Catechism of the Catholic Church — paragraphs 2601

2601 "He was praying in a certain place and when he had ceased, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray."' In seeing the…
2602 Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude , on a mountain, preferably at night. He includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on…
2603 The evangelists have preserved two more explicit prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with thanksgiving. In…
2604 The second prayer, before the raising of Lazarus, is recorded by St. John. Thanksgiving precedes the event: "Father, I thank you for having…
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,…
2606 All the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions and intercessions of salvation history are summed…
2607 When Jesus prays he is already teaching us how to pray. His prayer to his Father is the theological path (the path of faith, hope, and…
2608 From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of heart : reconciliation with one's brother before presenting an…
2609 Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith . Faith is a filial adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand. It…
2610 Just as Jesus prays to the Father and gives thanks before receiving his gifts, so he teaches us filial boldness : "Whatever you ask in…
2611 The prayer of faith consists not only in saying "Lord, Lord," but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father. Jesus calls his…
2612 In Jesus "the Kingdom of God is at hand." He calls his hearers to conversion and faith, but also to watchfulness . In prayer the disciple…
2613 Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke: - The first, "the importunate friend," invites us to urgent prayer:…
2614 When Jesus openly entrusts to his disciples the mystery of prayer to the Father, he reveals to them what their prayer and ours must be,…
2615 Even more, what the Father gives us when our prayer is united with that of Jesus is "another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the…
2616 Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection:…
2617 Mary's prayer is revealed to us at the dawning of the fullness of time. Before the incarnation of the Son of God, and before the outpouring…
2618 The Gospel reveals to us how Mary prays and intercedes in faith. At Cana, the mother of Jesus asks her son for the needs of a wedding…
2619 That is why the Canticle of Mary, the Magnificat (Latin) or Megalynei (Byzantine) is the song both of the Mother of God and of the Church;…
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…
2621 In his teaching, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray with a purified heart, with lively and persevering faith, with filial boldness. He…
2622 The prayers of the Virgin Mary, in her Fiat and Magnificat, are characterized by the generous offering of her whole being in faith.
2623 On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Promise was poured out on the disciples, gathered "together in one place." While awaiting the…
2624 In the first community of Jerusalem, believers "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and…
2625 In the first place these are prayers that the faithful hear and read in the Scriptures, but also that they make their own - especially…
2626 Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God's gift and man's…
2627 Two fundamental forms express this movement: our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father - we bless him for having…
2628 Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made…
2629 The vocabulary of supplication in the New Testament is rich in shades of meaning: ask, beseech, plead, invoke, entreat, cry out, even…
2630 The New Testament contains scarcely any prayers of lamentation, so frequent in the Old Testament. In the risen Christ the Church's petition…
2631 The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness , like the tax collector in the parable: "God, be merciful to me a…
2632 Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come , in keeping with the teaching of Christ. There is a…
2633 When we share in God's saving love, we understand that every need can become the object of petition. Christ, who assumed all things in…
2634 Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did. He is the one intercessor with the Father on behalf of all men,…
2635 Since Abraham, intercession - asking on behalf of another has been characteristic of a heart attuned to God's mercy. In the age of the…
2636 The first Christian communities lived this form of fellowship intensely. Thus the Apostle Paul gives them a share in his ministry of…
2637 Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church which, in celebrating the Eucharist, reveals and becomes more fully what she is.…
2638 As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving. The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with…
2639 Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory, quite…
2640 St. Luke in his gospel often expresses wonder and praise at the marvels of Christ and in his Acts of the Apostles stresses them as actions…
2641 "[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." Like the…
2642 The Revelation of "what must soon take place," the Apocalypse , is borne along by the songs of the heavenly liturgy but also by the…
2643 The Eucharist contains and expresses all forms of prayer: it is "the pure offering" of the whole Body of Christ to the glory of God's name…
2644 The Holy Spirit who teaches the Church and recalls to her all that Jesus said also instructs her in the life of prayer, inspiring new…
2645 Because God blesses the human heart, it can in return bless him who is the source of every blessing.
2646 Forgiveness, the quest for the Kingdom, and every true need are objects of the prayer of petition.
2647 Prayer of intercession consists in asking on behalf of another. It knows no boundaries and extends to one's enemies.
2648 Every joy and suffering, every event and need can become the matter for thanksgiving which, sharing in that of Christ, should fill one's…
2649 Prayer of praise is entirely disinterested and rises to God, lauds him, and gives him glory for his own sake, quite beyond what he has…
2650 Prayer cannot be reduced to the spontaneous outpouring of interior impulse: in order to pray, one must have the will to pray. Nor is it…
2651 The tradition of Christian prayer is one of the ways in which the tradition of faith takes shape and grows, especially through the…
2652 The Holy Spirit is the living water "welling up to eternal life" in the heart that prays. It is he who teaches us to accept it at its…
2653 The Church "forcefully and specially exhorts all the Christian faithful . . . to learn 'the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ' ( Phil…
2654 The spiritual writers, paraphrasing Matthew 7:7, summarize in this way the dispositions of the heart nourished by the word of God in prayer…
2655 In the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit proclaims, makes present, and communicates the…
2656 One enters into prayer as one enters into liturgy: by the narrow gate of faith . Through the signs of his presence, it is the Face of the…
2657 The Holy Spirit, who instructs us to celebrate the liturgy in expectation of Christ's return, teaches us-to pray in hope . Conversely, the…
2658 "Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Prayer,…
2659 We learn to pray at certain moments by hearing the Word of the Lord and sharing in his Paschal mystery, but his Spirit is offered us at all…
2660 Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to "little children," to the servants of…
2661 By a living transmission -Tradition - the Holy Spirit in the Church teaches the children of God to pray.
2662 The Word of God, the liturgy of the Church, and the virtues of faith, hope, and charity are sources of prayer.
2663 In the living tradition of prayer, each Church proposes to its faithful, according to its historic, social, and cultural context, a…
2664 There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the…
2665 The prayer of the Church, nourished by the Word of God and the celebration of the liturgy, teaches us to pray to the Lord Jesus. Even…
2666 But the one name that contains everything is the one that the Son of God received in his incarnation: JESUS. The divine name may not be…
2667 This simple invocation of faith developed in the tradition of prayer under many forms in East and West. The most usual formulation,…
2668 The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive…
2669 The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus just as it invokes his most holy name. It adores the incarnate Word and…
2670 "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit." Every time we begin to pray to Jesus it is the Holy Spirit who draws us on the…
2671 The traditional form of petition to the Holy Spirit is to invoke the Father through Christ our Lord to give us the Consoler Spirit. Jesus…
2672 The Holy Spirit, whose anointing permeates our whole being, is the interior Master of Christian prayer. He is the artisan of the living…
2673 In prayer the Holy Spirit unites us to the person of the only Son, in his glorified humanity, through which and in which our filial prayer…
2674 Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever since, her…
2675 Beginning with Mary's unique cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the holy Mother of…
2676 This twofold movement of prayer to Mary has found a privileged expression in the Ave Maria : Hail Mary [or Rejoice, Mary] : the greeting of…
2677 Holy Mary, Mother of God : With Elizabeth we marvel, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Because…
2678 Medieval piety in the West developed the prayer of the rosary as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours. In the East, the litany…
2679 Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who…
2680 Prayer is primarily addressed to the Father; it can also be directed toward Jesus, particularly by the invocation of his holy name: "Lord…
2681 "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord', except by the Holy Spirit" ( 1 Cor 12:3). The Church invites us to invoke the Holy Spirit as the interior…
2682 Because of Mary's singular cooperation with the action of the Holy Spirit, the Church loves to pray in communion with the Virgin Mary, to…
2683 The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition…
2684 In the communion of saints, many and varied spiritualities have been developed throughout the history of the churches. The personal charism…
2685 The Christian family is the first place of education in prayer. Based on the sacrament of marriage, the family is the "domestic church"…
2686 Ordained ministers are also responsible for the formation in prayer of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Servants of the Good Shepherd,…
2687 Many religious have consecrated their whole lives to prayer. Hermits, monks, and nuns since the time of the desert fathers have devoted…
2688 The catechesis of children, young people, and adults aims at teaching them to meditate on The Word of God in personal prayer, practicing it…
2689 Prayer groups , indeed "schools of prayer," are today one of the signs and one of the driving forces of renewal of prayer in the Church,…
2690 The Holy Spirit gives to certain of the faithful the gifts of wisdom, faith and discernment for the sake of this common good which is…
2691 The church, the house of God, is the proper place for the liturgical prayer of the parish community. It is also the privileged place for…
2692 In prayer, the pilgrim Church is associated with that of the saints, whose intercession she asks.
2693 The different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are precious guides for the spiritual life.
2694 The Christian family is the first place for education in prayer.
2695 Ordained ministers, the consecrated life, catechesis, prayer groups, and "spiritual direction" ensure assistance within the Church in the…
2696 The most appropriate places for prayer are personal or family oratories, monasteries, places of pilgrimage, and above all the church, which…
2697 Prayer is the life of the new heart. It ought to animate us at every moment. But we tend to forget him who is our life and our all. This is…
2698 The Tradition of the Church proposes to the faithful certain rhythms of praying intended to nourish continual prayer. Some are daily, such…
2699 The Lord leads all persons by paths and in ways pleasing to him, and each believer responds according to his heart's resolve and the…
2700 Through his Word, God speaks to man. By words, mental or vocal, our prayer takes flesh. Yet it is most important that the heart should be…

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