Let Every Tongue Proclaim

A man became lost in the desert and was saved when he found the cabin of a missionary. After being nursed back to health, the man asked if he could borrow the missionary's horse to ride to town, so that he might call his family.

The missionary readily agreed, but noted, "The usual commands don't work with my horse. Instead of "Giddyup" you have to say "Thank God." And instead of "Whoa" you have to say "Amen."

Half listening, the man mounted the horse and said "Thank God." The horse began to walk toward the town. Later, the man said "Thank God" and the horse began to trot. So, once more, he said, "Thank God" and the horse began to gallop.

The man noticed that they were heading for a cliff, so he said "Whoa" to no avail. At last he remembered to say "Amen" and the horse stopped just three feet from the cliff.

Relieved, the man looked up to the sky and said, "Thank God."

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In the living tradition of prayer, each Church proposes to its faithful, according to its historic, social, and cultural context, a language for prayer: words, melodies, gestures, iconography. The Magisterium of the Church has the task of discerning the fidelity of these ways of praying to the tradition of apostolic faith; it is for pastors and catechists to explain their meaning, always in relation to Jesus Christ. (Catholic Catechism Par. 2663)

There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus. The sacred humanity of Jesus is therefore the way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray to God our Father. (Catholic Catechism Par. 2664)