Prayer is the most common and direct form of communication of man to God. It is understood as a "two-way traffic street, so much so that to have an effective communication, one has to listen while the other one is talking. And in this regard, it should be a given that the one who has the more important statement to make should have more time in the communication process. "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently on Him." [Psalm 37].
For lack of the proper understanding of prayer, most prayers said are "prayers of requests". While there is nothing wrong with this, it is good to know that there are dimensions of prayers which God appreciates. These are prayers of ADORATION, CONTRITION, THANKS and SUPPLICATION. To remember this easily, we use the acronym, 'ACTS'. ACTS is a beautiful sequence of prayer pattern.
First, we express our love of God in the form of Adoration or Worship. This is the highest form of prayer, proper only to God, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier. Because of the exclusivity of this form of prayer, it is proper only and in fact it is a sin, to accord this kind of prayer to anyone or anything else. Any other expression of love to anyone or anything else, is in the nature of veneration, an acknowledgment of his or her or its holiness, nearness to or friendship with God.
Second, we acknowledge our being a sinner and therefore, we ask for pardon of our sins with a contrite heart, the grace to be restored to the Holy presence of God, and at the same time making a resolve never to sin again.
Third, we thank God for sustaining our life, for keeping us in the company of our loved ones, for blessing us with graces more than we deserve, for giving us all the chances to change our life and to prepare for our final appointment with Him. Only then would we feel justified or worthy to.
Fourth, make a supplication again, to ask for our 'daily bread', the materials things and spiritual intentions that we need, for ourselves, for our loved ones and for our neighbors.
More than just being able to recite our prayers from memory, it is for our deeper sense of belonging to God, that we are able to pray on our own, "straight from the shoulder", as it were, using the prayer of our Lord Himself as our model.
The beauty about knowing the acronym above, is that using it as "our secret code with God", we can pray straight from our hearts, we would not depend only on "canned prayers" published in Prayer Books, Prayer Pamphlets, etc.. Surely, God would prefer to hear our own prayers because then He would know that before we could do so, we must have made a special effort for that intention, and that should spell out a personal and an intimate kind of love for Him.
For lack of the proper understanding of prayer, most prayers said are "prayers of requests". While there is nothing wrong with this, it is good to know that there are dimensions of prayers which God appreciates. These are prayers of ADORATION, CONTRITION, THANKS and SUPPLICATION. To remember this easily, we use the acronym, 'ACTS'. ACTS is a beautiful sequence of prayer pattern.
First, we express our love of God in the form of Adoration or Worship. This is the highest form of prayer, proper only to God, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier. Because of the exclusivity of this form of prayer, it is proper only and in fact it is a sin, to accord this kind of prayer to anyone or anything else. Any other expression of love to anyone or anything else, is in the nature of veneration, an acknowledgment of his or her or its holiness, nearness to or friendship with God.
Second, we acknowledge our being a sinner and therefore, we ask for pardon of our sins with a contrite heart, the grace to be restored to the Holy presence of God, and at the same time making a resolve never to sin again.
Third, we thank God for sustaining our life, for keeping us in the company of our loved ones, for blessing us with graces more than we deserve, for giving us all the chances to change our life and to prepare for our final appointment with Him. Only then would we feel justified or worthy to.
Fourth, make a supplication again, to ask for our 'daily bread', the materials things and spiritual intentions that we need, for ourselves, for our loved ones and for our neighbors.
More than just being able to recite our prayers from memory, it is for our deeper sense of belonging to God, that we are able to pray on our own, "straight from the shoulder", as it were, using the prayer of our Lord Himself as our model.
The beauty about knowing the acronym above, is that using it as "our secret code with God", we can pray straight from our hearts, we would not depend only on "canned prayers" published in Prayer Books, Prayer Pamphlets, etc.. Surely, God would prefer to hear our own prayers because then He would know that before we could do so, we must have made a special effort for that intention, and that should spell out a personal and an intimate kind of love for Him.
