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As God's People, we must pray personally and privately or, as Christ taught, "in secret:' If we pray only at the public liturgy of the Church then, even there, our prayer will be shallow and weak. We must pray alone, behind closed doors, not merely in our rooms but in the "room of our hearts," as the saints teach us. Within ourselves we must:
• ask God for what we need;
• thank Him for what we have;
• praise Him for His mighty holiness and His tender mercy and love;
• complain and lament before Him over our frustrations, confusions, and sorrows; and
• seek from Him light in the face of darkness and comfort in the midst of affliction.
Because Christ Himself said, "Be holy, as I too am holy," we ask and seek that very thing, so that we who have been made holy in Baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be. For this we pray daily. We have a daily need of being made holy, so that we who sin daily may be cleansed again of our sins by continual sanctification. We pray that this sanctification may abide in us, and we make this petition in our constant prayers, asking it day and night, so that the sanctification and life which is received from the grace of God may, by His protection, be preserved.
— Saint Cyprian of Carthage
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