Topic: What does the prayer of the community mean?

Source of this posting: moderator response

Date originally posted: September 1, 2003

Moderator who originally posted this source:  Father Phillip

Question:  Would you explain the statement: The Church teaches us that our personal prayer is always joined with the prayer of the community.?I am not satisfied with the answer I can give. It is from the NCCL catechist training Echoes in Faith, Prayer and Spirituality module, Session Two. Thank you.

Answer:

Sounds like y'all are dealing with some very heavy-duty issues in your catechist training; that's great! Keep up the good work!

I would respond to your question in three ways. None will completely "answer" your question, but perhaps they will help you to come to an appropriate conclusion that is reflective of the mind of the Church.

1. The Church teaches that the Eucharist is the "source and summit" of our lives as Christians. If the Eucharist is the "source" of intimate, personal, communal, loving, just, true, and compassionate experience of the Risen Jesus -- as I truly believe it is! -- then, surely, our own personal prayer is but an expression of that relationship with the Lord. Personal prayer has the trappings and idiosyncracies and beauty and wonder of who God made us to be. But since one of the things God made us to be is persons-in-relationships, persons-in-some-kind-of-community, even our most personal prayer will have as some aspect of that prayer, a dimension of communality. As Catholic Christians we believe that the Eucharist is the "source (and summit)" of our Christian lives; therefore, even that most personal prayer finds is beginning (and it's completion) in the Eucharist which is always a communal (ecclesial)action.

2. This second approach is intimately related to the first one, and, actually, I have already suggested its outlines in the prior response. Anyway, I would call this one somewhat more 'anthropological.' Personal prayer is -- or at least "is" at its best -- a reflection of the human person God created us to be, an "image and likeness" of the divine! Who we are is wonderful and fearful: God has made us little less than the angels, in the words of the Psalmist. While "who we are" is magnificently woven and made, I certainly can't explain ALL that each of us is. Yet, I can say with a great deal of certainty that each human person is a delicate juxtaposition of intensely personal and yearningly communal. Some people need a great deal more attention paid to the "personal" side while others are quite content with 10 minutes a year of personal time, so to speak. The reverse is also true as is virtually every 'shade' of difference along the continuum. But essential to the fabric of "being human" are these complementary aspects: personal and communal. Since God has created us in this way, we should hardly marvel that something as important as our prayer should have BOTH of these aspects.

3. Finally, the Scriptures reveal the profound, in exhaustible love which God has for the creation. We see that divine love most perfectly revealed in Jesus. The Lord tells us in deeds and words that since He loves us so very much, He doesn't want us ever to be left disconsolate or alone. For that reason, among others, Jesus leaves us the community of believers, as that 'place' where will be able always and without question to find the divine Presence: in Word, in Sacrament, in the Assembly, in the person of the priest acting 'in persona Christi' and in other ways as well. But the Church -- that divinely instituted reality in which subsists the fullness of what God intends for us -- is not simply a building where we go to Mass. The Church is not limited even to the joyful Assembly of priest and people brought together by the Spirit of God to pray, praise, celebrate, offer sacrifice, intercede; that is, for the Eucharist and all it entails. Wonderful as those things are, the community of God's love and faithful people extends mystically beyond the 'limits' which we, in our finitude, can perceive. The community of believers and Christ's Presence is made real, for instance, every time we give a cup of water to a sister or brother who thirsts, for as Matthew's Gospel tells us: We are giving sustenance to Jesus Himself in the least ones. Thus, we can see that the community of believers has an institutional or hierarchical dimension as well as a charismatic aspect. Both are evidence, so to speak, of Jesus' intention never to leave us orphaned or alone. When we're "in Church", Jesus is there nurturing us because He loves us, but when we are alone praying from the depths of our hearts, Jesus is there too -- because He loves us! And so, is it such a great conceptual leap to believe that these two aspects of our prayer -- the personal and the communal -- are related? We are part of the Church even when we're not actually sitting in a Church building; the community of believers is supporting us when we're at work or at play, so doesn't it follow that when we are at personal prayer, that wonderful community of faith is "part" of our prayer, supporting us in our prayer? All that -- of course! -- because Jesus loves us!

Hope some of this helps...and PLEASE say a prayer for me as I need all the prayer support I can get!

Gratefully,
Father Phillip