Bulletin Q&A Article; Published 2-18-24:
In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:7, Jesus talks about not praying many words like the heathens, that God knows what we need, so pray the Our Father. As Catholics we have hundreds of prayers recommended for this or that, novena, etc. How does this scripture coincide with these prayers? Or I guess, should we only be praying the Our Father?
Over 2000 years ago, Jesus spoke in Aramaic. Matthew recorded His words in Greek. And today we have many translations of those words that can end up giving us slightly different versions of what Jesus said and that can hinder our understanding of what He meant. In the New American Bible version that we use in our English liturgies in the United States, the verse Mt. 6:7 reads: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.” But in the more traditional Douay-Rheims version which corresponds more closely to the Latin Vulgate, we read: “And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard.” We can look at how the two versions are the same and how they differ.
Both versions convey the idea that Jesus is criticizing the prayer of the Gentiles, those considered to be pagans and heathens. They were known for their long prayers because they had to explain in detail what they wanted from their gods because the gods couldn’t already know. Their prayers consisted of elaborate rhetoric aimed at persuading and instructing rather than entreating God who knows what we want and need. St. Jerome commented on this verse: “That in our prayers we do not instruct, but entreat; it is one thing to inform the ignorant, another to beg of the understanding: the first were to teach; the latter is to perform a service of duty.” So we can understand that Jesus was in part teaching about having the proper intention to our prayer.
But was Jesus telling the disciples not to use many words, or was He telling them not to babble? The dictionary defines babble as: “to talk rapidly and continuously in a foolish, excited, or incomprehensible way.” Some Protestants criticize Catholics because we use standard prayers while they prefer spontaneous, improvised prayer. But I’ve experienced some of their improvised prayer, and much of it seemed like babbling to me. It can also lead to words that are not proper. St. John Chrysostom comments: “Hereby He dissuades from empty speaking in prayer; as, for example, when we ask of God things improper, as dominions, fame, overcoming of our enemies, or abundance of wealth.” There is always the concern that theologically incorrect concepts can creep into improvised prayer. It is one of the reasons that the Church provides a book of approved blessings and, of course, the Missal to provide the priest with the proper words to proclaim at Mass. For good reason, the priest is not free to improvise with the words of the liturgy. Jesus didn’t tell the disciples to improvise, He gave them a short standard prayer, the Our Father. And the Church provides us with many other, short, theologically correct, prayers to guide us when we pray. We need the words, God doesn’t. St. Augustine wrote: “Words therefore are needful for us that we should be moved by them, that we should understand clearly what it is we ask, not that we should think that by them the Lord is either instructed or persuaded.”
Some of the Bible translations also talk about avoiding “vain repetition” in our prayer. But it is not repetition that is the issue, it is when the repetition is in vain. The prayer of the pagans was in vain because their gods didn’t actually exist. Our prayers can be in vain if we are just going through the motions and do not have faith that God can answer them. But repetitive prayer, such as the rosary or the Divine Mercy chaplet, is good. Jesus Himself demonstrated repetitive prayer during His agony in the garden. “He left them and withdrew again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing again” (Mt.26:44). And the four living creature in the Book of Revelation do not cease singing, day and night: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.”
We can pray in many different ways with, or without, words. Praying by repeating well-formed standard prayers is acceptable and is not contradicted by Scripture.
Deacon Joe