Mom, Teach Me How to Pray
Prayer is precisely this “vital and personal relationship with the living and true God” ( Catechism of the Catholic Church 2558). Our capacity and our willingness to enter into relationship, into union with God, with the Most Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit—defines the peak and purpose of Christian prayer. Mary’s Annunciation in Luke’s Gospel provides a bold and practical exploration of this prayer. Mary’s prayer begins as the Angel Gabriel is “sent from God” (Luke 1:26). God initiates and Mary participates. She enters into the life of the Holy Trinity as she receives the very of Life of the Son of God in her womb. “The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). This means God the Father dwells with Mary; His favor, His grace, rests upon her. This implies that Mary recognizes, or grows to recognize her dignity and identity as one who is loved, by God whose deepest identity is Love (1 John 4:8). Christian prayer begins with this recognition: God is Father, I am Son, I am Daughter—