his prayer was especially intense. Often he withdrew into solitude to pray, especially at night. Being one with the Father in the Holy Spirit  - that was the guiding principle of his earthly life.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2604 b) The Giver is more precious than the gift; he is the "treasure"; in him abides his Son's heart; the gift is given "as well" (Mt 6:21, 33). The priestly prayer of Jesus holds a unique place in the economy of salvation (Cf. Jn 17). A meditation on it will conclude Section One. It reveals the ever present prayer of our High Priest and, at the same time, contains what he teaches us about our prayer to our Father, which will be developed in Section Two.

 Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 478) Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: "The Son of God. . . loved me and gave himself for me" (Cal 2:20). He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation (Cf.  Jn 19:34), "is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings" without exception (Pius XII, Enc. Haurietis aquas (1956): DS 3924; cf. DS 3812).

(This question: How did Jesus pray? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 475 – Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 475 - Part III. How did Jesus pray?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Jesus’ life was one single prayer. At decisive moments (his temptation in the desert, his selection of the apostles, his death on the Cross) his prayer was especially intense. Often he withdrew into solitude to pray, especially at night. Being one with the Father in the Holy Spirit  - that was the guiding principle of his earthly life.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2603) The evangelists have preserved two more explicit prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with thanksgiving. In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves learned and has revealed them to infants, the poor of the Beatitudes (Cf. Mt 11:25-27 and Lk 10:21-23). His exclamation, "Yes, Father!" expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father's "good pleasure," echoing his mother's Fiat at the time of his conception and prefiguring what he will say to the Father in his agony. The whole prayer of Jesus is contained in this loving adherence of his human heart to the mystery of the will of the Father (Cf. Eph 1:9).

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2604 a) The second prayer, before the raising of Lazarus, is recorded by St. John (Cf. Jn 11:41-42). Thanksgiving precedes the event: "Father, I thank you for having heard me," which implies that the Father always hears his petitions. Jesus immediately adds: "I know that you always hear me," which implies that Jesus, on his part, constantly made such petitions. Jesus' prayer, characterized by thanksgiving, reveals to us how to ask: before the gift is given, Jesus commits himself to the One who in giving gives himself.

(This question: How did Jesus pray? is continued)