Power of Praise
[Prayer of] thanksgiving for favors received is a means to obtaining other favors … Therefore, fall in love with the practice of the prayer of thanksgiving. It will dispose you to other gifts. (Lett., 1173, pp. 253 - 254)
In St. Vincent Pallotti’s practice of prayer, he made use of different forms of prayer, that is, prayer of adoration, prayer of petition, prayer of contrition, and prayer of thanksgiving. Yet the most significant form of prayer of his life was prayer of thanksgiving. St. Vincent did give thanks for the favors he received from God, but he added a new dimension to his prayer of thanksgiving. While he placed a favor before God in prayer, he thanked God for it at the moment of his placing it before God as if he had already received it. This form of thanksgiving manifested his complete trust in God’s promises. St. Vincent believed that thanking God for the gifts he received would help a person to receive many other favors from God. He gives the example of Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers. The foreign leper who came to thank Jesus after he was healed, received from Jesus the grace of deeper faith in him and commitment to him, besides the gift of healing. The other nine who did not return to thank Jesus, received only the gift of healing. The prayer of thanksgiving has a special power which the other forms of prayer do not have. Hence, St. Vincent advised his followers to embrace prayer of thanksgiving as their regular form of prayer in order that they may receive many more gifts from God.
Do I understand the value of the prayer of thanksgiving? What form of prayer is a priority in my spiritual life? Do I thank God as I place a favor before God? What concrete steps do I need to take to make prayer of thanksgiving my way of reaching out to God in prayer?
Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another [in] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs … giving thanks always and for everything. (Eph. 5: 18 – 20)