I know if he is Roman Catholic, he is likely repeating the same empty words, in the hopes that eventually Mary or somebody else dead will hear him...
Our prayer life is directed toward God, not some subsititiute! He is the ONLY one able to answer!
Matthew 6: 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
One of my favorite passages which I have had to point out a couple of time to my fundamentalist acquaintances who want to link hands and pray at Ruth Chris. :-)
I’m talking about the Psalms... which last I checked is in everyone’s bible.
Are you saying the Psalms are simply empty words.
How can the inerrant words of scripture... be concurrently empty?
Or could it be that Jesus was referring more to their insincerity than to that which was being prayed. From the verse you chose:
6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret...
The image reflected in this post, toward Catholics and our prayer lives, was a more than a bit stereotypical. The Rosary, by the way, is prayer based on Scripture. It replaced the practice of the Psalter, all 150 each day, for the common people who did not read, nor could carry a big heavy Bible around if they could- they needed to work, it was the Middle ages at the time of St. Dominic.