When we get our prayers wrong

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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time. Year I, 12 October 2023
Malachi 3:13-20    <*{{{{><  +  ><}}}}*>   Luke 11:5-13

Forgive us, Father,
when prayers confuse us
that we sin more against you
like those people mentioned 
by your prophet Malachi
in the first reading today:

You have said, “It is vain to serve God, and what do we profit by keeping his command, and going about in penitential dress in awe of the Lord of hosts? Rather must we call the proud blessed; for indeed evildoers prosper, and even tempt God with impunity.”

Malachi 3:14-15

Continue to teach us
more about prayer,
suffuse us in the light
of the Holy Spirit
so we may be more 
pliant and docile to
your will, loving Father;
empty us of our pride
and fill us with Jesus
so that we may 
know him more clearly,
love him more dearly,
and follow him more closely
daily.

Let us realize that
you alone, O God,
whom we must solely desire 
in our prayers that is
why we must persist
and persevere (Lk. 11:9-10)
because 
when we have you,
then we have everything!

May we keep in mind
that prayer is a relationship,
O Lord, not a transaction
to have things;
may we realize 
that prayer changes
the person
not the situation;
most of all,
prayer is more of 
listening to you
than of us speaking
for you listen always
to our pleas and
prayers; you are so good
and so loving,
God, that you want
only the best for us
we never realize
because we are so
occupied with ourselves
in prayer
not with you.
Amen.