Incense was big in ancient religions. You can appreciate why when you think about how much blood was splashed around in ritual sacrifices or how troublesome the smell of bodies (both living and deceased) was in the time before modern hygiene. The perfume industry did well in a world where peculiar odors were the rule rather than the exception. It covered a multitude of sins in more ways than one.

Like most ritual elements, its practical use laid the groundwork for a spiritual interpretation as well. The sweet smell that cloaked odors also drove out evil spirits and welcomed the divine Presence. Smoke provides a certain amount of concealment, too, which is why we speak of a “smokescreen” (effectively used by the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz!). This veil of mystery hints at the sacred One who cannot be seen by mortal eyes. Smoke rises toward the sky, traditionally the dwelling place of the divine. It’s no surprise that the psalm popularly prayed in the Liturgy of the Hours declares: “Let my prayer be incense before you” (Psalm 141:1-2). We also “lift up our hearts” to God in prayer at every Mass. Everything that goes to God, goes up.

Incense comes from the Latin word for “something burned.” It was produced from the resin of trees and burned either in a swinging thurible pot or a stationary brazier. The first is useful for incensing around a crowd of people, as we do at Mass. The second works for producing a cloud around an altar or sacred object.

Before the Second Vatican Council the use of incense was restricted only to High Masses. Now it can be used at any Mass: to honor the sacrament, the assembly and presider, the gospel book, the ambo and altar. The first recorded use of incense in Christian rituals was at a funeral in the year 311, and it’s still used to reverence the body of the deceased at funerals today—reminding us that the destiny of the loved one, as our own destiny, is to unite with God in the life to come.

As liturgist Paul Philibert elegantly expresses it: “Incense, the fragrant, lovely substances that allows itself to be consumed and to float off into indeterminate space beyond our reach, signifies the loving entrustment of our lives to God’s providence.” The sign of incense, burned to ashes yet producing a pleasing fragrance in its surrender, symbolizes our capitulated self-interest in radical trust in the divine will.

Scripture
• Exodus 30:1-10; Psalm 141:1-2; Sirach 24:15; Isaiah 60:6; Jeremiah 6:20; Matthew 2:11; Mark 14:8; John 12:3, 7

Books
• Seeing and Believing: Images of Christian Faith by Frank Kacmarcik and Paul Philibert (Liturgical Press, 1995)
• The Symbols of the Church, ed. by Maurice Dilasser (Liturgical Press, 2000)

Prayer is a spiritual art, so prayer forms differ according to the artist. The Encyclopedia of Catholicism lists three general categories: vocal, mental, and passive. Vocal prayer is anything that uses words—spoken, recited, or sung. It can utilize composed or spontaneous prayers. The psalms and the liturgy of the Mass are two examples of vocal prayers. Mental prayer, by contrast, is silent prayer involving the imagination. The guided-imagery method of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the prayerful reading of scripture (lectio divina) are samples of mental prayer. Passive prayer is also known as contemplation. You don’t control or generate it; you relinquish all to it. In return the mystical encounter awaits as a pure gift of God. Passive prayer can be ecstatic, as Saint Teresa of Avila experienced it. It can also relate to suffering, as it did for Teresa’s friend Saint John of the Cross.

Another way to envision prayer-forms are two categories Franciscan friar Richard Rohr suggests: mental prayer and body prayer. The vocal and mental forms outlined above fit into Rohr’s idea of mental prayer. Body prayer by contrast means “to pray from the clay”—the vessel of the self formed from clay and divine Breath. That includes spiritual activities as diverse as walking a labyrinth or the Stations of the Cross, making a pilgrimage, praying with rosary beads, tai chi, or yoga. Depending on your level of participation in passive prayer mentioned above, these could be mental prayer or a full-body experience.

The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia gets more explicit, listing 16 prayer forms. The first bunch are communal: public (shared prayer), Eucharist (the source and summit of the faith), scripture (where God speaks), and the Divine Office (psalm-led prayer on behalf of humankind). Tre Ore, the least familiar on this roll call, is a Trinity prayer in which one hour is given to silent adoration, one to reflection and writing, and a third to group-sharing.

The MCE list includes the familiar: personal prayer, spiritual reading, silent listening, recitation (e.g., rosaries, litanies), mental prayer, contemplation, and examination of conscience. It also explores the idea of recollection (bringing God to mind throughout the day); meditation (guiding the intellect and reason); affective prayer (involving emotions); and journaling as an interactive mapping of the spiritual journey.

These prayer-forms are by no means a complete list. Consider them a place to begin.

Scripture
• Numbers 6:24-26; the Psalms; Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 1:46-55, 68-79: 2:29-32

Online
• A downloadable “User’s guide on the ways to pray” by Linus Mundy
• “Find Your Spirituality Type” quiz by Roger O'Brien
• “What's the difference between saying ‘set’ prayers and prayers in my own words?” by Alice Camille
• “How is the Mass ‘prayer’”? by Alice Camille

Books
• Prayer and Temperament: Different Prayer Forms for Different Personality Types by Chester P. Michael and Marie C. Norrisey (Open Door, 1984)
• The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer by Joan Chittister (Twenty-Third Publications, 2009)

PRAYER is the food of faith, as one theologian put it. Christians have sought the best way to feed their faith since the disciples first asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus offers a lot of advice about how to pray in other places: Pray in secret and don’t call attention to it. Pray in groups especially when you need spiritual support. Pray often, pray briefly, and don’t multiply fancy words. Ask for what you need and you’ll get it. Pray when faced with bad spirits and difficult cases. Be watchful and prayerfully alert in times when fear may cause you to be weak.

Jesus also offered parables about effective prayer: Pray with humility and honesty, like the tax collector rather than the self-congratulating Pharisee. Be persistent in prayer, like the widow before the judge. Forgive your brother or sister before you offer your gift at the altar. Finally, Jesus gives his insistent friends a prayer that does all these things. Early Christians found it so useful they were urged to say it three times daily in the late 1st-century book of the teaching of the apostles known as the Didache. Today the “Our Father” is also prayed at every Mass, in the Liturgy of the Hours, in reciting the Rosary, and in many other devotions.

The early church father Tertullian called the Lord’s Prayer the perfect summary of the whole gospel. The heart of the prayer is an invitation to God to make the kingdom coming a present reality. The fulfillment of that kingdom is the end of all need, so we pray for what mortals need most: provisions, pardon, and protection. The prayer begins with “you” statements and ends with “we” petitions. That makes sense because faithful people must begin with submission to God’s will before we can anticipate its fulfillment in our present needs. God’s will first; then ours.

The petitions don’t imply that God has to be informed of what we need. Rather they express our confidence that God will address our needs. Jesus instructs us to begin our prayer intimately, calling on God with the familiarity of a child. Knowing the Holy Name of God presumes intimacy: In the ancient world, such knowledge gave you a certain inside track in a relationship. Invoking the kingdom to be realized “on earth as it is in heaven” brings the will of God directly into human experience. Everything about this prayer invites God to bring this world ever more closely in line with the new creation promised in Jesus.

Scripture
• Matthew 5:44; 6:9-13, 33; 7:7; Mark 9:29; 14:32-38; Luke 11:1-13; 18:1-14; John 12:27-28

Podcast
• The Lord’s Prayer; a presentation by Father Dennis Hamm on the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer

Books
• The Greatest Prayer by John Dominic Crossan (HarperOne, 2010)
• The Three Greatest Prayers: Commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Apostles Creed by Saint Thomas Aquinas (Sophia Institute Press, 1998)

"Pray unceasingly," Saint Paul urges his fledging communities throughout his letters. But Paul never spells out precisely how to do that. He does recommend prayers of petition (asking for what we need) and thanksgiving (giving credit where credit is due). He also models, at the start and finish of every letter, his own prayers of praise and blessing. In addition Paul often quotes hymns he either wrote himself or were circulating around the early church. He advocates that "psalms, hymns, and inspired songs" be sung regularly in a spirit of gratitude.

What we can gather from this varied advice is that both spontaneous and traditional prayers played a part in the lives of early church members. If we go back even further to the time of Jesus, we can see evidence of the same. Jesus often crept off by himself to pray in deserted places or on hilltops. But he also attended more formal synagogue services and even went up to the Temple for major feasts. The prayers of Jesus recorded in the Garden of Olives at the end of his life were quite personal and spontaneous--to say nothing about passionate.

But when his disciples asked him to teach them to pray, Jesus provided for their voiced need with a simple formula of prayer we know as the Our Father or the Lord's Prayer. It begins with praise ("hallowed be thy name"), invokes hope ("thy kingdom come"), and invites a series of petitions from the specific ("give us this day our daily bread") to the far-ranging ("deliver us from evil"). The prayer Jesus teaches also acknowledges personal responsibility for the relationship with God we are crafting by our every decision ("forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us").

Traditional Jewish prayer, particularly in the Book of Psalms, is rooted in the formulas Jesus and Paul espouse. There's room for prayers of asking and thanking, praising and hoping. There's even a prayer-style known as the lament, which is sort of like whining with a faithful conclusion.

What all this suggests is that if you have something to say to God, by all means say it. If you don't know how to begin, our tradition can supply many wonderful starting points for the conversation. But the most important thing, of course, is to engage that conversation-unceasingly!

Scripture
Matthew 6:5-13; Luke 11:1-13; Ephesians 6:18-20; Philippians 4:6; Colossians 3:16; 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; see also the Book of Psalms

Online resources

Articles from VISION magazine on prayer: "Five steps to better prayer" by Sister Melannie Svoboda, S.N.D. "Point and click to pray" by Carol Schuck Scheiber. Online prayer resource: Prayer Support from the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province

Books
Beginning to Pray by Archbishop Anthony Bloom (Paulist Press, 1988). Also available as an audiobook from St. Anthony Messenger Press.
Prayer by Joyce Rupp (Orbis Books, 2007)
Prayers from Around the World and Across the Ages by Victor M. Parachin (ACTA, 2004)

The Catholic position on praying for the dead stands on two other doctrines: the teachings on purgatory and the communion of saints. First, purgatory. It's best described as a condition—not a place—between death and heaven. Notice that it's not between heaven and hell, as many folks presume. There's no chance that a person in need of preliminary purification can ever be lost. If a person were lost, they'd already be in hell.

The church teaches that remarkably few people are so holy that they can attain heaven in one leap or so irreconcilably evil that they wind up straight in hell. The deliberate choice to turn from God and grace and not to look back is rarely made, and in any case it's not for us to judge. So what's left for us is to pray for all who go before us in death, especially those known to us personally.

Our belief in the communion of saints is an acknowledgment that death doesn't break the bonds of our relationship to one another. The holy ones are praying for us, and we are praying for the less-than-holy-ones still working out the details of their journey to total union with God. Because God is love, anything unloving has to be left behind for that union to take place. In the "economy of salvation," the currency we use to assist our friends is prayer.

Praying for the dead means more than only saying prayers for them. It can include offering a Mass for their sake, giving alms in their name, or any good work performed for their intention. And should we do these things for bad people, even really bad ones who may have hurt us? Those folks more than any others need our help! Jesus tells us to love our enemies and to bless those who injure us. Certainly we can bless others in death as well as in life.

Praying for the dead is an ancient practice. The Jewish community was doing it two centuries before Christ, as evidenced in the Second Book of Maccabees. Inscriptions in the catacombs of the first five centuries, not to mention ancient liturgies of the church, testify that early Christians fervently followed this practice. Those who have gone before us need our prayers. And someday we will likely need prayers ourselves.

Scripture
2 Maccabees 12:38-46; Luke 6:27-36, 37-42

Online resource
Father Ron Rolheiser, O.M.I. on "Praying for the Dead"

Book
Praying for the Dead: A Holy and Pious Thought by Michael Miller (Our Sunday Visitor: 1994)

Pamphlet
Praying for the Dead (Catholic Truth Society, 2008)

Saints don't come from a cookie-cutter mold. Some attain this status by virtuous living and others for surrendering to a brave and holy death. Some were saint-like from childhood (see the lives of Prince Casimir of Poland, Catherine of Siena, or Maria Goretti). Others were knaves for quite a while first (check out Augustine, Pope Callistus I, and Bernard of Corleone).

Technically, you make the register of saints by undergoing a process known as canonization, which includes a thorough examination of the life and circumstances of the person under consideration. Dying for the faith (martyrdom) is the quickest route into the canon of saints, and posthumous miracles credited to your intercession always help, though they've not always been strictly necessary.

But for every saint who makes the official canon there are thousands and thousands of holy people who fly under the radar of each generation, living and dying in equally astonishing measures of grace. What it comes down to is that canonized saints are held up as examples of virtuous living for the whole church, but the saints of God are more numerous still.

So does that mean you can pray to your kindly departed grandmother? That depends on a sound understanding of how we interact with saints of any kind. Despite what you may have seen or heard, Catholics don't worship saints. Worship and adoration are reserved for God alone in the Persons of the Trinity. What we offer saints is veneration: due honors for their achievements in grace. (Mary, the Mother of God, gets a higher veneration called hyperdulia, but even she is not a candidate for worship.)

We also seek the intercession of saints: their spiritual assistance. Saint Dominic consoled his brothers at his death by reminding them: "Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life." If your grandmother were a holy woman in life, she'd probably agree with Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who declared: "I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth."

Scripture
Matthew 5:1-12; 16:24-25; 2 Corinthians 13:11-12; Ephesians 1

Online resource
Saint of the Day

Books
Sister Wendy's Book of Saints by Wendy Beckett (Loyola Press, 1998)
Holy Simplicity: The Little Way of Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, and Thérèse of Lisieux by Joel Schorn (Servant Books, 2008)
God's Doorkeepers: Padre Pio, Solanus Casey, and André Bessette by Joel Schorn (Servant Books, 2006)

Our ideas about prayer often keep us from recognizing it as more than something we do. At heart, prayer is better understood as something that overtakes and envelopes us—not unlike our experience of love. In the celebration of the Mass, our longing for God is answered by the self-gift of God in the Eucharist. This makes the Mass the highest and most perfect prayer.

In the Bible, God’s people demonstrate their longing for God in praise, thanksgiving, intercession, and blessing. These forms of prayer are present in the Mass. In fact, the word Eucharist means “thanksgiving,” and the central part of the Mass, the Eucharistic Prayer, is one of thanks and praise. We offer “asking” prayers at the time of the General Intercessions but we also pray for the living and the dead during the Eucharistic Prayer. In addition, we pray penitentially for our common sinfulness at the start of Mass and receive a blessing at the end. Catholics begin and end prayer with the Sign of the Cross, and the Mass begins and ends with this sign of blessing.

It would be a misperception to view the Mass as prayer only in the sense that it’s full of prayers. The entire liturgy is a “sacrifice of praise” offered in the gift of our time, presence, and mindfulness. (A friend of mine notes that her praying begins on the way to church, as she hopes for a parking place!)

Liturgy means “public work”: It’s the prayer we offer together as the community of faith. It is also the source of all personal prayer, contemplation, and meditation. Our public prayer includes readings from our most sacred books: the Hebrew Law, prophets, and writings as well as the gospels and letters of the early church. The readings are followed by an exhortation known as the homily. Although “the talk in the middle” can seem like a break in the action, it should fit seamlessly with the rest. The homily helps us contemplate the relationship between God’s story and ours as we move to consummate that relationship in the Eucharist.

Scripture
• Exodus 15:1-18; Psalms 8, 19, 100; Luke 1:46-55; Acts 2:42-47; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; 14:26; Ephesians 1:12; Colossians 3:16-17; 1 Peter 2:9: Revelation 19:1-10

Online resource
• “Praying the Mass” by Father John A. Hardon, S.J.

Books
• The Mass: An Invitation to Enjoy It by Amy Florian (ACTA Publications, 2003)
• Eucharist by Robert Barron (Orbis Books, 2008)

Some people ask this question less diplomatically: What good is prayer? What does prayer do? One thing I’ve found helpful to consider is what prayer is not: It’s not the coin you put in the celestial gumball machine that gives you a return on your investment in kind. Prayer is neither payment in advance for services rendered nor is it divine bribery. God will not say: OK, already—25 rosaries is enough! You get the vintage muscle car!

Yet Jesus does use the image of a harried judge entreated by a widow about her cause so long and earnestly that he gives in for fear she might get violent. If even the hard-hearted judge caves in to just demands, won’t God be even more likely to attend to ours? This sounds good in a parable. Still, most of us can remember having prayed quite hard for things we didn’t get.

The 6th-century mystic John Climacus was no stranger to this problem. “When requests are made to God and are not immediately answered, the reason may be one of the following: either that the petition is premature, or because it has been made unworthily . . . or because, if granted, it would lead to conceit, or because negligence and carelessness would result.”

Bede the Venerable, 7th-century Doctor of the Church, agrees at least that timing is a factor: “It also sometimes happens that we seek things entirely related to salvation with our eager petitions and devoted actions, yet . . . the result of our petition is postponed to some future time.” He notes that we’ve all been praying “Thy kingdom come” for quite a while, yet no one has yet to have the kingdom delivered at the end of the prayer. It will come “at the proper time,” he concludes

In the 12th-century the Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux probably offered the most popular answer: “[God] will give either what we ask, or what he knows to be more profitable to us.” This echoes the prayer of Jesus in the garden: “If it be your will, let this cup pass; still, not my will, but yours be done.”

I’ve been praying for 35 years for a reconciling of hearts between two people I love very much. One of them died two years ago without the healing ever taking place. Yet I haven’t stopped praying for their reconciliation. Because I believe they both need it, now more than ever. I leave it to God to work out the details.

Scripture
• Matthew 6:5-13; 7:7–11; Luke 11:1-13; 18:1-14; 22:39-46; John 11:41-42; 15:7; 16:26 (see also 2 Maccabees 12:38-46)

Website
• From Saint Augustine's commentary on the Sermon on the Mount

Books
• Prayer by Joyce Rupp (Orbis Books, 2007)
• Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris (Mariner Books, 2001)
• Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom (Paulist Press, 1970)

Like all parts of creation, time can be harnessed for a sacramental purpose: to direct us to the holy. The Liturgy of the Hours is a ritual that engages the sacred character of time and helps us participate in the sanctification of each day to God’s purposes. Time is holy. We’re more mindful of that as we pray the Liturgy of the Hours.

Praying throughout the day has a long history in the church. The practice is rooted in the synagogue prayer which Jesus attended regularly. Jesus teaches his followers to pray and models frequent habits of prayer. In Acts the apostles gather for daily prayer with other believers. Saint Paul urges us to pray “unceasingly.” According to the early church theologian Tertullian, by the early 200s A.D. Christians were trying to do just that. They gathered for morning and evening prayer. They supplemented these communal moments with private prayer at rising and upon retiring and in between at the third, sixth, and ninth hours. They even interrupted their sleep to pray once during the night. These hours were identified with events in the life of Jesus. The midnight prayer, for instance, reminded them that Jesus would return one day “like a thief in the night.”

That was a tiresome schedule for most people with day jobs! Eventually two forms developed: monastic prayer and cathedral prayer. Monks and cloistered nuns might continue to keep the hours described above. Most Christians gathered for morning and evening prayer (matins and vespers) daily. Other hours were optional and private as time permitted. Yet even the people’s cathedral prayer became more formalized and gradually came to be viewed as the property of clergy. Lay folk abandoned it in favor of simpler prayer styles like the rosary.

The Second Vatican Council sought to reclaim this ancient and valuable prayer for the whole church. The council reaffirmed that clergy need not be present for the faithful to gather to celebrate the Hours. Simplified (and less expensive) versions of the Liturgy of the Hours in single-volume format have made this prayer style even more inviting. Personally I consider the years I’ve spent praying the Hours the most fruitful season of my life as a person of faith. This prayer reminds me that every day is a gift from God, every hour an opportunity for grace.

Scripture
• Matthew 5:44; 6:9-13; Luke 4:16; 6:28; 11:2-4; 18:1; Acts of the Apostles 2:42; 3:1; 20:36; 21:5; Ephesians 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Online resource
• Universalis offers the Liturgy of the Hours online

Books
• Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours (Catholic Book Publishing, 1999)
• Practical Guide for the Liturgy of the Hours by Shirley Darcus Sullivan (Catholic Book Publishing)
• A Companion to the Liturgy of the Hours: Morning and Evening Prayer by Shirley Darcus Sullivan (Catholic Book Publishing, 2004)