The prayer that pleases God, the prayer that reaches His heart, is that which comes from profound humiliation, from a heart profoundly humble.

“The tax collector, remained at a distance and did not even raise his eyes to Heaven; but beat his chest saying: ‘My God have mercy on me a sinner!” (Luke 18:9-14)

My dear brothers and sisters, in the parable of the pharisee and the publican wee see two ways of drawing close to the Lord; two models of behavior that we can have before God. See that both the pharisee as well as the publican, who was a tax collector, had a religious posture and were fearing before God. What was the difference between the two? The pharisees completed their religious obligations, they fasted twice a week, they were always in the temple. At first, it could appear to us that they could do nothing wrong. That was not true, for they felt justified for what they did in a way that the pharisiacal spirituality instead of leading one to perfection, led one to vanity.

Vanity does not come from God, for it makes the person have presumption, he finds himself justified, certain correct. Therefore, the pharisee, despite going to the temple to pray, instead of recognizing his own sins, he exalted himself and compared himself to others for believing that he did not appear with none of them.

My brothers, this, many times, is the posture of that person that feels he does not have sin: “What am I going to confess? What do I do wrong?” Those attitudes always make us feel better than the others, when we feel more justified, when we find that we are awarded by God and the others are poor wretches.

Prayer that pleases God, the prayer that arrives at the heart of God, is that which comes from profound humility, for a heart profoundly humble that recognizes: “Yes, I am a poor sinner, I have sin, Lord, therefore, have mercy on me! Have compassion on me for I am not worthy to come near You.”

The prayer cannot bring us to feel prideful, to have the feeling of vanity inside of us or that we feel better than others. On the contrary, once the prayer draw us close to God and all the saints – and us from the fruits of sin – it needs to make us people more humble and mercifulo and to lead us to use more compassion on one another.

God bless you!

Fr Roger Araujo

translated  from Portuguese