Why pray when praying doesn’t
work?
This is a profound statement
on the nature of prayer. Jesus
teaches that God never learns of
our needs. Our prayer reveals
nothing to him, for he already
knows everything. Thus, we
shouldn’t pray like the pagans, who
think that their prayers introduce
human need to the divine mind.
Rather,
our
prayer
should
acknowledge the fact of God’s
omniscient providence. “Pray then
like this,” Jesus says: “Our Father,
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. Thy kingdom come; thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven
…”
(Mt
6:9–10).
Jesus teaches us to pray to
the Father as the all-knowing and
all-powerful creator and governor
of the universe. In other words, we
are to pray knowing that nothing
occurs in creation that escapes
God’s notice.
There is no birth nor death,
no gain nor loss, no joy nor sorrow
of which God remains ignorant. As
Jesus says elsewhere: “Are not two
sparrows sold for a penny? And not
one of them will fall to the ground
without your Father’s will.” No, not
one of them; all unfolds within
God’s providence. It can’t be
otherwise.
Consequently,
Jesus
assures his disciples: “Even the
hairs of your head are all
numbered. Fear not, therefore; you
are of more value than many
sparrows” (Mt 10:29–31). As
creatures, we possess nothing that
God fails to count.
This is a consoling truth, but
our question still remains: why
pray? If God is the all-knowing and
all-powerful ruler of the universe—
if all unfolds under his watchful eye,
and if he knows what we need
before we ask—then what good
can praying possibly do?
Well, it depends on what we
think prayer should do. If we think
that praying should change God,
then our prayer is indeed useless.
We’d sooner yell the bark off a tree
than change God’s mind about
something. But if we think that
praying should change us, then we
pray as Jesus taught.
Centuries ago, St. Augustine
explained the mystery of Christian
prayer to a noblewoman named
Proba. A young widow who fled the
Sack of Rome (410 AD), Proba
wrote to Augustine and asked how
she should pray, her life spiraling
into ever greater chaos.
Augustine responded that
she should pray for a happy life,
which the holy bishop described
thus: “He is truly happy who has all
that he wishes to have, and wishes
to have nothing which he ought not
to wish.”
When we offer to God all of
our desires for a happy life,
Augustine explained, over time our
offering is purified. As we draw
closer to God, and as our wills align
to his, we wish more for what he
wants to give us and less for what
we want to give ourselves. Praying
does not change God, therefore; it
changes us—in our hearts and in
our desires.
“The Lord our God requires
us to ask not that thereby our wish
may be intimated to Him, for to Him
it cannot be unknown,” Augustine
explained, “but in order that by
prayer there may be exercised in
us by supplications that desire by
which we may receive what He
prepares to bestow.”
In other words, we pray
always and, in every situation, not
to alert God of our needs, but so
that we might grow in our desire for
the good things that God wants to
give us for a happy life, leading up
to eternal life.
The mystery of Christian
prayer as Augustine described it
unfolds even in situations of great
distress. In moments of trouble or
trauma, we might not know how to
pray as we ought, asking God
simply to remove the cause of our
trouble. Augustine granted that this
prayer is natural and common. But
in those moments, Augustine
continued, “we ought to exercise
such submission to the will of the
Lord our God, that if He does not
remove those vexations we do not
suppose ourselves to be neglected
by Him, but rather, in patient
endurance of evil, hope to be made
partakers of greater good, for so
His strength is perfected in our
weakness.”
When troubled, we pray for
the removal of our trouble, though
acknowledging all the while that the
trouble itself may provide a path to
some greater good. In order to pray
this kind of prayer, we can look to a
reliable model: “My Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me;
nevertheless, not as I will, but as
you will” (Mt 26:39).
No prayer is useless,
therefore. At any given moment,
our prayer manifests either a heart
aligning to God’s will or a heart
already aligned to it. In either case,
we pray confidently as creatures of
a provident God, who wills that
nothing of his ever be lost (Jn 6:39).