Sincerity in Prayer

Two blog posts in one day...feelin it.  Sorry if this offends some, but it is so stinking authentic I had to give it out.  Again from Spurgeoun, Praying Successfully:

"Real prayer is far better than mere ritual because there is meaning in it.  When grace is absent, there is no meaning in ritual.  It is as senseless as a fool's game.  Did you ever stand in a Roman Catholic cathedral and watch the daily service, especially if it happens to be on a holiday?  With the boys in white, and the men in violet, pink, red or black, there are enough performers to entertain a city.  There are those who carry candlesticks, those who carry crosses, those who carry cushions and books, those who ring bells, those who sprinkle water, those who bob their heads, and those who bow their knees.  The whole scene is very strange to look at- very amazing, very amusing, very childish.  One wonders, when he sees it, what it is all about, and what kind of people are really made better by it.  One wonders also what an idea Roman Catholics must have of God if they imagine that He is pleased with such perfomances.  Do you wonder how the Lord endures it?  What must His glorious mind think of it all?  The glorious God cares nothing for pomp and show.  But when you call upon him in the day of trouble and ask Him to deliever you, there is meaning in your groan of anguish.  This is no empty formality.  There is heart in it, is there not?  There is meaning in the sorrowful appeal.  Therefore, God prefers the prayer of a broken heart to the finest service that was ever performed by priests and choirs."  And more: "How we mock God when we do not discern Him as present and do not come near to the Lord Himself!  When the heart or the mind or the soul breaks through itself to get to its God, then God is glorified.  But He is not glorified when we merely perfom ritualistic exercises and forget about Him.  Oh, how real God is to a person who is perishing and feels that only God can save him!  He truly believes that God exists, or else he would not make so passionate a prayer to Him.  When he said his prayers before, he cared little whether God heard or not .  But he genuinely prays now, and God's hearing is his chief concern."  Let us pray real prayers to a REAL GOD!- Stu