The Parables of Prayer
CTS Notes on Prayer Book 5
Msgr Antonio Pitta
Pope Francis (Preface)
ISBN 9781784698294
This is volume 5 of a new 8 volume set released for the Jubilee 2025, and the fourth I have read. All 8 volumes have the same preface from Pope Francis. Each volume is by a different author. The books were originally released in Italian, and have since been released in Europe by the CTS, and there are forthcoming edition by Our Sunday Visitor for North American Release. The original series and the CTS editions are marked as ‘Notes on Prayer’, the OSV editions the series is called ‘Exploring Prayer’. Some of the titles are different between the two editions and one even has an Americanized name for the author. My recommendation is to get the CTS editions, they are excellent. But back to this third read which is of the fourth volume.
The description of this volume states:
“In this fifth of eight booklets on prayer, Msgr Antonio Pitta delves into the parables Jesus told his disciples to uncover the lessons they have to give on how to pray well. Specifically, he shows how the insights of the Parables of Prayer reveal the meaning of the Our Father, Jesus’s greatest catechesis on prayer.
“Prayer is the breath of faith; it is its most proper expression. Like a silent cry that issues from the hearts of those who believe and entrust themselves to God.” – Pope Francis.”
The chapters in this volume are:
Preface by the Pope Francis
Introduction
Jesus and Prayer
The Our Father: The Prayer of The Disciples
The Troublesome Friend and The Daily Bread
The Merciful Father and The Remission of Sins
The Widow, The Judge and Faith
The Pharisee, The Tax Collector and The Holiness of The Temple
The Parable of The Fig Tree and The Approach of The Kingdom
Conclusion
I highlighted several passages while reading this volume, many are longer passages, some of them are:
“The intuition on the teaching of prayer in parables comes from the evangelist Luke, who is particularly sensitive to both traits of Jesus. He is the greatest master of parables, even if it is necessary to distinguish the original source of the parables from their final version. The former is owing to the historical preaching of Jesus, the latter to the influence of the first Christian communities and ultimately to the composition of the individual evangelist. In any case, as Joachim Jeremias understood quite well, whoever delves into the parables of Jesus finds himself on a solid historical basis.”
“Except for the parable of the fig tree, which is also found in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, the other parables on prayer are found only in the Gospel of Luke, the foremost Gospel of prayer and parables. Without wanting to force the matter, we believe that the connection between the Our Father and the parables on prayer is an original one. Jesus illustrated the Our Father with parables, and with these He continually referred to the Our Father. Ts back-and-forth is decisive, between the Our Father and the parables of prayer, and so the most appropriate way to recite and explain the Our Father is found in the parables.”
“The Spirit and vigilance go hand in hand. The Spirit teaches us to pray because He cries aloud in the human soul, and vigilant prayer is born from the presence of the Spirit of Christ in the hearts of believers.”
“Jesus of Nazareth was a man of prayer: this is one of the undeniable historical facts about His earthly life. During the few years of His public life, He often retreated in prayer, to the point that, one day, His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1).”
“All of the Gospels portray Jesus in prayer, Luke's more than the others at the crucial moments of His life in prayer Jesus receives baptism in the Jordan (Luke 3:21 ). Before choosing His disciples He spends a night in prayer (Luke 6:12). His transfiguration on the mountain takes place during prayer (Luke 9:28-29). When He knows the end is near, despite His young age, His prayer becomes more intense: His was a true agony, a struggle that was anything but peaceful (Luke 22:44).”
“That Jesus was Son of God belongs to the shared faith of the first Christian communities; it is the level of His humanity that remains to be demonstrated. What is in quest ion is not an original perfect ion, between the two natures (divine and human) of Jesus, but rather that related to sacrifice: of one who, through agonising prayer, has achieved a perfect sacrifice.”
“Without diminishing the [unction of the Temple and the synagogue, Luke notes that Jesus prayed everywhere: in the desert, on the occasion of temptations (Luke 4:1) or in isolated places (Luke 5: 16, 9:18 ). Yet for prayer He preferred the mountains, as
before choosing the disciples (Luke 6: 12) and on the occasion of the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28).”
“The preference for the mountain is due to one of the features of prayer: ascesis, or upward tension. When it is authentic, prayer provides a state of buoyancy (not lightness) by which one is lifted upwards. This state 1 ~ proper not only to exceptional situations of ecstasy or rapture, but to any experience of prayer. Heaven recall the place of encounter for the one who climbs a mountain to pray.”
“I here is not just one type of prayer, but this takes on different express ions depending on the many situations. This also holds true for Jesus, who modelled different forms of prayer for His disciples: thanksgiving, blessing, praise, petition and supplication.”
“One widespread form of prayer in the environs of Palestine was praying with the Psalms.”
“Personal and community prayer often become petitions. Among Jesus's petitions, one that stands out is for the harvest: it is great, but since workers are scarce, He asks the disciples to pray that the Lord will send workers into His harvest (Matt 9:38).”
“For Jesus, vigilance that becomes prayer is the means to make it through the unforeseen and be ready to meet the Lord (Luke 21:36), This is a matter of vigilance in prayer, and not of some sort of nocturnal sleeplessness.”
“Where there is prayer, evil, and in particular "the evil one': withdraw and lose their power.”
“Greater maturity in prayer leads to greater awareness of one's smallness. The "little ones" in question are not those who remain children, gripped by a form of permanent infantilism. Rather, "the little ones" are those who become so through their relationship with the Lord. Those who have no social or political sway are on the receiving end of God's will, transmitted through revelation by Jesus.”
“The parables of prayer are situated within Jewish piety and the public life of Jesus, who taught His disciples to live in the world with wisdom and discernment, but above all to pray.”
“John the Baptist and Jesus were men of prayer. However, while the Baptist embodied prayer with fasting and asceticism in the desert, Jesus conferred on prayer the traits of everyday life. For both, prayer requires diligence, constancy in following someone who is a teacher of prayer. With Jesus, prayer became daily, normal and constant.”
“The short version of the Our Father contains five petitions, while Matthew reports seven. The Gospel of Matthew adds the petitions concerning the divine will in heaven and on earth (Matt 6:10) and redemption from the evil one (Matt 6:13). As in Matthew 6:9- 13, the Our Father in Luke 11:2-4 is divided into two parts: the petitions on the sanctification of the Name and the advent of the kingdom, in the first part (Luke 11:2) those on the life of the disciples, in the second (Luke 11 :2-4). More than Matthew does, Luke selects the Our Father as the manifesto of discipleship.”
“He taught prayer with parables taken from daily life because either prayer is daily, or it isn't prayer at all.”
“Rather, prayer progressively deepens the relationship with God who is Father.”
“Rather, prayer is necessary for the disciple, like daily bread, because it nourishes his interior life. The asking to receive, seeking to find and knocking to open are implicitly directed to God, who is a provident Father with His children. In practice the need for God is the inner engine of prayer.”
“More than other areas of life, prayer is an experience of weakness: that of someone who ultimately does not even know what he should ask for. So the Spirit helps the disciple by becoming his companion and uniting Himself with his breath. The Spirit is the breath of God poured into the hearts of believers (Rom 5:5).”
“Faith is, at the same time, fidelity, re liability, trust, reliance and credibility; it is not reduced to the contents lo be believed but involves the relationship with the Other. In practice, the faith that Jesus asks of the disciple until His return is the trust that the Lord is on his side and does not forget that He is the nearest relative who looks out for the one who doesn't manage to come out of the temptation against faith.””
“Prayer is not just made up of words, but is characterised above all as a way of presenting oneself before the Lord. The actions of the tax collector who stands off at a distance, does not allow himself to look up to heaven and beats his breast, are already prayer, and often do not need words, or at least not many words.”
“If at the beginning of the journey to Jerusalem the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, it is because Jesus often kept vigil in prayer.”
“On the contrary, Scripture proclaims a different hope, based on an event and not on human desire: the exodus from Egypt is the paradigm of Jewish hope, and the Risen Lord is the ultimate reason for Christian hope. Between those who have no hope and those who believe, a hope stands forth which, rooted in faith and love, becomes a conviction that earthly life has a hereafter.”
“Pilgrims of hope is the motto of the next Jubilee for the Church in 2025. To the extent that prayer assists in the recognition of the signs of the times, the hope of believers is based on the encounter with Christ. The Christian life begins when the Master summons the disciple to follow Him; the epilogue is lo go to meet Him in the lively hope of remaining with Him forever.”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume. There were several things in this volume that caught my attention. This was a much more academic presentation than the other three volumes I have read in the series so far. There was much that caused me to slow down and take note in this work. It is a volume I will reread again and again. For a little volume it packs a great deal of excellent information. This was also the first volume that began and ended speaking about the Jubilee 2025 year. Thus circling back to the purpose for the book and the series.
When I was in university, I was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, there was a series of booklets by the founder Bill Bright, called Transferable Concepts, and by reading them many times you could almost memorize them and the message so that you could share it. This volume reminds me a lot of those books, but specifically geared for Catholics; and specifically on Prayer for the Jubilee year in 2025. I am planning on jumping around and not reading them in order my first time through, but already have plans to reread them again this year between Christmas and New Years and that time I will read them in order.
The description of the series on the CTS site states:
“The “Notes on Prayer” series is an inspiring collection of eight booklets from the Vatican, designed to deepen and enrich the prayer lives of Catholics as they journey through the Year of Jubilee 2025, themed “Pilgrims of Hope.”
Each booklet in this series is a powerful resource, offering spiritual guidance, reflections, and wisdom from Church teachings, Sacred Scripture, and the lives of the saints. Whether you’re seeking personal renewal or walking the path of forgiveness and reconciliation, this series will help you grow in intimacy with God during this special time of grace.”
The first four books in this series I have read are excellent, if the others are as good as those four; we have over 700 pages of instruction on prayer. Being half way through the series I can state that so far they are great reads. It is an excellent collection; these books would be good for any school, home, or church library. I can easily recommend this book and series and encourage you to give them a read!
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2024 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.
Notes on Prayer Series:
1. Prayer Today: A Challenge to Overcome - Cardinal Angelo Comastri
2. Praying with the Psalms - Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi
3. The Prayer of Jesus – Juan Lopez Vergara
4. Praying with Saints and Sinners - Fr Paul Brendan Murray, OP
5. The Parables of Prayer – Msgr Antonio Pitta
6. The Church in Prayer - Carthusian Monks
7. The Prayer of Mary and the Saints Who Met Her - Sr Catherine Aubin, OP
8. The Prayer Jesus Taught Us: Our Father - Fr Ugo Vanni
…
Original Italian Editions
CTS Editions English
OSV English Editions
No comments:
Post a Comment