Rote Prayer

In Matthew 6:7, Jesus declares, “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.” In its proper context, Jesus is teaching those gathered for his Sermon on the Mount about prayer. He says this right before giving them what the Church sees as the most perfect and sacred prayer, the Our Father.

Before I entered the Catholic Church I heard probably more than a thousand times, how Jesus here is condemning rote prayer; that this proves that prayers such as the Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, are nothing other than vain repetition; that priority should always be given to spontaneous prayer. But then something happened.

As I began to study the Faith more carefully, and grow deeper in my relationship with Christ, I realized something that was for me, altogether new. My “spontaneous” prayer had actually become quite rote in many ways. I regularly prayed for the same intentions, drawing from the same Scriptures. Was this “vain repetition?” No! Ultimately my faith was not, and is not in those words themselves, but rather the loving God to whom those words are addressed.

Jesus was not saying that rote prayer is something bad. But rather, Jesus was warning against the very thing that we can all so easily fall prey to: simply going through the motions for the motions sake. See, there is a difference between praying a prayer and saying a prayer. That difference begins in the heart. Furthermore, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church provides us with a rich treasury of traditions of prayer, so that we may grow in holiness and in relationship with Christ. It is in these prayers that have been handed on to us that we learn the language of prayer. We learn to still our minds, let peace enter our hearts, turn off all the chatter of the world, and draw closer to Christ.