The main object — to please God.

2. The second part of the Sermon narrated in the 6^th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, expounds the Lord’s teachings on charity, prayers and fasts, and also exhortations for people to strive toward the main goal in life — God’s Kingdom. Having warned His followers what they have to, and what they shouldn’t do, in order to attain happiness, the Lord turned to the question as to how they are to fulfil that, which He had decreed. All works of charity, veneration of God — in particular fasts and prayers — should not be performed for public show, for the sake of praise from the people, because in this case, our sole reward will be this public acclaim. Vainglory - like a moth - vainglory devours all good deeds. That’s why it is better to perform them privately, so as not to be denied our reward from our Heavenly Father. Naturally, one should be charitable, but this has to be done without the aim of bringing attention to one’s self, seeking praise from people. It is not forbidden to pray in church - only to pray intentionally for show is forbidden. According to Saint Golden Tongue, one can utter prayers through vainglory in a room, but then “the closed doors will not bring any benefit.”

Verbosity in prayer is interpreted as the heathen’s opinion of prayer, just as in conjurement, which when repeated many times, may produce a result. We pray not because God doesn’t know our needs, but solely to cleanse our heart and become worthy of His mercy, having entered with our spirit into an inner communion with Him. This communion with God is the objective of prayer, the attainment of which is not reliant on the volume of spoken words. Censuring verbosity, the Lord at the same time decrees to pray continually, teaching that you have to pray always and not to despond (Luke 18:1), Himself spending the night in prayer. A prayer must be sensible: we must turn to God with requests that are worthy of Him, which will be salutary for us. In teaching us this type of prayer, the Lord gives in the nature of a model, the prayer “Our Father” — for which it received the name of Lord’s Prayer.