Faith, prayer, Catholicism and other faiths?

[springbreeze]

Dear friends

I have noted on the ask an apologist thread that a few questions have arisen about prayer through other faiths and if they contradict a Catholic in their prayer and should indeed a Catholic look towards other faiths forms of prayer.

I have considered this and have to say…my faith, the Catholic faith, is not a man made faith, it does not derive from a human person nor their thoughts or philosophy, but derives purely from the revelation of God Himself, so I desire to worship God in the way He desires and not the way a human may desire, not that human desires cannot be in some part correct as to how God desires, but the fullness of faith is in how God desires and that is Catholicism. When I type the word Catholic I am still under the impression that some quarters think it is a man made term, but it is not. Christ brought about the One True Faith and those early church Fathers held the fullness of faith that is held in the Catholic faith and no other faith, all events after led to the disallusion of that entirety and really came to bear what man desired and not what God desires of man.

Do people make their own god then in this way, a god that meets their needs instead of God gathering a people unto Himself that meet to God’s law, what He intended of Humanity, we surely cannot pray at all without the Holy Spirit, so what is all other prayer that is not offered in the full deposit of faith? If all faith is gift and proceeds from God how is the lesser accounted for? Is it a prayer that is offered in a lesser deposit of faith? Would this be fair to have greater and lesser? Is the free will at fault? Is the Word not spread as far as it should be with enough fervour of spirit?
If in all other perspectives faiths differ from the One True Faith and cannot be resolved so being, is prayer the source of unity that all faiths in Christ Jesus can find unity in?

Please add your thoughts I am greatly interested in all denominations (name removed by moderator)ut here

God bless you all and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[thomist]

Good questions.

All Christian prayer is Trinitarian: TO the Father, THROUGH Jesus, IN their Holy Spirit. Thus we can say that all Christians are ‘on the same page’ with prayer.

It seems to me that your question really deals with non-Judeo Christians’ prayers. Some thoughts on this:
Prayer is universal among humans, with evidence of it concomitant with the earlist archeological records of humans. For example, I can’t imagine a human mother anywhere, anywhen, NOT praying for her sick baby.
There are, as the Church teaches, several kinds or types of prayer:

• petition (asking for something) - probably the most common.
• penitential (saying one is sorry for wrong doing).
• pleading for mercy
• praise (the Church says that this is the one kind of prayer that encompasses all others)

Pagan prayer shares two of these: asking for some favor (petition) or for mercy.

But there is another component of pagan prayer - often ritualized (rain dances, etc) - that of propitiation. This is where a weaker subject begs a stronger ruler to not harm him. This is NOT the Christian plea in Christ for mercy for us in our sinfulness from God who loves us, but an attempt to sway a spirit to not do damage to us even though we have done no wrong. Prayer in paganisms is NOT an act of love for the spirit prayed to. It is very much akin to how someone in North Korea today or Iraq two years ago would address those in power over them. It is analogous to paying “protection money” to the mafia so that your home’s windows won’t get smashed. You gotta pay the mafia don your money and publicly proclaim him to be a great guy - or else! In the American southwest, indigenous religious practice was eerily similar: You gotta paint one leg black, the other white, put on a mask and do a dance to assuage the anger of the spirit(s) in control of: game, crops, weather, fertility, etc. Love - as we Christians know it - is absent from pagan prayer, which is fear based.

Witnessing to those outside judeo-Christianity is challenging, but if the Christian explains and proclaims the Creator’s love for us as the basis of our prayer, it can attract the attention of the non-believer - it is an aspect of prayer they really don’t think of because they haven’t experienced it.