Article 3. In the Age of the Church

On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Promise was poured out on the disciples, gathered “together in one place.”1 While awaiting the Spirit, “all these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer.”2 The Spirit who teaches the Church and recalls for her everything that Jesus said3 was also to form her in the life of prayer.

In the first community of Jerusalem, believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers.”4 This sequence is characteristic of the Church’s prayer: founded on the apostolic faith; authenticated by charity; nourished in the Eucharist.

In the first place these are prayers that the faithful hear and read in the Scriptures, but also that they make their own—especially those of the Psalms, in view of their fulfillment in Christ.5 The Holy Spirit, who thus keeps the memory of Christ alive in his Church at prayer, also leads her toward the fullness of truth and inspires new formulations expressing the unfathomable mystery of Christ at work in his Church’s life, sacraments, and mission. These formulations are developed in the great liturgical and spiritual traditions. The forms of prayer revealed in the apostolic and canonical Scriptures remain normative for Christian prayer.