“Lord, help me.”

So why do we pray? We don’t pray just to get things. We pray because Jesus prayed. Jesus is in relationship with His Father and thus speaks with His Father. Jesus desires to do the will of His Father and thus prays and teaches us to pray, “Thy will be done” (Matthew 6:10). Christian’s are little “Christ’s”, in that we imitate Jesus. Jesus prayed and so who are we not to pray. To pray is part of continuing the saving mission of Christ in the world, to do as He did. Prayer is part of the priestly ministry of Christ, a ministry that all the baptized share as they are baptized, prophet, priest and king. “In obedience, therefore, to her Founder's behest, the Church prolongs the priestly mission of Jesus Christ mainly by means of the sacred liturgy. She does this in the first place at the altar, where constantly the sacrifice of the cross is represented and with a single difference in the manner of its offering, renewed. She does it next by means of the sacraments, those special channels through which men are made partakers in the supernatural life. She does it, finally, by offering to God, all Good and Great, the daily tribute of her prayer of praise.” [1]

This prayer of praise occurs daily, for even in our suffering and work it is right to praise God. We should notice the importance of the three ways Pope Pius XII says we prolong the priestly mission by means of the Sacred Liturgy.

1. Mass – where the sacrifice is constantly represented. The Cross with all it merits and Grace is represented to us and to all generations until the end of time. This reality calls the heart to all forms of prayer. What better place to adore, to ask contrition, to intercede for others, to request for self, and to give thanksgiving. The word thanksgiving is where we get the word Eucharist, which is from the Latin eucharistia, the virtue of thanksgiving or thankfulness and from Greek eucharistia, gratitude. [2]

2. Sacraments - those special channels through which men are made partakers in the supernatural life. Once again not only do the rites of the Sacraments include prayer but they are also surrounded by preparation prayers prior and prayers of thanksgiving after.

3. Daily tribute of her prayer of praise – The prayer of praise is seen in the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours, a united voice offered hourly throughout the world. In the monastic life this prayer of praise is offered eight times a day. For the clergy, this prayer of praise is usually offered three times a day. For the lay person, this prayer of praise might be offered once or twice a day. We may also make a Daily Offering, which unites all of our daily prayers, works, joys and sufferings to the prayers of the Church, which are being offered at the Sacred Liturgy.

ACTIVITY – Live Like a Monk
The following schedule maps out a typical day of a Choir monk having already completed his Novitiate in the Benedictine tradition. This schedule is for Choir monks at Clear Creek Monastery near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Monks have lived out this particular schedule for 1500 years. In the Monastic life prayer is not an interruption to life, nor is life an interruption to prayer. The monk prays and works; life and prayer are organically woven together. Saint John Paul II said of monasticism, “I am convinced that the monastic experience constitutes the heart of Christian life, so much so that it can be proposed as a point of reference for all the baptized.” Look at the schedule below. What are the familiar prayers/activities that a lay person would also experience if not daily, perhaps at least weekly?Rise, Morning Prayer, Mass, Study, Work, Recreation, Labor or Work, Evening Prayer, Lectio Divina, Night Prayer. We can make a list of our typical day and write it in beside the monastic day. What are the similarities and differences and why? How is time used differently? How can we incorporate Liturgy of the Hours, Mass and Lectio Divina into our daily or weekly schedule?

Rise: 4:50 a.m.
Matins: 5:15 a.m.
Lauds (Morning Prayer): 6:15 a.m.
Low Mass: 6:50 a.m.
Prime:  8:00 a.m.
Lectio Divina:  9:00 a.m.
Terce, High Mass: 10:00 a.m.
Study or Work: 11:15 a.m.
Sext: 12:50 p.m.
Recreation: 2:00 p.m.
None: 2:35 p.m.
Manual Labor: 3:00 p.m.
Vespers (Evening Prayer): 6:00 p.m.
Silent Prayer: 6:30 p.m.
Lectio Divina or Conference: 7:00 p.m.
Compline (Night Prayer): 8:25 p.m.

Prayer is central to the Christian life. The Christian should believe what he prays, and live what he believes. The woman in this Gospel believed what she was praying! It can be assumed that this woman of great faith also lived out what she believed. Faith, as Saint James tells us is dead without works (cf. James 2:14-17). Works therefore flow from a belief, and belief flows from prayer. 

[1] Pope Pius XII; Mediator Dei, 3
[2] Cf. Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary