Every prayer you make

In today’s Gospel, Jesus warns us not to be like the pagans who multiply words and prayers in order to be heard. There are some who accuse Catholics of doing this very thing: praying multiple Our Fathers, rosaries, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Those who make this accusation misunderstand what Catholics do in prayer – indeed, they misunderstand what any Christian’s prayer is all about. Prayer is directed to God, but it cannot change God.

In speaking of the Lord’s Prayer, St. Cyprian says, “After this we say ‘Hallowed be thy name.’ This is not because we want God to be made holy by our prayers: what we are asking God is that his name should be hallowed within us.”

Thus we Christians pray constantly and even repeatedly, not to make God hear us or to make God do anything, but by His grace to open ourselves to His grace – again and again, more and more – to change us, to make us more like what God wants us to be.

We need to keep this in mind whenever we pray, that our intention should be to let God change us and make us ever more perfect with every word we pray.

His Will be done.