Prayer and Scripture?

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Seamus_Sully

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There seems to be four levels or acts of prayer.

GOD
  1. Contemplation (and it has level or acts)
  2. Affective
  3. Thinking prayers or Meditation
  4. Vocal prayer
Is there a connection between the four levels of Scripture and the four acts of prayer?

Thank you!
 
There seems to be four levels or acts of prayer.

GOD
  1. Contemplation (and it has level or acts)
  2. Affective
  3. Thinking prayers or Meditation
  4. Hearing or reading the Holy Bible
Levels of Scripture
  1. Angogical
  2. Moral
  3. Allegorical
  4. Literal and historical
Again,is there a connection between the four levels of Scripture and the four acts of prayer?

Thanks!!!
 
Well, I don’t think no one has answered you because no one wants to but because no one has thought of connecting the 4 ways of interpreting Scripture with the 4 types of prayer you cited. If there is a connection, I have never heard of one, but maybe someone else, who simply hasn’t seen your thread has. 🙂

Personally, I don’t think there is any connection, except that each of the things you listed are 4 in number. If I’m wrong about that, I am ready to be corrected. 😉
 
Seamus Sully,

What are your thoughts about it? You must have given it some thought.
 
I made a rough draft of a possible connection.

Anagogical------------------------Contemplation
The prophets, saints and mystics must have had visions of God’s eternal beauty and infinite happiness. They sat quietly in prayer hoping to receive God Himself.

Moral--------------------------------Affective Prayer
One must love the beauty of chastity. One must love the beauty of faith. One must love the beauty of fortitude. In other words, how could one not love the beauty of chastity, sobriety, fortitude, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit and the theological virtues?
One must realize that one must receive all these things from God. It “shuts us up.”

Allegorical-------------------------Meditation
One begins to see and love Christ more clearly. One begins to fall in love with Christ’s beauty in the sacraments, virtues, and the Holy Bible.

Literal--------------------------------Lectio Divina
One must hear or read the Holy Bible. Hearing or believing is the first step in our ascent of the beautiful ladder of love to heaven. “Lovealogy” or ”Charityology” 101…
 
I actually don’t think they are specifically related, other than through being ways to grow closer to God. There has been a lot written about how people of different personalities prefer different styles of prayer, and at different points in your life different types of prayer are preferred. I am actually in a class on Spirituality at the moment, and we have been experiencing contemplative prayer. Everything I have learned says it is not preferred or less than any other style, although there are many who think it is a very pure form of prayer that centers us on God and does an excellent job in bringing us very close to God.
 
awalt

Thanks!

I love your Bible passages.

I will make good use of them.
 
I still am meditating on the topic.

If one does not believe the literal level of the Bible is true, then one will not believe the creation accounts. One might even believe in the pagan teaching of evolution. This did lead to the pagan belief that some humans were not human, at least by some pagan influenced Christians. They could not have had much of a prayer life. They would also have a poorly developed level of morals. This seems to be joined to the moral level of the Bible.

If one does not believe in Adam, then Adam cannot be a type for Christ. And Christ cannot be the antitype for Adam. Thus there is no allegorical level of the Bible.

If one does not believe in the literal Noah, then Noah cannot be a type for Christ. Again, the Ark is a type for the Church. This is joined the moral life; at least I would think it to be. We need to get in the Church to be saved from the floods of evil and sin.

If one does not believe in the literal, one might not believe: “This is my body.”

Then one cannot have much of a life of prayer.

Again, I am just considering the point of how the levels of the Bible are joined to our prayer life.

Well, I am not sure if these thoughts are valid or invalid. I am just thinking out “loud.” I would give this more time, but my wonderful children need some love.
 
If one only believes the literal level of the Holy Bible one may run into great difficulties.

Jesus said something about cutting off your hand and cutting out an eye if they are sinful. I will do some evil things to my own body. The saints clearly teach that these eyes and hands are in the moral realm. We need to stop doing evil. Thus I need God’s grace. I must turn to the sacraments, prayers and good works.

It seems to me that the levels of scripture are interrelated or correlated or conjoined to prayer.

Well, these are just a few ideas.

Any help? I would like to have some help!!!
 
To me considering the four levels of meaning falls within the meditatio,
 
This idea may be a little crazy.

Are there any fundamentalist that are mystics?
 
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