Video Transcript
Emily: There’s a dramatic scene in the Old Testament where Moses meets God in the wilderness while tending his flock. Moses comes to Horeb, the mountain of God later known as Mount Sinai. There, he sees a strange sight: a bush that is on fire but does not burn up. As Moses approaches, God begins speaking to Him from this burning bush. At first, Moses is understandably afraid.
Edmund: God speaks to Moses and reveals His plan to send Moses to Egypt on a mission for His people. God also did something pretty unthinkable at the time: God revealed His name to Moses. Throughout the rest of Moses’ life, this moment stood as a powerful revelation of the type of relationship God wants to have with ALL of His people. The burning bush radically changed the way Moses looked at God, His people, and the world.
Emily: God is constantly revealing to us a new way of looking at the world. Throughout history—but especially in Jesus—God reveals Himself so we can know Him, and understand the kind of relationship He wants with us.
Edmund: Just like all relationships, our relationship with God is rich and multi-faceted. We can deepen our understanding of this relationship through Scripture, the teaching of the Church, and personal experience. The Catechism calls our prayer a “covenant” relationship.
Emily: This is a special, intimate, and familial relationship. Throughout salvation history, we see examples of this relationship of prayer gradually being revealed in the figures of the Old Testament, in the prophets, and in the Psalms. For example, Moses spoke with God “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”
Edmund: God desires a similar relationship with His people; a relationship deepened and expressed through prayer. The intimate dialogue of prayer is the very heart of our covenant relationship with God.
Emily: Jesus spoke of His relationship with God as more than just a friend, but as a loving Father. Jesus reveals the fullness of this relationship of prayer. The Catechism says in paragraph 2620, “Jesus’ filial prayer is the perfect model of prayer in the New Testament. Often done in solitude and in secret, the prayer of Jesus involves a loving adherence to the will of the Father even to the Cross and an absolute confidence in being heard.”
Edmund: At Pentecost, God sent the gift of the Holy Spirit to allow the Church and Her faithful to experience the fullness of prayer that Jesus modeled and taught the disciples.
Emily: The Catechism describes five ways of prayer. We can think of these not as ways we NEED to pray, but as privileged ways we are allowed to speak with God because of our special and covenant relationship with Him. They are: blessing, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise.
Edmund: Prayer of blessing is our response to God’s gifts, where we bless God for blessing us first and acknowledging His greatness and our dependence on Him (CCC 2626). Many of the Psalms are great examples of prayers of blessing, where the psalmist calls upon his soul to bless and praise God for His goodness and mercy.
Emily: In prayers of petition, we express our awareness of our need for God’s help and ask Him to fulfill our needs, whether spiritual or temporal (CCC 2629). Jesus teaches us about the prayer of petition, encouraging believers to ask for their needs with the assurance that God hears and responds.
Edmund: Intercessory prayer is petitioning God on behalf of others, reflecting the way Christ intercedes for us before the Father (CCC 2634). In His prayer after the Last Supper, Jesus interceded for His disciples and all future believers, asking for unity and faithfulness among them.
Emily: Prayer of thanksgiving acknowledges God as the source of all goodness and expresses gratitude for His generosity and grace (CCC 2637). The healed leper’s return to thank Jesus emphasizes the importance of gratitude in response to God’s blessings. God delights in our thanksgiving and wants to be part of our joys.
Edmund: And in prayers of praise, we glorify God for His own sake, giving Him honor and glory for who He is, beyond what He does for us (CCC 2639). There’s a powerful scene of prayers of praise in the book of Revelation. The writer describes seeing a vision of the ultimate expression of praise, where all of creation worships God. In Revelation 5:13, it says: “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, ‘To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!'”
Emily: Like a complex illustration that we can focus on until we see a hidden and wonderful design revealed, God invites us to deepen our understanding of prayer and our relationship with Him. So we really should rejoice in praise and thanksgiving. Because God gradually revealed His invitation to a covenant relationship, and we enter this covenant relationship through prayer.
