In which chunky pup teaches me how to pray

2559 "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God."² But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or "out of the depths" of a humble and contrite heart?³ He who humbles himself will be exalted;⁴ humility is the foundation of prayer, Only when we humbly acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought,"⁵ are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. "Man is a beggar before God."⁶ 

(Catechism of the Catholic Church)

First off. Amen. 

Did you know that 1/4 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is devoted solely to prayer?

Man is a beggar before God. A beggar.

Chunky pup, our late golden retreiver was rescued. We took her in when she was probably less than a year old and surmised she was abused. She had quite a few fears such as the fear of being beaten. Anytime we'd raise our voice she'd expose her belly to us and wet the floor. It took us months before she was reconditioned to know that when we were upset with her, we weren't going to beat her. So she did eventually stop wetting the floor and exposing her belly to us when we were stern with her, but she never stopped cowering in acknowledgement that maybe eating the furniture was a really bad idea on her part.


That cowering and acknowledgement of our own scumminess and sinfulness before the almighty God is the power of humility that maybe doesn't move or sway God, but moves and changes us. When we do that, truly acknowledge our own shortcomings and failings honestly before God, something really remarkable happens. It has the power to change our very life because it will affect how we deal with those problem people and situations we face on a daily basis. This happens because we allow ourselves to be seen for who we really are in the light of a good, perfect and eternal loving God.