Prayer and the Our Father

St Thérèse of Lisieux called it "a surge of the heart", a simple look turned toward heaven, a cry of recognition and of love, in trial and in joy. St John Damascene called it the raising of the mind and heart to God, or asking him for good things. Humility is its foundation: we come as beggars before God, knowing that we do not know how to pray as we ought.

God does. At the well of Samaria it is Jesus who first asks the woman for a drink (John 4:7 to 10); he thirsts for us before we thirst for him. Prayer is the meeting of God's thirst and ours. It comes from the heart, the hidden centre of the person. Christian prayer is a covenant relationship: the living bond of God's children with their Father, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit.

The Son of God made man learned to pray in his human heart: from his mother, who kept all things in her heart, and in the words and rhythms of his people's prayer, in the synagogue at Nazareth and in the Temple. St Luke shows him praying before the decisive moments of his mission: his baptism, the choosing of the Twelve, the Transfiguration and his Passion. He often withdrew alone at night to pray.

Mary's prayer cooperated in a unique way with God's plan, at the Annunciation and at Pentecost. At Cana she brought the need of others to her Son. Her Magnificat is the song of the Church. Because she gives us Jesus, she is Mother of God and our mother, and we entrust our cares to her. The Hail Mary greets her with the angel's words and asks her prayer now and at the hour of our death. In the West the Rosary grew, in the Byzantine Churches the Akathistos, and the Syriac tradition loves hymns to the Mother of God such as those of St Ephrem; the prayer is the same.

The Holy Spirit teaches the Church five basic forms. Blessing and adoration answer God's gifts. Petition asks for what we need, beginning with forgiveness and the coming of the Kingdom. Intercession asks for others, even for enemies. Thanksgiving turns every event into an offering. Praise glorifies God simply because he is God. The Eucharist contains and expresses all forms of prayer.

Christian prayer is addressed above all to the Father, and we come to him only in the name of Jesus. We also pray to Jesus himself, especially by calling on his holy name. The prayer known in the East as the Jesus Prayer, handed down by spiritual writers of Sinai, Syria and Mount Athos, is a simple way to pray always: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners. We pray to the Holy Spirit too, the inner teacher of prayer, asking him to come.

Tradition knows three expressions of prayer, all needing a recollected heart. Vocal prayer uses words, but what matters is that the heart is present. Meditation is a quest: with the help of Scripture, the liturgy, the Fathers or holy books, we think over what God asks of us and turn it into prayer, especially on the mysteries of Christ. Contemplative prayer, in St Teresa of Avila's words as the Catechism gives them, is a close sharing between friends, taking time often to be alone with him who we know loves us.

Prayer is the life of the new heart and should fill every moment, but we forget. So the Church gives rhythms to sustain it: morning and evening prayer, grace before and after meals, and the Liturgy of the Hours, which each Church celebrates in its own tradition. Sunday, centred on the Eucharist, is kept holy above all by prayer, and the feasts and seasons of the liturgical year shape the year.

Distraction is the usual difficulty. Hunting it down only traps us; instead we turn back to our heart, for a distraction shows us what we are attached to, and we offer our heart to God to be purified. Dryness, when prayer seems to have no taste at all, is a moment of pure faith, clinging to Jesus in his agony and in the tomb. The hidden temptation is lack of faith, when other things always seem more urgent, and acedia, a kind of spiritual discouragement.

We praise and thank God without asking for proof, but we want to see results from our petitions. The Catechism asks us to look at the image of God behind our prayer: is he a tool to be used, or the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? The Father knows what we need before we ask, yet he waits for our asking, because the dignity of his children lies in their freedom. Often we ask wrongly or with a divided heart (James 4:3). God wants what is truly good for us. If we enter into the desire of his Spirit, we shall be heard, and he may wish to give us something greater than we asked.

Yes. St Paul asks us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and the Catechism, quoting St John Chrysostom, says one can pray while walking, sitting at one's work or cooking. Prayer is a vital necessity: without it we fall back into the slavery of sin. Prayer and Christian life cannot be separated, for they come from the same love.

It is the prayer the Lord himself gave when his disciples asked him to teach them to pray, and so it is called the Lord's Prayer. Tertullian called it a summary of the whole Gospel. St Augustine said that every prayer of Scripture is contained in it. It stands at the centre of the Sermon on the Mount, and the Church prays it in the Eucharistic liturgy, between the Eucharistic prayer and Communion, and in the major hours of the Divine Office in all the liturgical traditions.

We dare to call God Father only because the Son has revealed him and his Spirit makes us cry "Abba". The liturgies of East and West speak of praying with filial boldness. "Our" does not mean that we possess God, but that we share a new covenant with him and pray with all our brothers and sisters. "In heaven" does not mean a distant place; it means God's majesty and holiness, and he is close to the humble heart.

The first three draw us to God for his own sake: that his name be hallowed, his kingdom come, his will be done. The last four bring our needs to him: daily bread, forgiveness, help in temptation, and deliverance from evil. "Daily bread" means all we need for life, and also the Word of God and the Body of Christ, the Bread of Life; the Catechism calls the Eucharist our daily bread. Asking for bread also makes us responsible for those who are hungry.

God's mercy cannot enter a heart that refuses to forgive, because love, like the Body of Christ, cannot be divided. This is the only petition Jesus explains again in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:14 to 15). Forgiving is beyond our strength, but not beyond the Holy Spirit. We cannot always stop feeling a hurt or forget it, but a heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and hurt into intercession. There is no limit to this forgiveness.

No. God tempts no one (James 1:13). The Greek word means both "do not allow us to enter into temptation" and "do not let us yield to temptation"; we ask for the Spirit's discernment and strength. In the last petition, evil is not an abstraction but the Evil One, Satan, whom Christ has already defeated by his Cross. The prayer ends with praise of God's kingdom, power and glory, a doxology known since the Didache, and with Amen, "so be it".