Church at prayer, also leads her towards the fullness of truth and inspires new formulations expressing the unfathomable mystery of Christ at work in his Church’s life, sacraments and mission. 1200 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 e. I. Blessing and Adoration 1078 2626 Blessing expresses the basic movement of e: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God’s gift and man’s acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other. The prayer of blessing is man’s response to God’s gifts: because God blesses, the human heart can in return bless the One who is the source of every blessing. 1083 2627 Two fundamental forms express this movement: our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father — we bless him for having blessed us;97 it implores the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father — he blesses us.~8 2096—2097 2628 Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us99 and the almighty power of the Saviour who sets us free from evil. Adoration is homage of the spirit to the ‘King of Glory’,’00 respectful silence in the presence of the ‘ever greater’ God.’°’ Adoration of the thrice-holy and sovereign God of love 2559 blends with humility and gives assurance to our supplications. II. Prayer of Petition 2629 The vocabulary of supplication in the New Testament is rich in shades of meaning: ask, beseech, plead, invoke, entreat, cry out, even ‘struggle in prayer’.’°2 Its most usual form, because the most spontaneous, is petition: by prayer of petition we express awareness of our relationship with God. We are creatures who are not our own beginning, not the masters of adversity, not our own