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➢ SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATION

- ‘’This is why I tell you: do not be worried about the food and drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for your body. After all, isn’t life worth more than food? And isn’t the body worth more than clothes? Look at the birds: they do not plant seeds, gather harvest and put it in the barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren’t you worth much more than birds? Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?” (Mathew 6: 25-27).

❖ INTRODUCTION

➢ “Our faith in “God is grounded in God’s own revelation through his words and deeds in salvation history. It is confirmed by the many reasons for believing that have been worked out throughout the centuries, responding to the biblical challenge: ‘Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.’ (1 Pt 3:15).”

1. WHAT IS FAITH?

• Faith is a “complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Or a strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof.” By definition, faith can be: communitarian or personal. It is written and believed that “Christ is personal Savior to Filipino” Christians and “Catholics not as private individuals, but as members of a community of salvation wherein we meet Jesus and experience his saving power. ​

• Faith is never just something private or individualistic, but a sharing in the Christian community’s faith. This faith is in living continuity with the Apostolic Church, as well as being united to all the Catholic communities today. Vatican II well describes the origins of this ecclesial dimension of faith.” (CFC, 2008).

❖ CHARACTERISTIC OF FAITH

There are five characteristics of Christian faith. These are:

1. TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE

- It is mentioned in this characteristic that “only faith in God calls for a total and absolute adherence (cf. CCC150). Christ himself provides, especially in his Passion, Death and Resurrection, the best example of this total and absolute commitment to God.​

2. TRINITARIAN

- The Christians especially the Catholics believes that faith as the adherence to the Triune God revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is our friendship with Christ and through Christ with the Father, in their Holy Spirit. Through Christ’s witness to his father in his teaching, preaching, miracles and especially in his Passion, Death and Resurrection, we come to believe in Christ our Savior, in the Father, and in the Holy Spirit sent in our hearts.”​

3. TRINITARIAN

- The Christians especially the Catholics believes that faith as the adherence to the Triune God revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is our friendship with Christ and through Christ with the Father, in their Holy Spirit. Through Christ’s witness to his father in his teaching, preaching, miracles and especially in his Passion, Death and Resurrection, we come to believe in Christ our Savior, in the Father, and in the Holy Spirit sent in our hearts.”​

4. INFORMED AND COMMUNITARIAN

- In this characteristic, Christian “faith must be ‘informed’ especially to the Catholic Faith. This means, believing” Jesus’ words, and accepting his teachings, trusting that he has ‘the words of eternal life.” This chapter also added that faith must be ‘communitarian’ since it is the Church that transmits to us Christ’s revelation through Sacred Scripture and its living Tradition, and alone makes the possible for us an adequate faith-response.”​

5. INCULTURATED

- In this characteristic, Christian faith especially the “Catholic faith in God and in Jesus Christ is never separated from the typical Filipino faith in family and friends. On the other hand, we live out our faith in God precisely in our daily relationships with family, friends, fellow workers.”

❖ THE THREE ESSENTIAL DIMENSION OF FAITH

1. Believing

- In this dimension of Faith, it is mentioned that “faith involves our basic convictions as Christians. ‘For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead; you will be saved’ (Rom 10:9). John sums up his Gospel with: ‘These things have been recorded to help you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, so that through this faith you may have life in his name’.”​

2. Faith is knowing

- Christian faith does know “not ‘mere head knowledge’ of abstract truths. It is like the deep knowledge we have of our parents, or of anyone we love dearly.”

3. Personal Knowledge

- Christian faith is a “personal knowledge of Jesus Christ as ‘my Lord and my God’ (Jn 20:28). Christ solemnly assures each of us: ‘Here I stand knocking at the door. If anyone hears me calling and opens the door, I will enter his house, and have supper with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20).

2. DOING

• Christian faith is also doing. As “St. James writes: “My brothers, what good is it to profess faith without practicing it?” (Jas 2:14). Christ himself taught: ‘None of those who cry out ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of God, but only the one who does the will of my Fathers in heaven (Mt. 7:21).​

❖ UNDER THE DIMENSION OF DOING, FAITH SHOULD BE MANIFESTED IN COMMITMENT AND WITNESSING:​

• FAITH IS COMMITMENT – Christian faith is “a commitment to follow God’s will for us. This we see exemplified in Mary’s ‘I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say’. (Lk 1:38)”

• FAITH IS WITNESSING – ‘’PCP II brings out this ‘doing dimension of faith as ‘witnessing’ through ‘loving service’ of our needy neighbors. In our concrete situation, particularly urgent is the call for:

- Deeds of justice and love.

- For protecting and caring for our endangered earth’s environment.

3. ENTRUSTING / WORSHIPING

• Christian faith beyond doing and believing is also “entrusting oneself into God’s hands. Abraham our father in faith, at God’s command left everything to set out for a foreign land. Against all human odds Moses trusted Yahweh to free the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt. In the New Testament, Jesus worked signs and cures only with those who trusted in him. He promised the possessed boy’s father: ‘Everything is possible to a man who trusts.” (Mk 9:23). In this dimension, faith should be from the heart and manifested by trusting God even without seeing Him personally.​

• FAITH IS FROM THE HEART – The ‘loving, trusting and hoping in the Lord comes from God’s own love flowing in our hearts.

• TRUSTING FAITH – This “lives and grows through prayer and worship.” This is a personal heartfelt conversation with God that is the opposite of mindless, mechanical repetition of memorized formulas. It is in the celebration of the Liturgy that every Christian can find a “Genuine personal prayer and group of prayer.”

❖ MODELS OF FAITH

THE FOLLOWING ARE MODELS OF FAITH IN OUR LIFE AS CHRISTIANS.​

1. Abraham – “father of all who believe”

- “By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go.”​

- By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the Promised Land.​

- By faith, Sarah was given to conceived the son of the promise land.​

- By faith, Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice.​

- Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Because he was strong in his faith, Abraham became the “father of all who believe.”​

2. Mary – “Blessed is she who believes.”

- The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies obedience of faith. By faith, Mary welcomes the tidings and promise brought by the Angel Gabriel, believing that “with God nothing will be impossible” and so giving her assent: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.”​

- Throughout her life until her last ordeal when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary’s faith never wavered.​

- She never ceased to believe in the fulfillment of God’s word. And the church venerates Mary in the purest realization of faith.​

3. St. Lorenzo Ruiz ​

4. St. Pedro Calungsod​

❖ L2: THE CHRISTIAN PRAYER

➢ SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATION

• “Ask, and you will receive; and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock. Would any of you who are fathers give your son a stone when he asks for bread? Or would you give him a snake when he asks for fish? As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Mt. 6:7-11)​.

❖ INTRODUCTION

• Prayer is very important for both Christians and non-Christians. For us Filipinos, prayer is already part of our life as sources of spiritual strength and hope.​

• Prayer is a personal faith-relating to God.​

• In prayer, we connect ourselves to the Divine Being who is the author of life and all things around us.​

1. WHAT IS PRAYER

• Prayer is a “solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or another deity”. ​

• Prayer “develops a conscious awareness of our relationships with God. This relationship depends fundamentally WHO GOD IS and WHO WE ARE.​

• St. Paul “constantly reminded his converts to never cease praying, render constant thanks; such is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”​

2. THE UNIVERSAL CALL TO PRAYER

• Everyone are called and invited to prayer at any time, places, and situations of our life. ​

• But most commonly, man is moved on prayer on the following reasons:​

2.1. “MAN IS IN SEARCH OF GOD.” 

• God created man out of nothing. As stated in the creation story.

• That is why, All religions bear witness to men’s essential search for God. This is obvious for all men and women who longs and desires for God’s presence in their life. Having a certain Church – Christian or non-Christian, is a sign that man is in search for God.

2.2. “GOD CALLS MAN FIRST.”

• Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accused the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer.

• In prayer, the faithful God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response.

• As God gradually reveals himself and reveals man to himself, prayer appears as a reciprocal call, a covenant drama.

• Through words and actions, this drama engages the heart. It unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation.

3. THE CHRISTIAN PRAYER

• A Christian should pray always from the heart. It is always rooted in the heart, and related to the neighbour in loving compassion and service. So therefore, Christian Prayer must be directly addressed to God, Our Creator and Lord, while involving an intrinsic to one’s neighbour.

❖ NATURE OF PRAYER

• Concept of Prayer

- It is an activity of the heart and man/woman drawn towards the divine. There are two classical definitions of prayer.

- Speaking to God

- Speaking with God

• John Damascene

- He said that prayer is raising of the mind to GOD. Adopted by the theologians expanding the wording to raising of the mind to GOD and dwelling devoutly with HIM.

• Motive and Content of Prayer

- The most basic types of prayer are adoration, praise, thanksgiving, petition, intercession and propitiation.

• Various Forms of Prayer

- According to form, prayer may be interior or exterior, individual or common, informal or formal, extra-liturgical or liturgical.

❖ KINDS / FORMS OF PRAYER

• Interior / Mental Prayer

- It is the encounter of the heart with God and dwelling of the soul with HIM. This is also associated with mental words and images. Meditation and contemplation are two prominent forms of interior prayer.

• Exterior Prayer

- It expresses itself in the external words and rites. If it is to be authentic, it must be sustained by interior prayer or at least by a desire to awaken interior prayer.

• Individual and Common Prayer

- It must be mutually complimentary. Each man and woman is individual and social being.

- When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.

- Individual also need the support of Community prayer.

• Informal Prayer

- It gives spontaneous expression to the thoughts of the mind and the affections of the heart.

- Choose its words under the inspiration of the concrete moment and after the manner of conversation, where men speech freely with their fellowmen.

• Formal Prayer

- It transmits the rich treasure of the religious experiences and insights of the past generation, of saints and other inspired people.

- To stimulate and shaper our personal prayer.

- A refuge for those who are less able to formulate personal prayer or are living through a period of spiritual dryness.

• Liturgical Prayer

- It is a formal prayer destined for worship in common, as in the celebration of the sacraments.

forms of prayer example situations:

1. Interior/Mental Prayer:

1. During quiet meditation, an individual reflects on personal struggles and seeks guidance from a higher power.

2. While facing a challenging decision, someone engages in silent contemplation, seeking inner clarity and peace.

3. In moments of gratitude, a person silently expresses thanks and appreciation for the blessings in their life.

2. Exterior Prayer:

1. Attending a religious service, individuals collectively recite prayers aloud as an outward expression of shared faith.

2. Participating in a prayer walk, a group outwardly expresses their hopes and concerns for a specific cause or community.

3. Lighting candles and offering physical symbols during a religious ceremony to symbolize intentions and requests.

3. Individual/Common Prayer:

1. Praying individually for personal needs and concerns in solitude.

2. A family gathers to say grace before a meal, expressing shared gratitude.

3. A group of friends joins together to pray for a friend who is facing a difficult situation.

4. Informal Prayer:

1. Whispering a quick prayer of thanks while witnessing a beautiful sunset.

2. Offering spontaneous prayers for safety during a challenging journey.

3. Sharing informal prayers of support with a friend in need during a casual conversation.

5. Formal Prayer:

1. Reciting traditional prayers from a religious text during a religious ceremony.

2. Following a specific set of prayers during a formal worship service.

3. Engaging in a structured prayer routine with prescribed words and rituals.

6. Liturgical Prayer:

1. Participating in a religious service where prayers are performed in a prescribed order according to a liturgical calendar.

2. Celebrating religious holidays with a community through scripted liturgical prayers and rituals.

3. Attending a funeral service where liturgical prayers guide the community in mourning and remembrance.