The Effectiveness of Prayer

5. Whatever you may ask for in prayer, believe you will receive it, and it will be granted to you. (Mk. 11:24)

6. There are persons who contest the effectiveness of prayer, and they base their argument on the principle that if God knows our needs, it is superfluous to state them. They add further that, since everything in the universe is linked together by eternal laws, our desires cannot change God’s decrees.

Without any doubt there are natural and immutable laws from which God cannot derogate according to one’s caprice; there is a great distance, however, from believing this and believing that all life’s circumstances are subject to fatalism. If such were the case, humans would be only a passive instrument with no free will or initiative. Under such a hypothesis, there would be no other recourse than to bend one’s head under the blow of every event, without seeking to avoid it; no effort would be made to try to avert danger. God has not given humans discernment and intelligence to go unused, a will not to be exercised in desiring things, or activity to remain inactive. Since humans are free to act in one way or another, their actions have, for them and for others, consequences dependent on what they do or fail to do. Through their initiative, therefore, there are events that inevitably escape fatalism, and which do not destroy the harmony of the universal laws, just as the quicker or slower pace of the pendulum does not destroy the law of movement upon which the mechanism is built. Hence, God can accede to certain requests without derogating from the immutability of the laws that govern the whole, although granting them is always subject to God’s will.

7.  It  would be illogical to  conclude from this maxim: “Whatever you may ask for in prayer will be granted to you,” that it is enough simply to ask in order to receive, and it would be unjust to accuse Providence if it does not grant every request made, because it knows better than we do what is best for us. The same applies to a wise father who refuses his son things that are not in his best interest. Generally, humans see only the present; however, if suffering is useful for their future happiness, God will allow them to suffer, just as a surgeon allows the sick person to suffer an operation that should bring healing.

What God will grant them, if asked with trust, is courage, patience and resignation. What God will also grant them are the means to extricate themselves from their difficulties with the aid of ideas suggested by good spirits at God’s urging, thus leaving them the merit. God helps those who help themselves, according to this maxim: “Help yourself and heaven will help you,” and not those who hope for outside help without making use of their own faculties. Usually, however, one would rather be helped by a miracle without having to do anything.  (See chap. XXV, nos. 1 ff.)

8. Let us take an example. A man is lost in a desert and is suffering from terrible thirst. He feels faint and falls to the ground. He prays to God to help him and waits; but no angel comes to bring him something to drink. Meanwhile, a good spirit suggests to him the thought to get up and follow one of the pathways that are before him. Then, in a purely mechanical motion, he gathers his strength, gets up and walks erratically. Arriving at an elevated area, he spots a brook not far away. Upon seeing it, he regains his courage, and if he has faith, he will exclaim, “Thank you, my God, for the thought you inspired in me and for the strength you have given me.” If he does not have faith, he will say, “What a good thought I had! What good luck I had by taking the path to the right instead of the one to the left. Sometimes chance really does serve us well! How I must congratulate myself for my courage and for not having given up!”

You might ask, however, why did the good spirit not say to him clearly, “Follow this path and at the end of it you will find what you need?” Why did the spirit not show itself to him in order to guide him and uphold him in his feebleness? In that way, he would have become convinced of the intervention of Providence. First of all, it was meant to teach him that one must help oneself and make use of one’s own strength. Second, through uncertainty, God puts to the test this man’s trust and submission to the divine will. This man was in the situation of a child who falls and who, perceiving someone near at hand, cries out and hopes that it will be picked up; if the child does not see anyone, however, it makes the effort and gets up by itself. If the angel who accompanied Tobit had said to him, “I have been sent by God to guide you on your journey and to protect you from all harm,” Tobit would not have merited anything. Trusting in his companion, he would not even have had to think; that is why the angel made itself visible only on the return trip.