Lord Teach Us to Pray

A Guide to the Spiritual Life and Christian Discipleship

Rev. Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, S.T.L.

• Publisher: Saint Benedict Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781618906151
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

Echoing the petition of the disciples, Lord, teach us to pray, this book guides the reader through the challenges of discipleship and the various stages of prayer. Fr. Kirby lovingly and expertly examines this crucial petition, shedding light on its three parts: the call to follow the Lord, to live virtuously, and to pray, while laying out a course for growing in discipleship and strengthening the interior life.

PART ONE

“But who do you say that I am?”
Matthew 16:15

CHAPTER ONE

Baptism and a Personal Decision for Christ

“Jesus Christ is Lord!”
Philippians 2:11

Starting the Journey

What a great adventure it is to be a Christian! Throughout the Gospels, we see the apostles and disciples being led and formed by the Lord Jesus in his public ministry. They witnessed his powerful preaching and wondrous signs. We can imagine that the apostles woke up every morning wondering, “What is the Master going to do today?” It was always an adventure, and always led the apostles to follow paths that they would not have taken by themselves. This is the adventure that Jesus offers to us: to join in this life as his friends and disciples.

After following and living with the Lord for some time, Jesus sent out the apostles (the word “apostle” even means “one who is sent”) to go and preach the Good News. They were sent out in pairs, and they taught and worked great signs in the Lord’s name. After their mission, the apostles reassembled with Jesus in Caesarea-Philippi. After the initial excitement and exchange of stories among the group, the Lord asked a simple question, “Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” It was an easy question: much like delivering the news, and the apostles responded, “John the Baptist,” “Elijah,” “Jeremiah,” and “One of the prophets.” It is a question that has echoed through the ages, and many other answers have been reported: “Great Teacher,” “Miracle-Worker,” “Inspiring Revolutionary.”

Jesus then asked the apostles a dramatically more provocative question: “Who do you say that I am?” We can imagine that the festive and relaxed mood of the occasion came to an abrupt end, and suddenly the apostles found themselves with a pressing question that calls for an answer.

The Lord’s question given at Caesarea-Philippi is the inspiration and the basis of the first part of our book. In the course of the next three chapters, we will dive into this question and see the answers given by others, and prepare ourselves to give our own answer to the Lord’s persistent question: “Who do you say that I am?”

The Human Person

As we begin to reflect on the question that has been given to us by the Lord, we realize how deeply the question resonates within us. Every human person consists of both a body and soul. Just as our body needs things to survive and grow, such as oxygen, water, food, etc., so our soul needs things as well, such as faith, hope, and love. These spiritual longings point to the truth that every human person has a natural desire for God. The human person is a spiritual person, and we all interiorly desire the relationship that God offers to us. In our lives and in our culture, we can find several apparent goods to try and fill the capax Dei, which is our capacity for God, oftentimes simply called the “God hole” within us. But, try as we might to fill it with other things, this interior desire can only be completely fulfilled by a relationship with God, and by acts of religion that bind us to him.¹

There is a story about four young Catholic men who were backpacking through Europe after college graduation. The four agreed to attend Sunday Mass and to pray together every evening on their trek. On one occasion, the group was at a hostel in northern Italy and an Englishman at the hostel noticed them praying. Later he asked them, “So, you all are religious?” One of the group members responded, “Yes, just like you.” The gentleman was caught off-guard and protested, “I’m not religious!” To which another group member responded, “Yes, yes you are. You just choose not to exercise your religious nature. I have a muscle here on my arm just like everyone else. You can see the muscle on my arm because I’ve been backpacking and it’s conditioned. Everyone else has this muscle, but perhaps it can’t be seen on them because they haven’t exercised it. In the same way, yes, we’re all religious. We’re just trying to exercise it.” The group explained it well. We are all spiritual and religious persons. Will we exercise this part of our personhood?

In these observations of our human nature, it is helpful to be reminded that we were all made by God and for God, and that he never ceases to draw us to himself. The Lord Jesus invites us and welcomes us to be with him. He asks each of us: “Who do you say that I am?”

A Response Is Needed

In our world today, we see an incredible openness to God and to religious sentiment. These noble inquiries are good and need affirmation. They also need direction. Like ancient Athens, there are many religious monuments throughout the Mars Hill of today (cf. Acts 17:16–34). Once again, in the midst of so many monuments and religious opinions, the Good News is proclaimed. As St. Paul did over two thousand years ago, the Church once again raises up the Person of Jesus Christ and offers him as the answer to all of humanity’s needs, hopes, and aspirations. Once again the reality of God becoming a man, suffering, dying, and rising from the dead, and again offering us his friendship, is announced and extended to each of us. In our spinning world, the steadfastness of the Cross and Resurrection are boldly announced, fear flees, and true friendship with God is offered to us.

And so, the Lord Jesus asks us: “Who do you say that I am?” The invitation endures. The question is a tremendously important one, since it lies at the heart of our desire to learn about prayer. The spiritual life is a relationship with God. If we desire a relationship with someone, we have to know who they are. We can only love what we know; therefore we have to come to know who Jesus Christ is in our lives. In addition, our answer to the Lord’s question determines our level of surrender, trust, docility, and the reception we give to his teachings. The answer we give to the Lord’s question will determine whether we accept the Lord’s invitation to be in a relationship with him.

Some people answer the Lord’s question indirectly or incompletely. They note that they have heard about Jesus, are curious about his miracles, are inspired by his teachings, or revere his historical legacy. Some will answer that Jesus is a great teacher, a miracle-worker, or an inspiring revolutionary. While each of these responses could be good in themselves, each of them is based on actions and functions, and none of them deal with a true relationship marked by a desire to be with the Lord. These responses do not accept the intimacy that the Lord Jesus offers us. Each of these responses, and ones similar to them, are incomplete and limit our compliance to the Lord Jesus and his way of life. People only trust a teacher in the areas of their lives where they feel instruction is needed; people only watch a miracle-worker for entertainment or because they want something; and people only follow a revolutionary because they want a structure or ideology challenged and overthrown. Each of these are limited, and do not establish a deep relationship. Additionally, beyond these answers themselves, we have to acknowledge that this supposed good teacher, miracle worker, and revolutionary claimed, in fact, to be God. The implications of this claim are huge. As C. S. Lewis put it: Jesus is either Lord, a Liar, or a Lunatic.²

• Jesus is Lord as he understood himself and as he truly is;
• Or Jesus is a Liar since he claimed to be God and knew that he was not;
• Or he is a Lunatic since he believed he was God but is not the Lord in reality.

This three-point summary deconstructs many supposed answers that seek the middle ground: “I respect the teachings of Jesus and try to live by them and be a good person,” or, “I accept the contribution that Jesus has made to spiritual wisdom and I find his teachings inspiring along with the teachings of several others.” These types of answers try to absorb Jesus of Nazareth into a broad conglomerate of recognized spiritual teachers, and they avoid Jesus’ direct question: “Who do you say that I am?” Will we avoid generalized answers and understand the singular and utter importance of our answer to this question? Will we understand how much is at stake for us in our answer to this question? How will we answer? Who is Jesus to us?

Baptismal Dignity

In acknowledging the Lord’s question and seeing our natural state as human beings who have a desire for God, it is also extremely important that we remind ourselves of our spiritual state. Principally, we must not diminish or forget the primacy of our Baptism. We must come to a greater understanding that our relationship with God begins with baptism, the initial sacrament of Christian life and faith.³

Oftentimes when Christian believers are asked why Baptism is necessary, they respond that it is necessary so that original sin (and any actual sins) might be removed from the person’s soul. This is indeed true, but not complete. Why is sin removed? Why is this important? It is important because as the Lord Jesus removes our sin in Baptism, we enter into a covenant with God. We are incorporated into the Body of Christ, which is the Church. We now participate and are called to relive the Lord’s Paschal Mystery—his passion, death, and resurrection—in our daily lives. God the Father accepts us, is well pleased with us, and makes us members of his own family. We become temples of the Holy Spirit. Sin is removed at Baptism so that these greater, divine actions can occur within us. Baptism is truly our adoption ceremony into the life of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and into the living household of faith. We are blessed with God’s presence in our very selves, and are endowed with the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.⁴

Baptismal Way of Life

Since we are baptized Christians and live as members of Christ’s Body, we are called to re-live the Paschal Mystery. As the Lord Jesus died and rose again, we are called to die to ourselves and our sinfulness, and to live in him and seek to follow him in all our ways.⁵

St. Paul juxtaposes two ways of life, and labels them as “life according to the flesh” (with “flesh” meaning our fallen attraction to evil and pleasure, and not necessarily our bodies), and “life according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:3–13). In order for us to live in Christ and follow a life in the Spirit, we have to truly die to ourselves and our sinfulness, and seek to live according to the person and teachings of the Lord Jesus.⁶ As St. Paul asked the Christians in ancient Rome, so he asks us:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rom 6:3–4).

What does this mean?

Imagine if you and some of your closest friends were on a large boat on a nice lake. You were all relaxed enjoying the gentle movement of the boat and a cold drink, when all of a sudden you heard a noise in the water behind you. You can tell from the faces of the people in front of you who can see behind you that something is not right. Something suddenly grabs you from behind and throws you over the boat. Splash! You hit the water and are fighting to break free. You sink deeper into the water, and you can see the boat getting farther and farther away from you. You are wrestling to break free. As you are able to look behind you, you’re shocked when you realize that it is actually Jesus who is holding you. You scream from within, “Lord, let me go, I’m drowning. I’m dying. Let me go!” Welcome to the waters of Baptism! It is only when we are willing to die to ourselves in Christ that we are able to live in him and be born to newness of life.

Pope Saint John Paul II teaches this very truth in his first encyclical, Redeemer of Man:

The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly—and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being—he must with his unrest, uncertainty, and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must ‘appropriate’ and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself.⁷

This way of life is clearly taught and expressed in the Baptismal Promises. In the first three promises we denounce sin, the wayward attraction to sin, and Satan. In the last three promises we acknowledge the array of Christian beliefs, assert our faith in the Holy Trinity and in Jesus Christ, and acknowledge the Church. Seen here, the baptismal promises fully summarize the biblical and constant teaching on the baptismal way of life of the Christian believer:

Do you renounce sin, so as to live in the freedom of the children of God?

Do you reject the lure of evil, so that sin may have no mastery over you?

Do you reject Satan, the author and prince of sin?

Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered death and was buried, rose again from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father?

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?⁸

Faith and Baptism

As we understand our Baptism and review the promises of this first sacrament, we begin to deepen our comprehension of what it means to be a member of the family of God. We perceive anew why it is important to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus, and we start to grasp the context from which the Lord’s question—“Who do you say that I am?”—is given and why our answer is so important.

The grace of faith is poured into us at baptism, and yet some initial faith is needed in order to be baptized. Those of us who were baptized as children had our parents attest to their own faith, a type of “proxy faith” for us, and they pledged that they would raise us in the faith. Those who were baptized as adults went through a catechumenate (usually...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• PART ONE: “LORD”
• PART TWO: “TEACH US”
• PART THREE “TO PRAY”
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Back Cover