Random Thoughts On Prayer

Sunday's homily dealt with the Luke version of the Lord's Prayer. The priest emphasized the connection between holiness and prayer: every prayer is, at the very least implicitly, a prayer for the Holy Spirit (cf. the Lord will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask) and a prayer for holiness, for holiness and prayer are inextricably tied up in each other--on the one hand, prayer helps make us holier; on the other hand, the holier we are, the more effective our prayers are (the fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much).

As a side note, the priest tied all of this to an openness to vocations (a natural outworking of holiness--right?). I see his point, although my favorite sarcastic reaction to the sometimes questionable ways in which the emphasis on vocations is manifest (such as through National Vocations Awareness Week, which does not, incidentally, have to do with career planning, and the vocations crucifix, to which people pray for vocations) is: "They are trying to trick people into vocations." Similarly, I'm not sure how second collections during the mass are not part of a marketing scheme to trick people into giving more money. (Why not just divide the first collection?)

My favorite mystery is the Visitation--I think because it has to do with visiting, which is definitely my favorite activity. Also because it involves the recognition of divinity by one person in another person. This immediately follows the Annunciation is closely connected in the sense that first Mary receives God in her person, and the next step is the recognition of the Incarnation within the community--her cousin, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's son, John. This mutual recognition of the faith that we've received, it seems to me also applies to the Church. Really why I probably like the Visitation is the Pentecostal in me attracted to the ecstatic experience of that moment. And the feminist part of me approves of the significance of women in that event.

Finally, the only things, as far as I can tell, that are necessary for prayer are that a person 1) believe that God is and 2) that He reveals Himself (is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him). The whole Straussian thing seems to get the first part, but I'm not sure it gets the latter half. For Straussians, if we can ever get to a knowledge of the divine, I think it is mediated. Christianity is mediated, as well, but it is mediated through God Himself, and only secondarily through the Church/saints/etc.