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—I am Beloved. Jesus teaches his disciples to pray in this way, as He instructs them to pray, “Our Father…” (Luke 11:2).

As we come to approach God the Father in prayer, if we follow Mary’s example, we must call upon the Holy Spirit… Through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, God will not just dwell “with” Mary—God will dwell within Mary.  Without the Holy Spirit, Mary could not give birth to Jesus. The Holy Spirit does much more than enable us to pray; the Holy Spirit fructifies (a fun and fancy word for makes fruitful) our prayers! Through the Spirit, the Word of God truly takes flesh! The same Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us and we become, like Mary, “the temple of the Living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

We should also note how Mary does not avoid feeling her fears and asking her questions! We should learn from her example! If we are afraid and puzzled by the word or work of God we must let Jesus speak into our hearts: “Do not be afraid!” (Luke 1:30, Luke 5:10). Mary listens and believes what the angel pronounces about Jesus even as she wonders, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” We must pray to share in Mary’s great faith and remain open to the work of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:34).

Mary’s question, her powerlessness, manifest alongside her purity as one favored by God, compels us to compare her to Zechariah, who also had a brief and bombastic prayer experience with an angel. Zechariah, however, one conceived with the weight and burden of original sin, was much more skeptical: “How shall I know this?” He says that he is old and his wife is barren (Luke1:18)! (In other words, you’re crazy! This isn’t possible...) Zechariah, aware of his limitations, through his unbelief places a limit on the power of the Holy Spirit; Mary, aware of her limitations, yet through her belief, says yes for God to work, even in the midst of these seemingly impossible circumstances!

Our prayer lives, our vital and lived relationship with the Lord, is essentially nourished through scripture and the example of the saints, as evidenced by this reflection. Therefore, with Mary, let us make an act of faith to not only be the handmaidens of the Lord, but to be the handmaidens of the Handmaiden! For she who listened so attentively to the voice of Jesus will help us live by and love His word. Let us pray for an outpouring and overshadowing of the Holy Spirit; let us pray for God to continue to manifest  Himself in our lives as Father; let us allow Jesus to be so alive in us that we cannot help but say with Mary, “My soul magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1:46).

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