And now let’s say a few words about the monologues of catechumens (catechumens’ prayers) before God. Prayer is a conversation-communion, a dialogue with God in the Holy Spirit. It is clear that only Christians pray (commune with God in the Holy Spirit). And catechumens only address (not directly, that is, there is a “distance” between God and the catechumen in understanding the differences in ways of being: the catechumen is still proud, selfish…, and the Lord is humble, meek. To Cornelius came an angel and conveyed the answer from God to his prayers-monologues to God, and only then did the catechumen Cornelius receive the Holy Spirit, was baptized into the Body of Christ, and in Christ his prayers became a dialogue with God in the Holy Spirit! – see Acts 10) God (in monologues), appeal to Him, beseech Him, express with word, feeling, deed gratitude, repentance, desire to be one with God, enter into communion with Him, friendship, worship God… So, catechumens cannot commune with God (directly, in the Holy Spirit), but they are given the command to pray (this is one of God’s commandments) – to walk before God, to be in the presence of God, to stand before God, to have the memory of God, to address God, to beseech (implore) God, to talk to Him, to reveal all their desires to God, to ask, to thank, etc. Someone might say: what about God – why does He keep silent? Why does God say nothing to the catechumen? Why must only the catechumen say something, why in reality it turns out to be a monologue? The answer is very simple: the Lord in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, full of the Holy Spirit, has already said and accomplished everything (and continues to speak and act – Lovingly caring for each hypostasis)!!! The monologue of the catechumen is an attempt to at least say something, to somehow respond to the Lord, the Hypostatic Divine Love for all that God has given and constantly gives to each person (the entire created world, everything outside my “I”, my consciousness-freedom – this is all a Gift of God’s Love to me, this is the word of Love-Devotion, spoken by God to me, this is the confession of God’s Love for me: “So God the Father loved me (each person), that He gave His Son for me on the cross, to terrible torments, humiliation…, to save me, so that I may receive the Holy Spirit, be deified, so that I may become a god by grace!”). Therefore, the monologue (prayer) of the catechumen is an attempt to thank God, to express, to articulate gratitude to God, an attempt to respond with reciprocity-love to God’s Love! Therefore, the catechumen hears a response from God through Christians (God’s prophets in this world) to their prayer of gratitude – “He who loves Me (God) is the one who keeps My commandments!”
“We do not know what we should pray for (what to desire),” says the apostle, and then joyfully adds, “The Holy Spirit intercedes for us, teaches us to pray, prays-desires in us.” All the more catechumens – they do not know what to pray for, what to ask of God, how to stand before Him, what is pleasing to the Lord! Therefore, the Church (Christians) teaches the catechumens to pray – gives them prayers (words, rites…) for their monologues, the essence of which is repentance and thanksgiving. The Church gives the catechumen prayers – teaches the catechumen what he “says” (with all life, with all the forces of being) to God; so that the catechumen with attention, reverence, with the aim of repentance listens to what he says (what he prays) to God, and fulfills it, lives these prayers! Therefore, prayer is a road map of repentance (the path to baptism with the Holy Spirit), it is a program of actions, duties, a list of tasks-deeds that I must perform (“for the glory of God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ!”). Therefore, the prayer of the catechumen (which is performed before God) is a monologue addressed not to God, not God should listen to it, but the catechumen himself, for the prayer he says is addressed to him, he must hear and fulfill it (for God, in the name of Jesus Christ)! And people, instead of living (acting) according to prayers, recite them (“Lord! Lord!..”) to God for hours!? And these maps, plans, lists of actions-commandments are intended not for God, but for us! The addressee of the prayer is us, not God (Who knows everything and Loves us!), in prayers given by the Church (for example, “Our Father”), it is told to me what I should desire, what I should do (for example, “forgive all – sincerely, from the heart, to receive forgiveness from God”), how to live (“to see my own faults, and not to judge my neighbor; to be merciful to all and humble before everyone”), what to seek (“chastity, humility, patience, love” – see the Lenten prayer of Ephraim the Syrian), what to fight with (“sloth-idleness-emptiness, despair-hopelessness, power-seeking, idle talk”) etc. And the prayers of the pagans – baptized (“Christians”) and unbaptized (who do not know that God is Love, Person, Freedom, Catholic Consciousness) – are reduced to instructions to God, ultimatums, threats, blackmail, magical incantations with “mysteriously performed formulas”, “rites of Sacraments”… in a word, to attempts to change God, not to change themselves: “let my will be done, not Yours, Lord!”? Everything is upside down! And they do not understand, poor ones, that God needs to be listened to, not to tell God something, prompt, explain – God is Love, will never harm us, no matter how much we ask Him (to do our will: for Him to become what we want Him to be, for Him to be this or that…).