Prayer has two aspects - the personal dimension and the communal dimension.
When we pray, we will certainly pray for our own needs and intentions. This expresses our personal relationship with God and our dependence on Him in our lives.
But when we pray, we are also in union with the Body of Christ, the Church, as we pray for the needs of the Church and also for the world.
In prayer, we not only look on our own needs but we look outwards to others who are in need.
In the 1st reading, St. Paul tells the Philippians that he thanks God whenever he thinks of them, and every time he prays for them, he prays with joy, remembering how they have helped to spread the Good News.
And he tells them that his prayer for them is that their love for each other may increase more and more and never stop improving their knowledge and deepening their perception so that they can always recognise what is best.
That is what we should also be praying for, not only for ourselves but for others as well.
We, as individuals and as members of the Body of Christ, need to improve our knowledge and deepen our perception so that we can always recognise what is best.
It is through our union with God that we will be able to do what is good and loving and be messengers of the Good News of salvation.