Why should we Pray?

Prayer is as important to life as breathing. Some would respond to such with,
“WHAT!!??”. While this statement may seem over the top, it is the truth. One cannot live without breathing, period. It is just so that one cannot have eternal life without relationship to the Trinity. Without communication between folks, how can there be a growing constructive relationship? Even Pontius Pilate developed a relationship with Jesus Christ, yes it was a short encounter but one that Tertullian, Origen of Alexandria and others from the early Church would write about years later that included the dream and possible conversion of both he and his wife, Claudia.
Our opportunity to connect with the Trinity is now, we just simply need to engage…
So, how do we engage? How do we pray?
We are able to read how the Saints prayed, how they were able to engage the Lord on a daily basis. It comes down to personal prayer and learning how we best can pray. This is a place a Spiritual Director can assist. Also there are a number of books that can be used as resource. In Formation, I was introduced to the book, “Prayer and Temperament, Different Prayer Forms For Different Personality Types”, by Chester P. Michael and Marie C. Norrisey, and have used it often for myself as well as others.
The Greatest form of Prayer is the Eucharistic Celebration… yet often times as we attend and participate, we cannot grasp what is being done and said. It’s important to ponder, to back away and look, to delve into the liturgy outside of the Liturgy. And an excellent book for such a dive is Scott Hahn’s “The Lamb’s Supper”.
As for a really down to earth look at prayer by a Saint, perhaps this Homily from St. Alphonsus will assist.

SERMON XXVI.—FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER
On the conditions of prayer
“Ask, and ye shall receive.”—JOHN 16:24.

“In the thirty-ninth Sermon I shall show the strict necessity of prayer, and its infallible efficacy to obtain for us
all the graces which can be conducive to our eternal salvation. “Prayer,” says St. Cyprian, “is omnipotent; it is
one; it can do all things.” We read in Ecclesiasticus that God has never refused to hear any one who invoked
his aid. “Who hath called upon him, and he hath despised him?” (Eccl. 2:12.) This he never can do; for he has
promised to hear all who pray to him. “Ask, and ye shall receive.” But this promise extends only to prayer
which has the necessary conditions. Many pray; but because they pray negligently, they do not obtain the
graces they deserve. “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss.” (St. James 4:3.) To pray as we ought,
we must pray, first, with humility; secondly, with confidence; and thirdly, with perseverance.

First Point. We must pray with humility.
1. St. James tells us, that God rejects the prayers of the proud: “God resisteth the proud, and giveth
grace to the humble” (4:6). He cannot bear the proud; he rejects their petitions, and refuses to hear them.
Let those proud Christians who trust in their own strength, and think themselves better than others, attend to
this, and let them remember that their prayers shall be rejected by the Lord.

2. But he always hears the prayers of the humble: “The prayer of him that humbleth himself pierceth the
clouds; and he will not depart till the Most High behold.” (Eccl. 35:21.) David says, that “The Lord hath had
regard to the prayer of the humble.” (Ps. 101:18.) The cry of the humble man penetrates the heavens, and he
will not depart till God hears his prayer. “You humble yourself,” says St. Augustine, “and God comes to you;
you exalt yourself, and he flies from you.” If you humble yourself, God himself comes, of his own accord, to
embrace you; but, if you exalt yourself, and boast of your wisdom and of your actions, he withdraws from you,
and abandons you to your own nothingness.
3. The Lord cannot despise even the most obdurate sinners, when they repent from their hearts, and
humble themselves before him, acknowledging that they are unworthy to receive any favour from him. “A
contrite and humble heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Ps. 50:19.) Let us pass to the other points, in which
there is a great deal to be said.
Second Point. We must pray with confidence.
4. “No one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded.” (Eccl. 2:11.) Oh! how encouraging to
sinners are these words! Though they may have committed the most enormous crimes, they are told by the
Holy Ghost, that “no man hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded.” No man hath ever placed his
trust in God, and has been abandoned. He that prays with confidence obtains whatever he asks. “All things
whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive, and they shall come unto you.” (Mark
11:24.) When we pray for spiritual favours, let us have a secure confidence of receiving them, and we shall
infallibly obtain them. Hence the Saviour has taught us to call God, in our petitions for his graces, by no
other name than that of Father (Our Father), that we may have recourse to him with the confidence with
which a child seeks assistance from an affectionate parent.
5. Who, says St. Augustine, can fear that Jesus Christ, who is truth itself, can violate his promise to all who
pray to him? “Who shall fear deception when truth promises?” Is God like men, who promise, and do not
afterwards fulfil their promise, either because in making it they intend to deceive, or because, after having
made it, they change their intention? “God is not as a man, that he should lie, nor as the son of man, that he
should be changed. Hath he told, then, and will he not do?” (Num. 23:19.) Our God cannot tell a lie; because
he is truth itself: he is not liable to change; because all his arrangements are just and holy.
6. And because he ardently desires our welfare, he earnestly exhausts and commands us to ask the
graces we stand in need of. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened to you.” (Matt. 7:7.) Why, says St. Augustine, should the Lord exhort us so strongly to ask his graces,
if he did not wish to give them to us? “Non nos hortaretur, ut peteremus, nisi dare vellet” (de Verb. Dom.,
ser. v.) He has even bound himself by his promise to hear our prayers, and to bestow upon us all the graces
which we ask with a confidence of obtaining them. “By his promises he has made himself a debtor.” (S. Augus.,
ibid., ser. ii.)
7. But some will say: I have but little confidence in God, because I am a sinner. I have been too ungrateful
to him, and therefore I see that I do not deserve to be heard. But St. Thomas tells us, that the efficacy of our
prayers in obtaining graces from God, does not depend on our merits, but on the divine mercy. “Oratio in
impetrando non innititur nostris meritis, sed soli divinæ misericordiæ” (2, 2, qu. 178, a. 2, ad. 1.) As often as
we ask with confidence favours which are conducive to our eternal salvation, God hears our prayer. I have
said, “favours conducive to our salvation;” for, if what we seek be injurious to the soul, God does not, and
cannot hear us. For example: if a person asked help from God to be revenged of an enemy, or to accomplish
what would be offensive to God, the Lord will not hear his prayers; because, says St. Chrysostom, such a
person offends God in the very act of prayer; he does not pray, but, in a certain manner mocks God. “Qui orat
et peccat, non rogat Deum, sed eludit.” (Hom. xi., in Matt. vi.)
8. Moreover, if you wish to receive from God the aid which you ask, you must remove every obstacle
which may render you unworthy of being heard. For example: if you ask of God strength to preserve you

from relapsing into a certain sin, but will not avoid the occasions of the sin, nor keep at a distance from the
house, from the object, or the bad company, which led to your fall, God will not hear your prayer. And why?
Because “thou hast set a cloud before thee, that prayer may not pass through.” (Thren. 3:44.) Should you
relapse, do not complain of God, nor say: I have besought the Lord to preserve me from falling into sin, but he
has not heard me. Do you not see that, by not taking away the occasions of sin, you have interposed a thick
cloud, which has prevented your prayers from passing to the throne of divine mercy.
9. It is also necessary to remark that the promise of Jesus Christ to hear those who pray to him does not
extend to all the temporal favours which we ask—such as a plentiful harvest, a victory in a law-suit, or a
deliverance from sickness, or from certain persecutions. These favours God grants to those who pray for
them; but only when they are conducive to their spiritual welfare. Otherwise he refuses them; and he
refuses them because he loves us, and because he knows that they would be injurious to our souls. “A
physician,” says St. Augustine, “knows better than his patient what is useful for him” (tom. 3, cap. ccxii). The
saint adds that God refuses to some, through mercy, what he grants to others as a chastisement. “Deus negat
propitius, quæ concedit iratus.” Hence St. John Damascene says that sometimes, when we do not obtain the
graces which we ask, we receive, by not receiving them; because it is better for us not to receive than to
receive them. “Etiam si non accipias, non accipendo accepisti, interdum enim non accipere quam accipendo
satius est.” (Paral., lib. 3, cap. xv.) We often ask poison which would cause our death. How many are there
who, had they died in the sickness or poverty with which they had been afflicted, should be saved? But
because they recovered their health, or because they were raised to wealth and honours, they became proud
and forgot God, and thus have been damned. Hence St. Chrysostom exhorts us to ask in our prayers what he
knows to be expedient for us. “Orantes in ejus potestate ponamus, ut nos illud petentes exaudiat, quod ipse
nobis expendire cognoscit.” (Hom. xv. in Matt.) We should, then, always ask from God temporal favours on
the condition that they will be useful to the soul.
10. But spiritual favours, such as the pardon of our sins, perseverance in virtue, the gift of divine love,
and resignation to the divine will, ought to be asked of God absolutely, and with a firm confidence of
obtaining them. “If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
your Father from Heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13.) If you, says Jesus Christ,
who are so much attached to earthly goods, cannot refuse your children the blessings which you have
received from God, how much more will your Heavenly Father (who is in himself infinitely good, and who
desires to give you his graces more ardently than you desire to receive them) give the good spirit—that is, a
sincere contrition for their sins, the gift of divine love, and resignation to the will of God—to those who ask
them? “Quando Deus negabit,” says St. Bernard, “potentibus qui etiam non potentes hortatur ut petant?”
(Ser. ii. de S. Andr.) How can God refuse graces conducive to salvation to those who seek them, when he
exhorts even those who do not pray to ask them?
11. Nor does God inquire whether the person who prays to him is a just man or a sinner; for he has
declared that “every one that asketh, receiveth.” (Luke 11:10.) “Every one,” says the author of the Imperfect
Work, “whether he be a just man or a sinner.” (Hom. xviii.) And, to encourage us to pray and to ask with
confidence for spiritual favours, he has said: “Amen, amen, I say to you: If you ask the Father anything in my
name, he will give it you.” (John 16:23.) As if he said: Sinners, though you do not deserve to receive the divine
graces, I have merited them for you from my Father: ask, then, in my name—that is, through my merits—and I
promise that you shall obtain whatsoever you demand.
Third Point.—We must pray with perseverance.
12. It is, above all, necessary to persevere in prayer till death, and never to cease to pray. This is what is
inculcated by the following passages of Scripture:—“We ought always to pray.” (Luke 18:1.) “Watch ye,
therefore, praying at all times” (21:36). “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thess. 5:17.) Hence the Holy Ghost says:
“Let nothing hinder thee from praying always.” (Eccl. 18:22.) These words imply, not only that we should

pray always, but also that we should endeavour to remove every occasion which may prevent us from praying;
for, if we cease to pray, we shall be deprived of the divine aid, and shall be overcome by temptations.
Perseverance in grace is a gratuitous gift, which, as the Council of Trent has declared, we cannot merit (Ses. 6,
cap. xiii.); but St. Augustine says, that we may obtain it by prayer. “Hoe donum Dei suppliciter emereri, potest
id est supplicando impetrari.” (de Dono. Per., cap. vi.) Hence Cardinal Bellarmine teaches that “we must ask it
daily, in order to obtain it every day.” If we neglect to ask it on any day, we may fall into sin on that day.
13. If, then, we wish to persevere and to be saved—for no one can be saved without perseverance—we
must pray continually. Our perseverance depends; not on one grace, but on a thousand helps which we hope
to obtain from God during our whole lives, that we may be preserved in his grace. Now, to this chain of graces
a chain of prayers on our part must correspond; without these prayers, God ordinarily does not grant his
graces. If we neglect to pray, and thus break the chain of prayers, the chain of graces shall also be broken, and
we shall lose the grace of perseverance. If, says Jesus Christ to his disciples, one of you go during the night to a
friend, and say to him: Lend me three loaves; an acquaintance has come to my house, and I have no
refreshment for him. The friend will answer: I am in bed; the door is locked; I cannot get up. But, if the other
continue to knock at the door, and will not depart, the friend will rise, and give him as many loaves as he
wishes, not through friendship, but to be freed from his importunity. “Although he will not rise and give him
because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise, and give him as many as he needeth.”
(Luke 11:8.) Now, if a man will give his loaves to a friend because of his importunity, “how much more,” says
St. Augustine, “will God give, who exhorts us to ask, and is displeased if we do not ask?” How much more will
the Lord bestow on us his graces, if we persevere in praying for them, when he exhorts us to ask them, and is
offended if we do not ask them?
14. Men feel annoyed at being frequently and importunately asked for a favour. But God exhorts us to
pray frequently; and, instead of being dissatisfied, he is pleased with those who repeatedly ask his graces.
Cornelius a Lapide says, that “God wishes us to persevere in prayer, even to importunity.” (in Luc., cap. xi.) St.
Jerome says: “This importunity with the Lord is seasonable.” (in Luc. 11.) That God is pleased with frequent
and persevering prayer, may be inferred from the words of Jesus Christ: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek,
and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9.) It was not enough to have said ask, but
he added, seek, knock; in order to show, that, during our whole lives, we should be as importunate in
supplicating the divine graces as beggars are in asking alms. Though they should be refused, they do not
cease to cry out, or to knock at the door; they persist in asking relief till they obtain it.
15. If, then, we wish to obtain from God the gift of perseverance, we must ask it from him continually
and with importunity. We must ask it when we rise in the morning, in our meditations, in hearing Mass, in
our visits to the blessed sacrament, in going to bed at night, and particularly when we are tempted by the
devil to commit any sin. Thus, we must always have our mouths open praying to God, and saying: Lord,
assist me; give me light; give me strength; keep thy hand upon me, and do not abandon me. We must do
violence to the Lord. “Such violence,” says Tertullian, “is agreeable to God.” The violence which we offer to
God by repeated prayers does not offend him: on the contrary, it is pleasing and acceptable in his sight.
“Prayer,” according to St. John Climacus, “piously offers violence to God.” Our supplications compel him, but
in a manner grateful to him. He takes great complacency in seeing his mother honoured, and therefore
wishes, as St. Bernard says, that all the graces we receive should pass through her hands. Hence the holy
doctor exhorts us “to seek grace, and to seek it through Mary, because she is a mother, and her prayer cannot
be fruitless.” (de Aquæd.) When we ask her to obtain any grace for us, she graciously hears our petitions and
prays for us: and the prayers of Mary are never rejected.”

When we read the Saints, our eyes are opened to view God in a much more
profound manner… and from the living Scriptures along with the Traditions of the Church comes the Catechism of the Catholic Church in which we read about the nature and manner that is prayer:

2562 Where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.

2563 The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place “to which I withdraw.” The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant. (2699; 1696)

2564 Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ. It is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the human will of the Son of God made man.

Also:
Creation—source of prayer

2569 Prayer is lived in the first place beginning with the realities of creation. The first nine chapters of Genesis describe this relationship with God as an offering of the first- born of Abel’s flock, as the invocation of the divine name at the time of Enosh, and as “walking with God.” Noah’s offering is pleasing to God, who blesses him and through him all creation, because his heart was upright and undivided; Noah, like Enoch before him, “walks with God.”6 This kind of prayer is lived by many righteous people in all religions. (288; 58; 59)
In his indefectible covenant with every living creature, God has always called people to prayer. But it is above all beginning with our father Abraham that prayer is revealed in the Old Testament.
Notice the term “walks with God.”, as this is communing, communicating, dialog, being with. Is this not what we desire to achieve? To simply be “walking with God” each and every day… when we are walking with Him, the devil has no space, no place, no opportunity to engage us. But, if we walk away from God, walk without Him, then is the time the evil one moves upon us.

You are not alone In The Battle…