Today we are nearing the end of Samuel's days and the people of Israel, not content with what they have, have decided they need a king since everyone else has one. Samuel warns them that they can have judges but their only king should be God, but "'The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel’s warning and said, “Not so! There must be a king over us.'" So Samuel asks God to give them what they want. And then the Bible goes on to recount the mess that ensued.
The older I get the less my prayer is what would be called prayers of petition, where I ask God for specific things. The Cathecism lists five kinds of prayer: blessing and adoration, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. And of course we have the example given by Mary, "Let it be done unto me according to thy word", as well as the Our Father's "Thy will be done."
Each of these are center not in our own knowledge of how things ought to be but absolute trust in the love of God. Do we have that same trust?
Perhaps today we can take a look at the five kinds of prayer listed in the Catechism and ask ourselves what percentage of our time goes to each. Is petition wrong, No, but it should not be all we do or evem most of what we do.
