It seems to me that there is a kind a prayer that might feel like a vending machine. There is something that you want or need; you put some money (prayer) in and hope that it will fix this or that, provide the help you feel you need, etc.
And, there is the prayer that notices the pre-dominant self-interest of that kind of prayer and tries to avoid that through the repetition of platitudes — almost as if doing so would make the general graces of God or power more available to you. If you can get some kind of generic benefit from doing so, then you’ll try it...sometimes even for a long time.
Then there seems to be the kind of prayer that is more contemplative; the kind that seeks to meld into the sacred, that is about trying to become more aware of the reality of the divine all around us and recognizes the need to access that reality through awareness, rather than leverage.
I'm not trying to suggest the illegitimacy of any of these types of prayer (or others).
I am suggesting though that, at some point, prayer needs to include the goal of or (perhaps better) desire for...awareness.
Because when this happens, it is hard not to notice that awareness of the divine invariably seems to lead us toward gratitude, a kind of prayer in and of itself.
