Prayer is not only doing something…but more so, being something to someone. In prayer we not only ask God what we want or need but we are making ourselves available for God to work something beautiful and salvific in and through us. 

Click this link and see: The beauty of prayer.

Or ponder on this story:

I dreamt having gone to Heaven and an angel showed me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, ‘This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God in prayer are received.

I looked around and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings people asked for are processed and delivered to petitioners.” I noticed again how busy it was. There were many angels working hard, since blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there. “This is the Acknowledgment Section, my angel friend seemed embarrassed.

“How is it that there is almost no work going on here? I asked.”

“So sad,” the angel sighed. “When people receive blessings, very few send acknowledgments.”

“How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.

“Simple,” the angel answered. Just say, “Thank you, Lord.”

“What blessings should they acknowledge?” I asked.

“If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy, and if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.”

“If you woke up this morning with more health than illness… You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.”

“If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation… You are ahead of 700 million people in the world.”

“If you can attend a church without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.”

“If your parents are still alive, you are very rare.”

“If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, but unique to all those in doubt and despair…….”

“Ok,” I said. “What now? How can I start?”

The Angel said, “If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.”

Count your blessings, and if you care, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are……….

“Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and the many wonderful people with whom to share it.”