Prayer and Worship =The primary focus of prayer therefore is to allow ourselves to

be loved by God.
Filipinos instinctively realize the need for prayer. We are
brought up in a Christian culture to believe in the God revealed How To Pray?
by Jesus Christ, a personal God who personally relates to us
It is natural for most Filipinos to think of prayer primarily in
by adopting us as his sons and daughters. He calls us to a
terms of explicit vocal prayers like the Our Father or the Hail
personal response in faith, hope and love. This personal faith-
Mary, or devotional acts of piety like novenas to the Blessed
relating to God is prayer (cf. NCDP 321).
Virgin Mary or their patron saints. Such
Christian prayer, then, is a loving, conscious, personal
explicit vocal prayers are concrete expressions of a deeper
relationship with God, our all-loving, good Father, who has
dimension of our personal lives. For besides being a particular,
adopted us through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in the Holy
explicit activity, prayer, for authentic believers, is more
Spirit.
fundamentally an essential dimension of their whole lives __ all
- It is “intimate conversation with God who we know loves us” of life. This is what Jesus taught by his many parables on the
(St. Teresa of Avila). Actually, it is the Holy Spirit who brings us necessity of
into this life of communion and fellowship with the Father and
-“praying always and not losing heart” (Lk 18:1).
with His Son, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Jn 1:3; 2 Cor 13:13).
- “never cease praying, render constant thanks; such is God’s
-Authentic Christian prayer, then, is always Trinitarian, since it
will for you in Christ Jesus” St. Paul constantly reminded his
is through Christ that “we have access in one Spirit to the
converts (1 Thes 5:17f). CFC 1477
Father” (Eph 2:18). CFC 1475
How to “find time” for prayer? What is the best method of
- ***Praying for trinitarian God.
praying? Even what is the best posture for prayer? These are
Prayer develops a conscious awareness of our relationship some of the practical problems which we shall always have to
with God. This relationship depends fundamentally on WHO wrestle with. But they are all based on the deeper reality that
GOD IS, and WHO WE ARE. It grounds several basic types of we have no way of “talking to God” unless He first turns toward
prayer. As creatures called to become children of God, our us and reveals Himself, and graces us with His Spirit. CFC
prayer is one of adoration of our Creator and thanksgiving to 1478
our heavenly Father, whom we petition for our needs. As
St. Paul explains how prayer is really a grace of God. “We do
sinners we pray in contrition for forgiveness from our divine
not know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself makes
Savior, and offer Him all our thoughts, words and deeds. Thus,
intercession for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in
we have the basic types of prayer __ adoration, thanksgiving,
speech. He who searches hearts knows what the Spirit means,
petition, contrition and offering. They are in no way imposed on
for the Spirit intercedes for the saints as God himself wills.”
us, nor are they simply a product of a particular time, place or
(Rom 8:26f). Our Christian prayer, then, is not something we
culture. Rather they spring from our deepest selves, our
do on our own power “for God,” as it were, but a precious gift
kalooban, inspired by God’s Holy Spirit.
to us by the Spirit. “Prayer is not learned through the teaching
Prayer can thus be described as the very life of our hearts and of others; it has its own special teacher, God, the teacher of all
souls, to which the Holy Spirit gives life (cf. CCC 2623-39).CFC people who gives prayer to those who pray” (St. John
1476 Climacus, Step 28). But how does God teach us how to pray?
Both the Old and the New Testaments illustrate how the Holy
Prayer is an effort to recognize the presence of God in our life. Spirit leads us into authentic prayer. CFC 1479
It is an attempt to establish conscious contact with God, to
attend to God, to enter into a personal relationship with God. Forms of Prayer
“Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the
A. Personal Prayer
requesting of good things from God”(CCC 2590)
It is spending time alone with God. Personal prayer can be in a
We need to pray because we have a basic need and duty to
form of:
recognize God in the midst of life and to respond to God’s gift
of himself. We pray because we are in love with God, because 1. Meditation
we want to communicate with God and respond to his love for
us. •Awareness of God’s presence in the midst of life; the water,
the clouds, the stars, the rolling waves, the forest, fields of
grain, music, rhythm of poetry.cc
•By meditation, we focus on the universe and our place in it. •To pray because we are sorry is to recognize and accept the
Then our mind is raised to God, for God is the only answer to mystery of God’s mercy and compassion, a mercy that reaches
the mystery that we meditate upon. out to us in every circumstance no matter what we have done.
3. Thanksgiving
2. Contemplation
•Praying to thank God for His goodness to us is one of the
•It means “marvelling at what God must be like.” great characteristics of the prayer of the Church.
•The Eucharist is the celebration of the great prayer of
•It means focusing our attention on God and not on ourselves, thanksgiving.
turning Godward, not self-ward. We allow the idea and •Thanksgiving is a part of our relationship with God just like in
experience of God to take hold of us so that we are our human relationships.
“spellbound.” 4. Supplication
•In contemplation, we remain quietly in the presence of God •From the Latin supplere, “to beg, to ask insistently”
and allow the Holy Spirit to play in us. We listen to the •The most frequent form of prayer and is also called the prayer
promptings of the Holy Spirit not with our ears but with the of petition.
depths of our hearts. •We ask God for what we need because we know that God
loves us and is concerned about us, and He is a God of
•This is often practiced by the mystics compassion.
•Every petition we make must be made with the understanding
3. Conversation
that it is God who grants the favour, it is his will that we seek,
•Here, we speak to God, either with actual words formed by and so we pray as Jesus prayed, “Not my will but yours will be
the lips or with the words formed in the heart. done.”
5. Offering
•In conversation, we just do not speak, we also listen for part of •It’s always a good thing to start the day with a prayer of
our conversation with God involves listening to God in the offering; it’s the best thing we can give God first thing of the
depths of our heart. Prayer is not a monologue day.
B. Public or Common Prayer •Its offering everything, our thoughts, actions plans and even
our every encounter of the day. We even offer our worries,
It is not enough to pray privately or alone. We are also a problems both personal and global.
Church, a community gathered in the name of the Lord. The
Whole Church must pray. Like private prayer, public worship is WORSHIP
also a tradition in the church, it is an essential aspect of the Thus we do express our Christian loving worship of the one
church’s life. Prayer with the community is not an option for living God. This fundamental human sense of worship comes
believing Christians, it is a necessity and an obligation. natural to us as Filipinos (may loob sa Diyos). It flows from our
inborn gratitude for the gift of life. We spontaneously adore
Types of Prayer
God our Father-Creator; Jesus Christ, His Son and our Savior,
There are four purposes of prayer, or reasons why we pray; and the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us by His presence within us.
Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Supplication.
1. Adoration Authentic worship necessarily includes both an inner attitude of
•It means true worship of God for what he is in himself, not reverence and homage before the Divine Majesty, and an
merely for what God do for us. outward expression in signs of words, actions, songs, dances,
•It means recognizing and accepting the infinite difference usually enacted in public ritual.
between god and every creature.
•It is a rejoicing in God’s sanctity and glory as we acclaim Worship In the Old Testament, Yahweh called the Israelites to
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts” acceptable worship first by His covenant commandment: “I, the
2. Contrition Lord, am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
•It is an expression of sorrow for our sins. that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides
•It involves our consciousness of having failed to live up to the Me. . . you shall not bow down before them or worship them”
promises we made at our baptism (Dt 5:6-7,9). CFC 1497
•It expresses our need to say “I’m sorry” and seek conversion
with the help of God’s grace. =CONSIST IN THE OBEDIENCE TO THE COVENANT
=But Yahweh had to give a second lesson on worship through
His prophets who denounced empty ritualism
=stressing that true worship consists not in words on the lips But authentic religious rituals develop personal relationship
but in deeds from the heart. Authentic worship means doing with God through actions characterized by four constant traits:
good and rendering justice to the poor, the widow and orphan symbolic, consecratory, repetitive and involving remembrance.
(cf. Is 1:11-17; 58:1-10; Amos 5:21-24). Rituals are symbolic, using natural signs to make present the
divine; they involve a certain consecration which enables the
Worship In the New Testament, Christ revolutionized worship participants to share in the divine power/love. They are
by his obedience to his Father in inaugurating the New designed to be repeated, using traditional prayers and actions
Covenant: that link the celebrants with their past and the original religious
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire but a body you event that the ritual is celebrating (remembrance). These traits
prepared for me; holocausts and sin offerings you took no are found in many traditional tribal rituals. But the Filipino
delight in. Catholic meets authentic religious ritual, purified from all
superstition, in the liturgy of the Church. CFC 1501.
Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the book, I have come to do
your will, O God!’ ” (Heb 10:5-7).
=Jesus purified worship by linking it directly with daily moral
living. He proclaimed that “the hour is coming . . . when
authentic worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and
truth” (Jn 4:23).
=Like the prophets, Jesus denounced empty ritualism, and
promised to send his Holy Spirit through whom he would
create a new priestly people, sharing in his very own
Priesthood (cf. LG 10). CFC 1498
= authentic worship is worship in Spirit and Truth.

PCP II explains how worship can be expressed on different

levels.
First is the (1)individual Christian’s personal prayer and
devotion; this develops into (2) group prayer, such as Block
Rosaries, charismatic meetings, etc. Finally there is the
(3)official worship of the Church in the sacred liturgy, which is
the source and summit of our total life of prayer. In the liturgy,
Christian worship takes on its special communal and
ceremonial/ritual qualities. CFC 1499
Private->communal->devoted in personal prayer

Ritual, in its broadest meaning, includes both secular and

religious ceremonies. It is basically a social, programmed
symbolic activity that has power for creating, communicating,
criticizing and even transforming the basic meaning of
community life. It is the way we have of creating our
fundamental bonding with others, and the structure of social
relationships which give us our basic identity. In our social,
political and economic relationships, we celebrate, for
example, school graduation ceremonies, inauguration of our
political leaders, Labor and Independence Day holidays, etc.
Religious rituals are even more common among Filipinos, with
the great feasts of Christmas and Holy Week, countless
fiestas, etc. Yet, mixed among authentic religious rituals are
numerous superstitious practices. Some take the form of magic
which tries by various means to control the divine power;
others are basically taboos which seek to protect the ritualists
by isolating them from the “fearful, dangerous Holy.” CFC 1500