Direct prayer to God is completely acceptable and encouraged in the Catholic Church.Asking saints to pray for us does not make such prayer null and void, any more than asking friends and other believers to pray for us does, because they are also praying to God on our behalf (interceding).
St John Damascene wrote: “prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.
St Gregory of Nazianzus states: In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is so good beyond measure, with His Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. The grace of the Kingdom is “the union of the entire holy and royal Trinity…with the whole human spirit.”
Thus, the life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with Him.
This communion of life is always possible because through the Baptism, we have already been united with Christ. Prayer is ‘Christian’ insofar as it is communion with Christ and extends throughout the Church which is His Body.
1 comment:
Dear Brother Lawrence -
Brother Christian e-mailed us last night about John Dat's death. We are so sorry and sad about his passing. We were honored to be his American spiritual parents and were looking forward to many years of relationship with him. I know the monks at the monastery are wrestling with their grief right now too.
I just wanted to extend our condolences to you and the other brothers. We will be visiting the monastery early next week to pay our respects to our son, John Dat, and to the brothers.
Even in our sadness, we are happy that he is in the arms of Jesus.
Calvin and Lisa Wulf
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