Elijah, Daniel, and Hannah were the Old Testament pillars of prayer. Our Lord Himself gave us an example of how we must pray in Matthew 6:7-15. What is prayer?

PRAYER

When I was in grade school the nuns in our academy diligently taught us the "basics" of prayer which consisted of repeated intervals of "Our Fathers", "Hail Marys", and "Glory Be's". It was imposed upon us to memorize these prayers and added to this were the Latin prayers we said at mass. Although we never understood any of it, we gave our unquestionable obedience to the nuns running the school for fear of "excommunication" by the church.

Perhaps it was because of my age-I started school at six- and we said the rosary (everyday) before class, that I usually fell asleep halfway through the "prayer" or got lost midway through the mysteries. Oftentimes, I got a glare or two from Sister because I get the mysteries all jumbled up and not in the right sequence.

It was the same story in high school when I was enrolled by my father at a university run by a congregation of
priests. There was more notoriety on our part because my naughty classmates used to "jump" the beads and go to the last ten beads when the teacher falls asleep "praying" the rosary. And yes, there were the endless processions that we had to attend and the same "prayers" we said like parrots while attending them.

My family came from a religious background but that did not essentially mean we got connected to God. Later in life, a series of changes and events led me to search for a deeper meaning to my own life. The turning point came when I had a severe trial and was at the point of suicide, and the first real prayer that I said was, "Lord Help me!" No memorized lines, no practice, just plainly crying out to God.

That moment I got connected. I knew God heard my cry and He answered.
It was not an audible "I-can-hear-you"
voice or thunder and lightning kind of answer, but just as you feel the wind touch your cheek, so did God's Spirit touch my spirit. That is the essence of true prayer.

Prayer is talking to God and listening for His answer. There is no fixed pattern or rule as in memorized and lengthy "prayers" that are voluminous in words but devoid of meaning. This is what our Lord Jesus Christ called 'babbling' which the Pharisees practiced hoping that God would hear them "for their many words".

Prayer can be done without words.
The communication with God is from heart to heart. The Bible says "man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart."

When we pray, we come to God as we are. There can be no pretenses as His presence will sift through our motives and desires and even align our petitions according to His will. Prayer changes things, but it also changes us. No one who comes before God's throne remains unchanged.

Power through prayer comes only from God and true praying gains access to it. Daniel's prayers closed the mouth of the lions, Elijah prayed that no rain would come and it happened, Hannah prayed for a son, and God gave her Samuel.

Answers to our prayers come not because we deserve it but because of God's mercy and these are His gifts to us. Some prayers remain unanswered or have been answered in much different ways than we expected. In Jeremiah 33:3 God assures us "to call unto Me and I will answer you..." and in Jeremiah 29:12 "Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you."

His promise to "answer" and to "listen" assures us that God is Who He says He is. He said "you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." That is the purpose of prayer. We pray because we seek God with our hearts and we find Him because He promised "to be found by you."

In Jonah, the prophet prayed thus,
"When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, O Lord, and my prayer rose to You, to Your holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."
(Jonah 2:7-8)

In prayer, we do not need any picture or object to "remind" us of how God looks like. This is absolutely absurd. God is a Spirit and all who pray to Him must do so in spirit and in truth. Some religions stubbornly "cling to worthless idols and forfeit the grace that could be theirs."

God does not look at great prayers with eloquent words, He looks at great faith. When praying for others, I have experienced greater joy in God's answers than that experienced by the person being prayed for.

Prayer is God's gift, I invite you all to try it. Just lately, God answered one of my heart's unspoken prayers, and I'm still in awe at the
joy He has given me.