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PRAYER

Tuesday of the first week of Lent.

1st reading: Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm:      34:4-7,16-19
Gospel: Matthew 6:7-15

Prayer

My brothers and sisters in Christ, the gospel reading of today seems to teach us how to pray(Mathew 6:7-15). Prayer is a means of communication between God and man. The pagans babble their prayers so that they may make everyone aware that they know how to pray. In the long run, they end up doing a repetitive prayer. Repeating one thing over and over again is a nuisance which probably tends to disturb.
Prayer is meant to be solemn, meditative and following an order.
Jesus in the gospel gives us a perfect prayer which contains all that we say each and everyday of our lives; The Lord's Prayer or Our Father or Pater Noster(Latin).
This prayer acknowledges the father and goes straight to the point because before we pray,God knows what we are about to ask Him(Mathew 6:8) and this cannot be disputed.
 Relating this to the first reading(Isaiah 55:10-11), it tells us that as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to the plant which intends give the farmer food and seed, so does the word of the Lord go and does not return empty. It must do what it is sent to do.
Also, the Psalm of the day tells us that when the just cry out, the Lord hears them and from all their distress, he rescues them......(Psalm 34:18-19)
The salvation of the Lord comes to the just only. The just are those who act according to the word of the Lord and therefore you cannot be praying and be babbling it and making others know that you know how to pray which is a form if Pride and still expect the word of the Lord to be sent towards your petition in order for it to be answered, No!
  Mat 6:6 "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."
The room being talked about here is your heart and not your physical room.
Shut it when you enter means do not let anything disrupt you and don't disrupt others while they are also praying as the heathen do and pour out your heart desires.
In all, the three readings of the day are telling us to have a meditative prayer for it is in our heart that the Lord dwells and not the open air.
Let us therefore be just in our doing so that we can force words from God's mouth to meet our non-repetetive  prayers when we cry out to the Lord in times of Help.
Amen


By:
Edmund Elorm Ackuaku

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