"“Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17).

When we reflect on our own prayers and the manner in which we say them, we will find ourselves beating our breasts and saying: O Lord, be merciful to me for my appalling ingratitude. How often has it happened that we have had some trouble that really worried us – illness, for instance. It may have been an illness that posed a real threat to our lives. We thought that it was something really bad. We prayed – prayed with humility and faith – and our illness disappeared. Yes, it was just gone. And we took it for granted, as if it were our due. The fact is that something very extraordinary happened to us as a result of our prayer. This has been the experience of all of us. No wonder the power of prayer is voiced so strongly. As regards our thanksgiving to God for granting our petitions in prayer, a good resolution would be to spend as much time in thanking God as we spent petitioning him for what we needed.

Such a suggestion may come as a surprise to us. Yet, God’s answer to our prayer is greater than all our thanksgiving. But, you say, I had been praying for years for this intention. Do I now have to keep thanking God for years? My answer to you is: no thanksgiving could be long enough in return for a favour from God. As for the length of your thanksgiving, don’t worry. Just make the sincere intention of putting this act of thanksgiving into all your prayers for the rest of your life. Do not neglect, however, to make specific acts of thanksgiving immediately after receiving a favour from the Lord."

-- Christ our Model by Matthew Aherne, OCarm