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The necessity of prayer

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Special occasion: Year of Prayer MOST OF US, I think, grew up learning our prayers from our parents and our religious education teachers. We memorized the Our Father and the Hail Mary and firmly imbedded them in our memory through their constant repetition in the Rosary and at church. Of course, to keep us on our toes, the church has from time to time adjusted the wording, much to the delight of some and the annoyance of others. We dropped the “thee”s and the “thou”s in favor of modern pronouns. Other prayers have gone through substantial evolution. The Act of Contrition left behind the “dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell” in favor of “just punishments,” which evolved into simply acknowledging that “I have sinned against you.” Of course that is the official version from the Rite of Penance. But many Catholics stick to the old version, or the middle version, or even mix and match selections from ALL the versions. But the Our Father, baked into the Communion Rite of the Mass, has remained essentially the same. It is the fundamental prayer, taught by Jesus to his disciples, upon which all prayer is built. It recognizes God as the source of our life and all we have. It expresses our desire for the Kingdom to come and the will of God to be done in our world. It humbly asks God to sustain us and forgive us. It’s a reminder of the connection between being forgiven and forgiving others. And, finally, it asks God to keep us out of trouble and protect us from the evil that comes our way. It’s a great prayer; you really can’t beat it. And prayer is necessary for a happy life. “It is the breadth of faith,” says Pope Francis, "like a silent cry that comes forth from the heart of those who believe and entrust themselves to God.” Prayer is a form of communion like the communion of the Eucharist. Just as Holy Communion unites us with God substantially, so our prayer unites us with God in a spiritual way. Prayer is a form of communion like the communion of the Eucharist. Just as Holy Communion unites us with God substantially, so our prayer unites us with God in a spiritual way. We speak with God as we would speak with a family member or dear friend, greeting God and sharing with God our deepest concerns, our sincere sorrow, and the desires of our hearts. The prayer of thanksgiving is probably the most common prayer. We can easily thank God a thousand times a day for all the blessings we receive. Just waking up in the morning and getting out of bed is an opportunity to be thankful to God. We can thank God for our families, our friends, the beauty of the sky, the blessing of rain. We can thank God for our jobs, our work, or our retirement. It’s a prayer that needs to be practiced again and again. A simple, “Thank you, God, for my phone” every time I use it in a day is a heartfelt communion with the God who loves me so. And we’re always asking God for something. It’s a wonder that God doesn’t say, “Enough, already!” to our petitions. But God is infinite, so God can deal with all our needs all the time. Maybe what God really says is, “I’m working on it. Don’t rush me!” A beautiful prayer leaps from our lips every time we hear somebody sneeze. “God bless you!” The proper response, by the way, is not “Thank you.” It’s “Amen!” Blessings help. “Love your enemy,” Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke. “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (6:28). We can silently bless all the people we don’t like or who cause us trouble or who are mean to us. Bless the people who cut you off in traffic or who block the aisle in the supermarket. Bless them all! It can’t hurt. And it fills your day with blessings. A prayer we often don’t think about is the prayer of listening. Rather than doing all the talking (like the person you know who can’t stop yakking) we need to take the time to listen to God. After all, prayer is a conversation. And consider that the sound of God’s voice is silence, the vision of God’s face is darkness, and the experience of God’s presence is solitude. Time spent inside yourself in quiet solitude gives God the chance to love you deeply. God waits in joyful hope for our prayer. It’s God’s favorite time of the day. Make it yours, too.

Authors Father Paul Boudreau

Special occasion Year of Prayer our father Prayer

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Take Five for Faith Daily

Monday
March 17

Saint Patrick opens his autobiographical Confessio with the words: “My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers.” After turning his life toward God and serving the church, he ends his story with yet another humble admission: “May none of them ever say that whatever little I did or made known to please God was done through ignorance. Instead, you can judge and believe in all truth that it was a gift of God. This is my confession before I die.” Don’t be afraid to confess your wrongdoings. It frees you for a lifetime of right doings.

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