Our Prayers In Practice

We’re all familiar with the four acts of prayer.  The very word ACTS is our reminder of what they are: A for Adoration, C for Confession, T for Thanksgiving, and S for Supplication.  We worship God, we confess and repent of our sins, we thank God for all he has given us, and we ask God for the things we need.  First of all, we should look at the words ACTS and ask ourselves, do we have it the right way round.  I would say, yes, we do, from God’s point of view.  God wants, above all, to be worshiped.  Our Gloria in Excelsis Deo at Mass has things in the right order, starting out with that most vital of all acts, that of worship, Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te—’We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee.’  The highest form of prayer is indeed to adore the Most High God.  In doing so, God himself gives us the graces to realize our own unworthiness and humbly acknowledge that we have seriously offended him by our lack of loyalty and love.  In turn, we then realize that he will forgive us when we repent, and we humbly give thanks for this deliverance from our sins.  Finally, and only then, does he allow us to make our supplications for the things we need.

But as I said, this is all from God’s point of view.  From our own vantage point, we would do better to examine the four acts of prayer the other way round.  S, T, C, A.  Why?  Because that’s how we, as human beings, work.  From the moment we wake up in the morning, we are consumed by taking care of the things we want to do and to have.  We make coffee, we think about our daily schedule—what should we do first, what can we put off till later, we want to do some shopping online, we “need” to work on this or that project.

What I’m suggesting today is that we dive a little deeper into all these legitimate wants and needs.  In fact, it might be a good idea to just throw them all out the window and exchange them for a completely different approach.  On waking, let’s make our Morning Offering of all our thoughts, words and deeds of the day to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Let’s put everything in his hands and think only in terms of what he wants us to do.  And then let’s pray our prayer of Supplication, the S prayer, that he will give us the opportunity, the fortitude, the perseverance, the patience, to do what he wants.  In short, ‘not my will, but thine, O Lord.’  Let’s transfer all our wants into what God wants for us and we’ll be on that path to perfection that we all want but somehow fail to find and follow.

And then, down that path, once we’ve finished doing each little project, no matter how small, let’s thank God profusely that we were able to accomplish his will.  That’s our T prayer of thanksgiving done.  And for what we were unable to fulfill, we should then turn to our C prayer, confessing our weaknesses, our inabilities, our imperfections, and in particular our morally culpable failures, our sins.  After all, we do not always do God’s will, do we?  And then, humbly acknowledging our own inadequacies, let us finally turn in adoration to the Most High, Almighty and All-Knowing God, falling at his feet in humility and worshipping him in all his divine majesty and awe.

Our four acts of prayer are correct.  But let’s try this new approach to them, fulfilling each one in the opposite order.  STCA, not ACTS.  Here’s our new path, if only we make the effort to follow it.  The first step is essential though—always to think not of what I want, but of what God wants for me.