Too often, our prayer is self-centered rather than God-centered. It becomes all about us, our needs, our wants and our desires, rather than what God wants of us. This is not how we were taught to pray. Saint Paul reminds us that our prayer should not be a litany of our desires but instead should include thanksgiving to God for all that He has done for us, and supplication, a lifting to God of the needs of all. Traditionally our prayer should include four things, adoration, contrition, thanksgiving and supplication (ACTS).
If we truly have the peace of God in our hearts then there is no cause for worry or anxiety. We take all of our problems and give them to the Lord in prayer. We trade our stress and worry for peace of mind.
Paul instead tells us to focus on the positive things of the world; whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. This is the conduct of a person of prayer. It does us no good to dwell upon our faults and failings or the problems of the world, that just leads us back to worry and anxiety.
Finally Saint Paul calls us to action, do what we have learned, and received, and heard, and seen in him. A person of prayer is a person of action and the key to finding peace in a world of stress and distress is not worry but prayer, thinking positively, and doing what is right.
Pax Vobiscum
27th sunday in Ordinary Time
“Saint Paul” from Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral, Toledo, Ohio
Peace be with you as well…