Hosea 5:15 - 6:6 / Luke 18:9-14
When we review how our prayer life is going, we may be able to notice how our prayer life has changed in the way we pray.
We may have started off by reciting formula prayers like the Our Father and Hail Mary and the Rosary.
After a while we may feel we want to move on to a deep form of prayer and we will practice meditation on the Word of God and other forms of deeper prayer.
Then we might want to go further and pray to God in a spontaneous way and we start composing our own prayers.
Whatever form of prayer we might have adopted, what is essential is not so much what we say or do in prayer.
Rather it is the awareness in prayer; the awareness of who we are with.
When we realize who we are with in prayer, then we will also realize who we really are.
In the presence of God who is infinite love and mercy, we can only humbly admit that we are nothing without Him and that we constantly need His love and mercy.
Whatever words we might use in prayer and whatever thoughts we might have, let us always remember the prayer of the tax collector in the gospel: God, be merciful to me, a sinner.