By Agbortem with inspirations from L’effort Cameroonais N°492(154)068
I was born in a catholic home and so grew up with many catholic friends and relatives. When we were children, we were introduced and initiated into the catholic faith by our parents. We were all prepared for mass on Sundays and since I attended a catholic primary school, there was roll call at the end of every Sunday’s mass to know those who were present at mass. The results of the roll call were read every Monday morning by our class teacher and those who did not attend were punished. We grew up to know that there was one God and one church; the Catholic Church though we did not notice the birth of other churches.
Today, some of my friends no longer go to church or worship in the Catholic Church. (I do respect their choice) Whenever I am opportune to question them why they no longer worship in the Catholic Church, they all give me the same answer, “Catholics don’t know how to pray and read the bible”.
They all claim to have discovered God in their new churches since they have learnt the art of praying. The truth in this is that my friends simply don’t understand what prayer is all about.
Prayer is not an art and there is no particular way of prayer talk less of a canon to determine who prays well or not. It is not a demonstration of biblical passages or well arranged words and phrases to the likeness of people beside you. It is not all about how many times you call Jesus name when praying or how you can shout Holy Ghost fire to bind demons. It is not about shouting like a madman or crying like a little child.
Prayer is the expression of our desires to God whether for ourselves or others. This expression is not intended to instruct or direct God what to do, but to appeal to His goodness for the things we need; and the appeal is necessary, not because He is ignorant of our needs or sentiments, but to give definite form to our desires, to concentrate our whole attention on what we have to recommend to Him, to help us appreciate our close personal relation with Him. By prayer we acknowledge God's power and goodness, our own neediness and dependence. It is therefore an act of the virtue of religion implying the deepest reverence for God and habituating us to look to Him for everything, not merely because the thing asked be good in itself, or advantageous to us, but chiefly because we wish it as a gift of God, and not otherwise, no matter how good or desirable it may seem to us. Prayer presupposes faith in God and hope in His goodness. (Catholic Encyclopedia)
The catechism of the Catholic Church defines prayer as the raising of the heart and minds to God. This implies that God alone knows who prays well or not.
Each time I hear my friends speak, I ask myself if God has not been answering prayers of catholic Christians. If he has been doing so then why do our protestant brothers always criticize catholic Christians as not knowing how to pray?
Prayer is an action that is carried out by a Christian in fervent faith to God. It entails talking to God from the innermost self and it is guided by the spirit of God.
This takes me to what happened in the gospel of Luke 18:10-14; when the Pharisee and the tax collector prayed. We see in this parable two forms of prayers, the vocal and the meditational. Our lord approved the tax collector’s prayer because it came from his heart and it was in humility and submission to God.
Our protestant brethren believe so much in vocal and spontaneous prayers that they fail to understand that there are other forms of prayers. I am not condemning vocal prayers. They say Catholics recite prayers. I do recite prayers as a catholic and I am saying this with all sincerity. These prayers were written by men of God just like the psalms in the bible. I use them often when I am short of inspirations and words to pray. I remember the day my son died, I could not even say a word and I turned to my Simple Prayer Book and I was able to pray. At times we find ourselves in situations that we lack words to pray; some of these prayers for various needs are there to help us in such moments. There is nothing wrong with reciting prayers but like all prayers, “say what you mean and mean what you say”.
It should be noted that the time of prayers, the environment, the object or intention, our state of mind are very vital factors of prayers. When praying as a family, you don’t pray as if you are praying alone. Else your prayers may be a distraction to those you are praying with. When praying in your office, shop, etc, you don’t pray as if you are praying in a church or your house.
The style of prayers does not matter; what matters is if what we are asking God is for his will to be done in our hearts and in our world. A prayer warrior must be a kingdom seeker for his prayer to be effective. (Mathew 6:33). You pray for something and you do not get it because you pray with the wrong motive of indulging your pleasures. (James 4:3)
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