The wellsprings and forms of prayer

Choose an option and you are told at once whether it was right. The answer and the reason wait behind “Show the answer”.

A watercolor of three lambs beside a spring from the rocks, forelegs spread wide, holding a green sprout, head bowed with eyes closed, next to a lit candle and a closed violet book

Which answer best names the “wellsprings” a Christian draws prayer from?
1. The word of Scripture and the liturgy of the Church, the virtues of faith, hope and love, and this very day
2. The moment when the wish to pray rises on its own — that is, the mood you happen to be in that day
3. The right conditions being in place: a quiet spot and a set hour
4. The beautiful wording of a well-crafted prayer
Show the answer
Answer ① The word of Scripture and the liturgy of the Church, the virtues of faith, hope and love, and this very day
Prayer is not something we squeeze out of ourselves; it is water drawn from wells God has already dug. The second and the third answers leave you putting prayer off until your mood and your circumstances line up, and the fourth turns prayer into a question of how well you can phrase things.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2652-2662
Which answer most correctly describes where Christian prayer is going and the road it travels?
1. It is offered to the Holy Spirit, through the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the Church
2. It is offered to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit
3. It is offered to God, and carried there by my own devotion and effort alone
4. Whoever it is addressed to, it comes to the same thing as long as the heart is sincere
Show the answer
Answer ② It is offered to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit
The prayers of the liturgy close “to the Father, through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit”, and that ending lays the road out exactly as it is. The third and the fourth answers make prayer something measured by the size of my own devotion, and the first shuffles the divine persons out of their places. Prayer addressed directly to Jesus is of course Christian prayer as well — but that prayer, too, flows on to the Father under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2664, 2680-2682
Praying to the saints puts them in God's place.
1. Yes
2. No
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Answer ② No
What we say to the saints is “Pray for us”, and adoration is given to God alone. The saints are not the destination our prayer is trying to reach; they are companions and guides who walked the same road ahead of us.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 956, 2683
When a Christian offers a prayer of petition, what belongs at the center of it?
1. Laying out my situation in full so that God is informed of it
2. Repeating the same words for as long as it takes to be granted
3. That God's kingdom may come — with the day's ordinary requests set around it
4. Asking carefully for small things first, since it would be rude to ask for anything large
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Answer ③ That God's kingdom may come — with the day's ordinary requests set around it
The Father knows what we need before we ask, Jesus said, so prayer is not a briefing that hands God information, and it is not a piling up of empty words either. Seek the kingdom first and the rest will be given along with it — so petition puts God's kingdom right in the middle and sets the needs of the day around it.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2632, 2633
How is the prayer of thanksgiving different from the prayer of praise?
1. Thanksgiving is said aloud, praise is offered inwardly
2. Thanksgiving is for lay people, praise is for priests
3. They are two words for the same thing, so there is nothing to tell apart
4. Thanksgiving is offered for the grace we have received; praise is offered for the sheer fact that God is God
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Answer ④ Thanksgiving is offered for the grace we have received; praise is offered for the sheer fact that God is God
Praise is offered not “because you gave me this” but “because you are who you are”. Roll the two together, as the third answer does, and on a day when it feels as though nothing has been given there is no prayer left to offer — yet praise is exactly what can still be offered on a day like that.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2637-2643
Prayer said out loud can lead on into contemplative prayer.
1. Yes
2. No
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Answer ① Yes
Vocal prayer is often looked down on as prayer for beginners, but that is a misunderstanding: lips that have been saying the Lord's Prayer over and over cross, at some moment, into simply staying there without words. What matters is not whether the lips are used but whether the lips and the heart are there together.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2700-2704
Which answer describes the prayer of meditation correctly?
1. Emptying the mind until no thought at all is left
2. Reading and pondering Scripture or a mystery of the faith, and setting your own life down in front of it
3. Reciting a set prayer from memory without getting a word wrong
4. Writing down every feeling that comes up while you pray
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Answer ② Reading and pondering Scripture or a mystery of the faith, and setting your own life down in front of it
Meditation is not the erasing of thought; it is standing before God and bringing your thoughts, your memories and your longings along with you. The first answer confuses prayer with an exercise in emptying the mind, and the third is vocal prayer, not meditation.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2705-2708
If your mind keeps wandering while you pray, or you feel nothing at all, that prayer has come to nothing.
1. Yes
2. No
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Answer ② No
A wandering mind is a sign that tells you what you are actually tied to, and dryness is the place where faith grows out past feeling. Make feeling the report card for your prayer and you will give up praying at the very point where it is going deepest.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2729, 2731