5 Necessary Qualities of Prayer

Prayer is a necessary part of the Christian life. No one will achieve their eternal destiny simply by showing up on Sunday. If you fail to enter into the inner life of the Holy Trinity in prayer during the week, you will arrive on Sunday and find that you do not have the proper interior disposition to participate fruitfully in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Prayer than is the continued search for union with God outside of the Sacred Liturgy. Every last one of you should be praying the Rosary every single day and you should be tying to find at least 10 minutes a day for meditation. God is the source of divine charity. In a state of grace, the soul that seeks union with Christ in faith and in prayer is filled with His charity. The Lord's prayer most fully manifests the 5 qualities of prayer that St. Thomas Aquinas says are necessary for the cultivation of a deep interior union with God's inner life.Confidence"Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace!" (Heb. 4:16) There ought to be no fear of approaching the Father through the Son. Our lives are laid bare. There is not one thought rolling around in our mind that is not immediately known by the Father. We draw our confidence from two primary things. The first, the entire universe was created for your holiness. God the Father, gave you the gift of beautiful hikes and astounding sunsets. His very existence is written into each and every one of them and they are all for you. The second, is the incarnation of Christ the King. Who suffered, died, and rose from the dead for our salvation. He continues to manifest Himself body, blood, soul, and divinity, to us, in the Eucharist. We are reconciled to the Father through the narrow gate of His flesh and blood and our sins our forgiven. Therefore, there is no need to fear approaching Him. He already knows our interior disposition and is fully aware of the choices we have made. Our confidence resides in the fact that "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the just." (1 Jn. 2:1) The fullness of created things finds it's recreation and purification in the Son of God. The Father continues to give us the grace to pursue His holy will, to enter into a relationship of intimacy with Him and to remain there. He gives us the grace, He does not force us. The freedom of man's will must be employed in order that harmony between man and God be restored. We must pursue prayer with the disposition of confidence knowing that the universe is being brought to salvation by Our Lord and King, Jesus Christ.RectitudeWhen we pray we should ask for only that which is good for us. St. John Damascene says "To pray is to ask fitting things of God." If you spend most of your time praying for the good of the temporal order but neglect the things of the supernatural order, your prayer becomes fruitless. The prayer of the protestants for example is generally fruitless. What supernatural things necessarily need pray when you believe that you are saved by faith alone? Does one need an increase in the virtue of faith, temperance, or charity? Rectitude of prayer is to pray for those things that are most necessary. You and I are sinners in search of holiness. What is most needed is the uninterrupted life of grace. Resting in that life we must trust that God will give us that which we need and what we need are opportunities to grow in holiness. Do not be surprised if God does not give you what you perceive to be your deepest desire. We do not know how to pray as we ought. As a result, very often we pray not for what we need, but we want. And that which we want is not always a fitting compliment to our growth in holiness. Pray then that your desires are God's desire for you. Then your prayer shall have order.Order"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Mt. 6: 33) If we do not desire first to know the Father, not only our lives, but our prayer will not be properly ordered. The commandments themselves are ordered first to our eternal salvation and secondly to the temporal order. This disorder nearly always shows up in our practice of the faith. I can think of a number of high ranking ecclesiastics who manifest this error rather frequently and in the public square. It is nothing less that a rejection of the divine life in favor of the here and now.DevoutI have heard a number of "catholics" make fun of those who have a desire convey a certain type of piety. Piety is a virtue. There is no reason to take issue with a soul seeking to pray with devotion. Devotion is a derivative of charity. The love of God often compels us to devotion and piety. Through the unction of devotion our prayer, our sacrifice is made acceptable to Our Lord. "In thy name I will lift up my hands; let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness." (Ps. 62: 5-6)HumilityWhen we approach the throne of grace, we do ought to do so in humility. We will have no problem with confidence if we seek union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. His heart is meek and humble and it is in His Sacred Heart that we find peace for our journey. Our humble submission to the commands and mission of Christ increase our ability to remain close to our Lord. Maintaining closeness increases our ability to discern His will, so that we might know what we ought to be praying for. Unity with the Sacred Heart, will help us to maintain order in our prayer. Unity with the Sacred Heart foster's piety. "The prayer of the humble and meek has always pleased thee." (Jth. 9: 16)These qualities are not separate compartments. They are an integrated whole. Continue to fight the temptation of the world, the flesh, and the devil by committing and entering into a devout life of prayer. Let us continue to pursue the unity of our soul to the Divine Life, that our lives might radiate His holiness.Pray the Rosary Daily!Be Holy, Not Worldly!Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have Mercy on Us!

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