What is in a Prayer Anyway?

What does it mean to pray? How are believers even supposed to commune with the divine?

The Christian faithful are luckily not resigned to speculation about these topics. For prayer to be effective, four thing are required according to Fr. Guido de Monte Rochen. First, prayer must be made with "firmness of faith." Christ remarks "Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive” (Matthew 21:22) and "So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:24).We must genuinely believe in God, in our prayer, and His ability to hear it. The second criteria is "goodness of content". If the prayer is a petitionary prayer for example, it cannot be asking for something stupid (e.g. "I pray that a million dollars fall into my backyard", "I pray that my rival drops dead."); it has to be something useful. The third criteria is that the prayer is done with "devotion of soul."  It requires the fire of charity, which Aquinas defines as friendship with God (ST, II-II, q.23, a.1). Finally, prayer must be done in the name of God. You can't pray to Zeus or Muhammad to do something for you. You can only ask God. As Christ says, "If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you" (John 16:23).

Thus, we have now acquired a framework for how to make prayer effective. Now, what about the words we should say? In the sixth chapter of Gospel of Matthew, Jesus shares both this and how to pray: 

“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 

"When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“Pray then in this way:  

 

Our Father in heaven, 

hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Jesus remarks that prayer should be done intentionally with love for God. Prayer, furthermore, should not be vain repetitions of empty words. However, does this mean Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians are erring whenever they recite the rosary or some other formulaic prayers?

New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Pastor Steven Anderson on the Jesus Prayer and Sign of the Cross

Pastor Steven Anderson (video above) clearly does not see the benefit of formulaic prayers like the Jesus Prayer, seen as early as St. John Chrysostom in 407 AD. These prayers are too monotonous and simply empty phrases. However, Christ gave us a formulaic prayer in the Gospel of Matthew! How do we reconcile this? Christ remarks that prayer should not not be empty phrases, while simultaneously giving us exact phrases to say. The significance of the Lord's Prayer cannot be understated. While short, it covers everything necessary for both temporal life and eternal life (Handbook for Curates, 280). Fr. Guido goes phrase-by-phrase of the entire Lord's Prayer, breaking down just how significant it is. Each phrase carries a multitude of profound meanings. To be charitable to Pastor Anderson, I wonder how many of my Eastern Orthodox and Catholic brothers and sisters truly reflect over the profoundness of the words that they are saying when they pray the Our Father at Mass or with a rosary. "Our Father"—just the first two words—carry so much depth as Fr. Guido points out. Fr. Guido notes five meanings behind calling God Father: 1) by reason of care, 2) by reason of birth, 3) by reason of age, 4) by reason of honor, and 5) by reason of creation (Handbook for Curates, 280). First, God is our Father because he cares for us and everyone, as the Apostle Paul notes (1 Peter 5:7). Second, God brought about our birth into this world, which is echoed by the Apostle when he writes, "In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures" (James 1:18). Third, God has been around since the dawn of time itself. Fourth, God should be called Father because God deserves a unique type of reverence above the level of humans. Fifth, God is the creator of the world and each one of us. When we say "Our Father" in prayer, how often do we reflect over how significant that is? God is our Father! Do we even reflect over one of these meanings every time we pray? The analysis in this post only highlights the profoundness of the word "Father"; it does not even begin to tackle the meaning of the other phrases in this prayer. For example, this post does not even recount how significant it is to call God our Father. Not my Father, the Father, a Father, Christ's Father, he is our Father.

To be fair to my Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters, I think Pastor Anderson is entirely wrong in his mockery of formulaic prayers. Christ quite literally gave us the Lord's Prayer. However, it would be extremely beneficial for Christians that pray the Our Father to go a little bit slower next time. Say each line, each phrase, each word, intentionally. Don't just speed through the prayer with empty phrases. Fill the phrases with the fire of charity. Reflect over just how amazing this Prayer is. 

- Alejandro Ignacio

* For a deep line-by-line analysis on the profound meaning of the Lord's Prayer, read Guido of Monte Rochen's Handbook for Curates pages 280-293.