Prayer

I hadn't thought about it much until our cell group met and prayed last night.

In the past several months, prayer has become different for me. I find that i just don't know what to pray. There are lots of "things" and people that need prayer. Obviously God needs to work in my life and other people's lives and in situations all over. I used to spend hours praying for people and situations in specific ways. But i haven't been able to do that, lately.

I don't know what God wants, apart from what has been clearly revealed in the scriptures. I can't even pray for myself or my wife with much specificity. Sure, i can tell God what i want, but i want to want what God wants and i've discovered that i don't know what i once thought i knew.

But i do pray. I pray using the Psalms. I pray using the prayers that other saints have written. I pray using prayers from the scriptures. It's not just sitting down and reading these things like i'm reading a novel or the newspaper. I really do enter into prayer. Using the Liturgy of the Hours, i pray this way several times a day. And throughout the day, there are prayers both from the Liturgy and other places which i have memorized that well up within me spontaneously:

"Our Father who art in heaven..."
"Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit..."
"You are God, we praise you..."
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord..."
"Come, let us sing to the Lord..."
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy..."

These, among others, are the prayers I pray throughout my day.