The necessity of prayer. The words: ask! seek! knock! convey a command. We must, therefore, pray, because our Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us to do so.
Application. If you will examine what are the qualities of prayer, you will find that you have very seldom prayed well. Your prayers rarely come from your heart, being mostly lip-service. In order to pray with devotion you ought to meditate on the words which your lips utter. St. Elizabeth often took a whole hour to say one Our Father, weighing each single word in her heart. As she pronounced the word “Father”, she meditated on the goodness of God, and excited in her heart feelings of love towards Him. The word “our” made her remember that all men are the children of God, and ought to love one another. The word “heaven” awakened in her heart a longing desire for everlasting happiness, and she resolved to win heaven at any price. And so she went on to the end. You too might, sometimes, meditate in this sort of way on the words of the Our Father, which are so rich in meaning; and remember that 07ie Our Father said with devotion is worth twenty said carelessly.
Chapter L.
THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.
[Luke 18, 1 — 14 ]
JESUS spoke also the following parable in order that He might show forth the difference between true and false prayer: “Two men went up into the Temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee, standing[1], prayed thus with himself[2]: ‘O God, I give Thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men[3], extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican[4]. I fast twice[5] in the week: I give tithes[6]
- ↑ Standing. Upright and self-conscious.
- ↑ With himself, i. e. within himself, not loud, because even he would have been ashamed to utter such a prayer aloud.
- ↑ The rest of men. He set himself on a pinnacle above all other men, and implied that all except himself were sinners.
- ↑ This publican. For whom he had the utmost contempt.
- ↑ I fast twice. Which was not commanded.
- ↑ Tithes. The law only commanded tithes to be given of the fruits of the field; but the Pharisees paid tithes of the most insignificant garden-produce such as “mint, anise, and cummin”. He meant, therefore, to say: “Whereas others do not even observe the commandments, I practise more than is commanded." First he enumerated the grave sins which he had not committed, and then the good works which he had been careful to perform.
