How is prayer revealed in the Old Testament?

 The prayer Abraham and Jacob is presented as a battle of faith marked by trust in God's faithfulness and by certitude in the victory promised to perseverance. The prayer of Moses responds to the living God's initiative for the salvation of his people. It foreshadows the prayer of intercession of the unique mediator,  Jesus Christ. The prayer of the People of God flourished in the shadow of the dwelling place of God' presence on earth, the ark of the covenant and the temple, under the guidance of their shepherds, especially King David, and the prophets. The prophets summoned the people to conversion of heart and, while zealously seeking the face of God, like Elijah, they interceded for the people. The Psalms constitute the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament, They present two inseparable qualities: the personal and the communal. They extend to all dimensions of history, recalling God's promises already fulfilled and looking for the coming of the Messiah. Prayed and fulfilled in Christ, the Psalms are an essential and permanent element of the prayer of the Church. They are suitable for men of every condition and time. [ See CCC 2592-2597]

How is prayer revealed in the New Testament?

Jesus' filial prayer is the perfect model of prayer in the New Testament. Jesus often prayed in solitude and in secret. His prayer began with thanksgiving to the Father. The Gospel according to St. Luke emphasises the action of the Holy Spirit and the meaning of prayer in Christ's ministry. Jesus prayed before the decisive moments of his mission. He also prayed before the decisive moments involving the mission of his Apostles. He included all men in his prayer, for he had taken on humanity in his Incarnation. He sympathized with there weaknesses inorder to free them. Jesus' prayer before his death on the cross was a humble and trusting commitment of his human will to the loving will of the Father. 

The prayer of Jesus teaches us how to pray. His prayer to his Father is the theological path (the path of faith, hope, and 

charity) of our prayer to God. Jesus told parables about the need to be persistent in prayer. From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of heart. Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith. Faith is a child-like adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand. In his teaching, Jesus taught his disciples to pray with a purified heart, with lively and persevering faith and with filial boldness. He called them to vigilance ; only by keeping watch in prayer could one avoid falling into temptation and invited them to present their petitions to God in his name . Jesus Christ himself answered every prayer addressed to him. The prayer of faith consists not only in saying "Lord, Lord," but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father.Thus, Jesus calls hi disciples to bring into their prayer this concern for cooperating with the divine plan. 

The Gospel of St. Luke focusses on three important characters of prayer. 

1) The urgency of prayer: "Knock, and it will be opened to you." To the one who prays like this, the heavenly Father will give whatever he needs.

2) The necessity to pray without ceasing and with the patience of faith, and 

3) The importance of humility of the heart that prays : "God, be merciful to me a dinner!"

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. Mary's principal prayer was prayer of the heart, prayer in the heart, prayer with the heart.

Tradition tells us she was at prayer when the Angel appeared to her to tell her she was chosen to become the Mother of God. She contemplated  God's divine plan that she kept in her heart. Her prayers, in her Fiat: to be wholly God's, and in her Magnificat: the song of thanksgiving to God for the fullness of graces poured out upon her, are characterized by the generous offering of her whole being in faith.[ See CCC 2600-2622 ]

 

What are the essential forms of prayer?

The basic forms of prayer: blessing, adoration, petition, atonement,  reparation,love,intercession.thanksgiving and praise.

Blessings come to us by the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father. Because God blesses the human heart, it can return, (praise and adore) him who is the source of every blessing. Through blessing, our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father.

Through adoration, we exult the greatness of the Lord who made us and the Almighty power of the Saviour who sets us free from evil. It is a respectful silence in the presence of the "ever great" God.

By prayers of petition we express awareness of our relationship with God. We are creatures ever in need God.We are sinners who have turned away from our Father. Our petition is already a turn back to him. The first movement of the prayer of petition is to ask for forgiveness: "God be merciful to me a sinner!" It is a prerequisite for righteous and pure prayer. A trusting humility brings us back communion with God and our neighbor, so that we receive from God whatever we ask.

In a prayer of expiation or contrition, we acknowledge our sinfulness and ask God for his forgiveness and mercy. The Confiteor or Penitential Rite at the beginning of  Mass, and the Agnus Dei (or Lamb of God) before Communion, are prayers of expiation, as in the Act of Contrition.

A prayer of reparation is one that aims to repair the sins of others and the outrages and many offenses and sacrilages committed against the Holy Trinity and the Immaculate Heart of Mary . A "Holy Hour of Reparation" before the Blessed Sacrament and the five first Saturdays devotion" is an example of this form of prayer/devotion.

Prayers of love or charity are expressions of our love for God, the source and object of of all love. The act of charity is perhaps the best example of a prayer of love.

Prayer of intercession consists in asking on behalf of another. In intercession , he who prays looks "not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others," even to the point of praying for those who do him harm. The intercession of Christians recognizes no boundaries: for all men , for Kings and all who are in high positions, for persecutors and for the salvation of those who reject the Gospel.

Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church. Every joy and suffering, every event and need can become the matter for thanksgiving which, sharing in that of Christ, should fill one's life: "Give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thess 5:18).

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 beyond what he does, but simply because HE IS. By praise, the Spirit is joined to our spirits to bear witness that we are children of God. Praise embraces the other forms of prayer and carries them towards God. The Eucharist contains and expresses all forms of prayer: it is "the pure offering" of the whole Body of Christ, it is the sacrifice of praise."

[ See CCC 2623-2649]

 

What is the importance of Tradition in regard to prayer?

In the Church it is through living Tradition that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God how to pray. In fact prayer cannot be reduced to a spontaneous outpouring; rather it implies contemplation, study and a grasp of the spiritual realities one experiences.

The sources of prayer are:
1) The Word of God which gives us "the surpassing knowledge" of Christ (Philippians 3:8); Prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture,so that a dialogue takes place between God and man. For we speak to him when we pray; we listen to him when we read Sacred Scripture.
2) The Liturgy of the Church that proclaims, makes present and communicates the mystery of salvation which is continued in the heart that prays. Even when it is lived out in secret, prayer is always prayer of the Church; it is a Communion with the Holy Trinity.
3) The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity by which we seek to know, love and serve God.
4) Everyday situations because in them we can encounter God. ( See CCC 2650-2662)

What are the different types of Catholic prayers?

Apart from the prayers that we recite in Church or as part of our daily offering,there are other kinds of prayers that the Catholic recite.
A novena is a series of prayers that are said for nine straight days.
The novena to the Holy Spirit is a novena of the Church to prepare for the feast of Pentecost.
 Novenas are also said in invocation to the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary to commemorate her different feasts. A litanyis a special prayer, usually intended to be recited in a group, with a Priest or other leader reciting the verses,while the faithful respond, such as the Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Litanies may be recited as part of one's private devotion.
 Chaplets are forms of prayer which use prayer beads, such as the Divine Mercy Consecration prayers are prayers of dedication or submission,such as Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Invocations take the form of an ejaculation or an aspiration,a short prayer meant to be repeated throughout the day,such as,"Blessed be the name of Jesus"and "Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner!"Indulgence prayers assist us in overcoming temptation, and they allow us to gain indulgences either for ourselves or for the poor souls in purgatory.
They also allow us to make acts of reputation for those who offered God, to pray for the conversion of many souls, and to help us remember we are to sacrifice for sinners.
The Liturgy of the Hours (known as the Divine Office) is the richest single prayer resource of the Church.It provides prayers,Psalms and meditation for every hour of every day. It has existed from the earliest times, to fulfill the Lord's command to pray without ceasing.

Hymns are prayers or Psalms that are sung.St. Augustine said: "He who sings prays twice."

Why do we have to learn prayers? Why can't we say our spontaneous prayers?

The important things is not to just express words but to speak to God from your heart. If you prefer to express yourself in your own words,you are free to do so.However, you will discover that knowing prayers by heart helps you in moments when you don't have the inclination or ability to say your own prayer.

What is the way of prayer?
Prayer is primarily addressed to the Father. Prayer is directed to God our Father but reaches only when we pray - at least implicitly- in the name of Jesus. Our prayer is efficacious when it is united in faith with the prayer of Jesus. Jesus said, "If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it" (Jn 14: 14). Jesus is the one and only mediator between God and men. His humanity is in effect the only way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray to our Father. Therefore liturgical prayers conclude with the formula: "Through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Prayer can also be directed toward Jesus, particularly by the invocation of his Holy Name: "Lord Jesus Christ,Son of God,have mercy on us sinners." By this prayer the heart opens up human wretchedness to the Saviour's mercy. Jesus always prays for us.All our petitions were gathered up, once for all,in his cry on the Cross and, in his Resurrection, heard by the Father. This is why he never ceases to intercede for us with the Father. If our prayer is resolutely united with that of Jesus, in trust and boldness as children, we obtain all that we ask in his name, even more than any particular thing: the Holy Spirit himself, who contains all gifts.

"No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1Cor 12:3). The Church invites us to invoke the Holy Spirit as the interior Teacher of Christian prayer. Since he teaches us to pray by recalling Christ, how could we not pray to the Spirit too? That is why the Church invites us to call the Holy Spirit every day, especially at the beginning and at the end of every action. The simplest and most direct prayer is the traditional,"Come Holy Spirit!" It is in the communion of the Holy Spirit that Christian prayer is prayer to the Church.

Mary,Jesus'mother and ours "shows the way", and is herself "the sign" of the way of prayer. Because of Mary's singular cooperation with the action of the Holy Spirit. the Church loves to entrust her supplications to the Virgin Mary and pray in communion with her. The Church also joins her prayers with those of all the saints who have been pleasing to the Lord because they willed his will alone. [See CCC 2663- 2682]

Father Dominic. in his sermons, tells us to always have the name of Jesus on our lips. What is the reason?

The name Jesus in Hebrew means: "God saves." The name of Jesus fully manifests the supreme power of the "name which is above every name" (Cf. Jn 12:28)."There is no salvation through anyone else, nor there is other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved"(Acts 4:12). The evil Spirits fear his name;In his name his disciples perform miracles, for the Father grants all they ask in this name(Cf. Acts 16:16-18;19:13-16; Mk 16:17; Jn 16:16). The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian Prayer. All liturgical prayers conclude with the words "through our Lord Jesus Christ". The Hail Mary reaches its high point in the words "blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus." The Eastern prayer of the heart,the Jesus Prayer, says: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,a sinner." Many Christians such as St. Joan of Arc, have died with the one word "Jesus" on their lips.

The invocation of the Holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying.When the  the Holy Name is repeated often by a humble and attentive heart,the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and brings forth fruit with patience. This prayer is possible at all times because it is the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus. So, its one of the best things you can do to humbly repeat the name of Jesus at all times.[See CCC 430-435,2668]