[Heart-Rest]

I like how you quote Matthew 6, but omit "do not use vain repititions as the heathen do" The Our Father Prayer is not a prayer that we have to say. Christ said when you pray, pray like this... Christ meant that in prayer we are to give glory to God, seek God's will, ask for our daily needs, and seek forgivness.

If you repeate a Psalm over and over thinking God will like you better because you said it 50 times instead of once, then yes that is a vain repitition.

You concept of prayer bears no resemblence whatsoever to mine. I do not pray to make God like me better.

I also never said you have to say the "Our Father". However, do you think it is wrong to say it?

I do not use vain repetition in my prayers either, and I would not presume to claim that I can tell what is in the mind or heart of anyone else who is praying. I hope that you wouldn't either.

[LukeL]

Where did I say to make God better? I said to give glory to God and to seek what we need, be it guidance, health, wisdom etc.

[Natural Law]

"I do not pray to make God like me better."

We Catholics believe that we do not pray to change God or to wear Him down. Further, there is nothing we have done, nothing we have thought, nothing that we need or want that He does not already know. We primarily pray to bring about change within ourselves. Sometimes this takes repetition and reinforcement, but none of it vain.

Endless sectarian sniping serves no one but Satan. Let us ask our Protestant brothers and sisters to unite with us in the love of Christ and one another to face the challenges and threats of this world and these times.

"Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this— not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way." - Romans 14:13