prayer

Before Robbie was born people would ask me what I wanted ... typically they meant, "Do you want a boy or a girl." I received a lot of odd looks when I gave my response, "My only prayer, is that my kids know how much Jesus loves them."

Well, recently we've had a few indicators that the faith I hold so dearly is being passed on to our son. The first happened a few weeks back at dinner when Anita and I were a bit rushed and we just started chowing. Then we hear Robbie begin to grunt. As we looked up from stuffing our faces, he had his arms stretched out and was trying to grab our hands so we could pray.

Then, yesterday, after I went to work, Anita texted me to let me know that Robbie had walked up to her, taken her hands, bowed his head, spoke some gibberish, and then said, "Amen!"

While at this point it's purely mimicry, it warms my heart to see it happen and I pray, as he grows, he'll discover that we pray, not to make Jesus love us, but because he already does.

It's interesting to listen to different people talk about prayer. In the end, there seems to be two views towards its purpose. On one side, you have those who see prayer as a "means of grace", that is, something that prompts God's gracious action. So the idea here is that we pray and God acts because of our prayer.

The other view, prayer as a "means of faith", is described in an e-mail I received this morning from the American Bible Society. The devotion is based on the writings of Lutheran theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer writes: "God's name, God's kingdom, God's will must be the primary object of Christian prayer. Of course it is not as if God needed our prayers, but they are the means by which the disciples become partakers in the heavenly treasure for which they pray."

The devotion had these thoughts: "If all we ever pray for is what we need or want, we are shaping ourselves to become narrow and selfish. If we pray for the things of God's kingdom, we will also be drawn into the concerns and realities of that kingdom. Thus our lives will begin to reflect these new values. Change the focus and concern of our prayers, and our values and lifestyle will also begin to change." It then concluded with, "Prayer does not so much change God; it can profoundly change us, however."

So, which matches Jesus' teaching on prayer (the Lord's Prayer).

As a side thought that I find very interesting is that each group views the Sacraments (Baptism and Communion) as the opposite means from prayer. If prayer brings grace, the Sacraments bring faith, but if prayer forms faith, the Sacraments give grace.

As the saying goes, "The more things change the more things stay the same." Here's an article from Zenit, a Catholic website, on how to obtain new relics that are available from Pope John Paul II or, as an alternative, a special Pope card that includes an ecclesiastically sanctioned prayer you can pray to receive grace because of the deceased Pope's intercession on your behalf.

Here's the text of a prayer:

O Blessed Trinity

We thank You for having graced the Church with Pope John Paul II and for allowing the tenderness of your Fatherly care, the glory of the cross of Christ, and the splendor of the Holy Spirit, to shine through him.

Trusting fully in Your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and has shown us that holiness is the necessary measure of ordinary Christian life and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you.

Grant us, by his intercession, and according to Your will, the graces we implore, hoping that he will soon be numbered among your saints.

Amen.

So, what are the things that strike me as "most wrong" about this? First off, in the second section of the prayer, we have Christ not being enough because John Paul II also trusted fully "in the maternal intercession of Mary." Then, this is followed by discounting the work of Christ on our behalf by identifying a holy life as "the way of achieving eternal communion with you." Finally, the prayer closes with a request that John Paul II would intercede for us because, once again, apparently Christ isn't good enough.

Now, having spent time with Catholics I've picked up that, unlike Lutherans who have a collection of books that say, "Here's our doctrine.", Catholics don't really have a set doctrine outside of a church structure that starts with the Pope and works it's way down, but still, that's some mighty jacked up, anti-biblical teaching that is no different than what Luther dealt with in his day.