Day 332: Prayer Converts Our Heart

For the People of God, the Temple was to be the place of their education in prayer: pilgrimages, feasts and sacrifices, the evening offering, the incense, and the bread of the Presence (“shewbread") - all these signs of the holiness and glory of God Most High and Most Near were appeals to and ways of prayer. But ritualism often encouraged an excessively external worship. the people needed education in faith and conversion of heart; this was the mission of the prophets, both before and after the Exile. CCC 2581

In today's reading, the Catechism discusses prayer, primarily by focusing on the prophets and the Psalms, as a means of converting our hearts. As the latter is the title for tomorrow's reading, I'm saving David and the Psalms till then. Elijah is presented in Scripture and the Catechism as an example to show that "the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects" (Jas 5:16-18). He teaches Zarephath and confirms her faith by crying out to God in prayer and raising her son (1 Kgs 17:7-24). It was at Mount Carmel that his prayer really showed "great power in its effects" as the pagan priests to Ba'al were exposed as frauds while his sacrifice was miraculously consumed (1 Kgs 18:20-46). 

The Catechism Compendium summarizes the role of prayer in the mission of the prophets:

The prophets drew from prayer the light and strength to exhort the people to faith and to conversion of heart. They entered into great intimacy with God and interceded for their brothers and sisters to whom they proclaimed what they had seen and heard from the Lord. Elijah was the father of the prophets, of those who sought the face of God. On Mount Carmel, he achieved the return of the people to the faith, thanks to the intervention of God to whom he prayed: “Answer me, O Lord, answer me!” (1 Kgs 18:37). (#539)

The Catechism Companion Vol III has some good commentary on this:

In the Old Testament, the Temple was where people learned about God and learned to pray. Our churches serve the same role. Sometimes we go through the motions without converting our hearts. Metanoia is a conversion of thought, a conversion of mind. St. Paul encourages us to change how we think, which changes how we act... Elijah called his people to actually conform their hearts to their outward selves. They were going through the motions; he urged them to change their hearts... In order for us to live out our mission, we have to meet God. We have to have prayer... We we pray, we unite our hearts to the heart of God. (p. 180)