"Do not hesitate to open your mouth, and let not your heart hasten to speak a word before God : for God is in heaven, and you on earth : let not your words be few in number" (Ecclesiastes 5: 1).

Here is a very important recommendation about prayer, or even praise : "Do not hurry to open your mouth !" This word is preceded by this indication : "Beware of your foot, when you enter into the house of God: draw near to listen ..." (Ecclesiastes 4:17).

In this verse, God speaks of four members of our body. Three of them are visible: the foot (to enter), the ear (to listen) and the mouth (to speak), and an invisible member : the heart. The goal of prayer is not simply to be physically involved, but to be there with the heart.

Prayer is a fundamentally religious attitude. Prayer exists in all religions of the world. It has visible forms more or less ostentatious. The body is involved in a thousand and one ways. However, when we pray, God looks to the heart. It is essential that our whole body (mouth, feet, hands, knees, eyes, ears ...) and our heart, are on the same wavelength.

God abhors hypocrisy. David could continue to give way, playing the harp, after committing adultery, and killed Uri the Hetian. But the truth in his heart was gone. It will be necessary for the prophet to put him face his sin by saying to him : "You are that man". Then David will take off his mask and repent of his hypocrisy. He will declare : "But you want the truth to be in the heart ..." (Psalms 51: 6).

Often, religious practice tends to make men hypocritical. Moreover, many synonyms of hypocrite, plunge their roots into religious vocabulary : bigot, bondieusard, devotee, Jesuit, Judas, Pharisee, tartuffe. God does not call us to have the appearance of piety, he invites us to seek out what makes him the strength, that is, the truth.

Let us not forget that Noah was a drunkard, that Abraham was a liar, that Moses was a murderer, that David was an adulterer and a murderer, that Paul was a persecutor, that Peter was a renegade. If their sin is revealed to us, it is not so that we may find excuses for our sins, but that we may find, as they do, the path of grace in repentance and in the true confession of what we are . In the hearts of these men of the Bible, God saw in them repentance and humility.

My decision on this day :

Before I raise my voice to pray, I make the decision to listen to what God wants to tell me, and to examine my heart in all truth.

Paul Calzada