Speak not much, as the heathens

And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard. Be not you therefore like to them, for your Father knoweth what is needful for you, before you ask him. [Matthew 6:7-8]

Below is a transcript of a prayer from an evangelical on YouTube that I happen to watch (not for the religion part, just for their coverage of other things). This "prayer" - which in truth was more of a lecturing to God - is exactly what Jesus taught against. This is why the Church has structured prayers, like the Mass, the Divine Office, the Rosary, etc, because it helps to focus the mind and stop it from wondering off. Now, there is nothing wrong with personal prayer - but we do have to be cautious about it getting out of control. 

This is why the Collect prayers at Mass are short and to the point: the Roman way of prayer was short and simple. They remembered what Our Lord had taught. God already knows what you are going to ask of Him, so there is no need to drone on and on. Just say what you need to say in a short and simple way. 

This prayer was in response to the in-your-face fraud going on in the US:

Lord God, we come before You right now. I thank You for the patriots who are in Arizona out there on their knees praying and the patriots in Pennsylvania, Michigan and I just pray that every legal vote counts. And that You’re able to throw away all the dead, ghost votes, and the wrong votes and the invalid votes and I pray that You’re able to expose the corruption for what it is because, God, fair and balanced…there is no fair and balanced with Russia, Russia, Russia, there is no fair and balanced with the media, so skewed and lying to people, there is no fair and balanced with the fake impeachment, there is no fair…this is not what our Founding Fathers intended.

But we do know, that throughout history, there have been filibusters, there have been, you know, censors… censoring of, you know, of John Quincy Adams, and the House, and, people have used this wonderful Constitution and wonderful things You’ve sent. You have helped our Founding Fathers set up all this, they’ve used it wrong. But we also know that when it can be used for good, and rightly, when it’s done rightly, then it works.

And so, we pray for the lawyers out there, we pray You give them wisdom and pray that You uncover every abnormality and You set it right. Not just to discover it, but it get set right. Cause that’s the most important thing, it’s not enough to just discover it, it has to be made right that invalid votes have to be invalidated, that counts have to be right, and I pray that nobody calls the presidency until the one that You have called to be president is called. And that no network will be able to call it; You’ll stop their malice. We just pray for Angels at all these polling places, we thank You for ballots for Trump will be found, and that any were thrown away and You make it right, because we know that we serve a God of miracles.

And Father God, those other people aren’t praying to You, they’re not calling on Your Name, they’re not asking for forgiveness or mercy, they’re not asking You to convict them of their sins like we are. We’re coming and we’re asking You to set up a righteous leader and Your word, we’re asking according to Your word, and we know if we ask something on Your word that we have what we ask. So, You know, Your word says that when the righteous are in power the people rejoice. So Father God, there are righteous people in the White House. There are good people who are led by You: Kayleigh McEnany, and Donald Trump, and You know, Mike Pence.

Father God, it’s not about those people. As much as we love Donald Trump, its not about him. But, Father God, we also know that there is injustice happening and that Donald Trump is just a representation of what we’ve been trying to say and do and voice for years.

And I pray, Father God, that out of this, there is more than millions of righteous Donald Trumps, so we’re not putting our hopes on one guy, but we just have people all over the country, Christians, who just take the gloves off and are willing to be the David and fight. Who are willing to be the Israelites and take the cities and I mean this, You know, in a spiritual way. And they’re willing to, not just roll over and be the polite Christian that they think makes them somehow virtuous. But a righteous Christian fights for what is right.

And I pray that You give a proper interpretation in the New Testament when Jesus says to turn the other cheek. It doesn’t mean to lay down and let the wicked walk all over the righteous because, Jesus, You came to give justice to the innocent, and there’s no way to give justice to the innocent when the Democrats are in power, because they want to kill babies, and so right now, Father God, again like I prayed last night that You give voice to the babies in the wombs, that You give voice to people who want freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, the righteous defend themselves.

And I just thank You for all the patriots and I pray that You encourage every single heart listening to me right now and every single heart in America, and I just pray that You show them, 1) what is Your will, 2) You give them peace that passes all understanding 3) You give them joy, because it where the Lord will be their strength.

And I pray that we will not live through a time of anxiety or anxiousness but that the Devil will be back on his heels and that the demonically led people will be back on their heels, because they know that they’re time is short. And they only have a few ways to make this happen, but they didn’t account for the God-factor. They didn’t account for prayer. They didn’t account for angels. They didn’t account for You moving. And they didn’t account for the fact that this is not an election. If God be before us, no man can stand against us. Amen

A Catholic version of this prayer would probably be:

Dear Lord Jesus, hear the cries of Your people in the United States, who travail under the yoke of corruption. Have mercy on this Nation, which rests under the mantle of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, who in the first instant of Her conception, crushed the proud head of Lucifer. Grant, we pray, O Lord, that Your Mother may crush his head once more, and that the wickedness of corrupt men may be brought into the light and the works of darkness are exposed. And we pray that by Your grace, justice may be done to the peoples of the United States, who hunger and thirst for justice in this election. May you continue to bless the President and his family, especially at this time, and may You bring them all into the Church, and thus to the Kingdom of Heaven. O Immaculate Conception, Queen of America, pray for us! Amen