Specific Prayers

How clear are your prayers? Do you pray specifically? Yes, God already knows what you need, but He also wants to hear you pray. The action of prayer is what He often waits for before He acts -- not because He is weak, but because He wants us to be a part of what He is doing, and only when we pray can we open our hearts enough for Him to guide us.

Now, there are certainly some who seek to mention absolutely every need they ever heard about in prayer. I once heard someone praying for his uncle's next door neighbor's cousin's dog. Well, at least he cared. Although that is really not appropriate in the Mass, when you are in prayer privately or with your family, you have far more to pray about than you realize. Do not cut it short--pray for everything God puts on your heart.

Someone once said to me, "there are so many things to pray about, I don't have enough time". Yes, that is true for most of us (retired folks, though they often do not know it, can be terrific with a prayer life since they have more time to devote to the "so many things"). What I like to tell people is, be as specific as you can, and summarize when you need to; God knows what you need. It is more important to open yourself up in prayer and speak to God, so that you can listen as He speaks to you.