The trivializing of Prayer

Here's a quote from Richard Rohr concerning prayer:

“Everything exposed to the light itself becomes light,” says Ephesians 5:13. In prayer, we merely keep returning the divine gaze and we become its reflection, almost in spite of ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The word “prayer” has often been trivialized by making it into a way of getting what you want. But here I use “prayer” as the umbrella word forany interior journeys or practices that allow you to experience faith, hope, and love within yourself. It is not a technique for getting things, a pious exercise that somehow makes God happy, or a requirement for entry into heaven. It is much more like practicing heaven now.

Coming from a protestant evangelical tradition i've been brought up to see prayer as asking God to do things, the things that we think we or the world needs.

i like the contemplative approach to prayer; in fact as we gaze on God we are changed, transformed and we no longer come to Him with our 'shopping list/wish list'. But we become one with the One and His desires because ours.