In prayers, which our Saviour censures, Matthew 6:7 , were short forms or particular expressions in prayer, which the Jews were accustomed to repeat a certain number of times. So Roman-catholics still repeat the Lord's prayer, Ave Marias, etc., a great number of times; and think that the oftener a prayer is repeated, the more meritorious and efficacious it is. The repeated cry of a soul in earnest is indeed welcome to God, Genesis 18:1-33; Matthew 26:44; Luke 18:1; but he regards the heart and not the lips; and the greater the number of prayers one repeats as a task by which to acquire merit, the greater his sin.
Although written in 1859 by William Rand, this dictionary of the Bible from the American Tract Society is still relevant today.Wikipedia
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