Prayer is a raising or lifting of our minds and hearts in a loving conversation with god. For most of us, the usual topic of this conversation is asking for something from God.
We were encouraged by Jesus to do so for He assured us to “ask, and it will be given to you”(Mt. 7:7): :And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” (Mt. 21:22). His prayer to the Father during the agony in the garden was asking the Father to be released from the need for suffering. But Jesus added a condition that we must include in our own asking—“not my will but thine be done” (Lk. 22:42)
This prayer of petition might be the most common form of prayer but it is not the only form. There is the prayer of praise in which we express our love, loyalty, and adoration. There is the prayer of thanksgiving to thank Him for His favours. There is the prayer of contrition which is also partly petition for we ask God to forgive us for offending Him. More about these other forms of prayer later.
Down the centuries there have been objectors to almost everything that Jess said or did. Some have objected to asking God for anything because He knows already what we need or want.
I do not think that this objection would prevent the parents of a very sick child from praying for a recovery. We had in our family over 80 years ago just such a need. An older brother was in the grip of serious pneumonia. That was before the existence of modern drugs when pneumonia was often fatal. Our parents and the whole family prayed. We were most grateful when two Sisters from the school came to our house to pray over him. When they arrived, his life hung by a thread; shortly after they left, he began to recover and lives to this day.
Prayer of petition is not an attempt to inform God about a need. It is a humble submission to God’s will. It is an act of acknowledgment of one’s inability to do something and an act of dependence on God. We can compare it to ther obedient and loving response of a child to a parent. In the prayer of petition, God is the parent and we are the children.
We we set about asking God for something in prayer, there are some conditions to bear in mind. Perhaps this little story will emphasize my point.
A man was in desperate financial trouble. He decided to pray to God to win the lottery. He prayed hard the first week but did not win. He prayed intensely the second week but did not win. He prayed even more intensely the third week and when he did not win he complained to God about not keeping His promise to answer our prayers. Then he heard a voice saying, “This is God speaking. I have heard your prayers and have wanted to grant your request to win the lottery but why don’t you meet me half way—buy a ticket.”
The conditions for prayer of petition and other forms of prayer are attention, a conviction of our dependence on God, a great desire for what we ask of God, a loving trust in God, and perseverance.
These are obvious conditions when one reflects on them and compares them to going to someone of considerable wealth to ask for a favour. You should be attentive, relying on that person, really wanting what you request, confident that the person will want to help, and ready to repeat the request as often as one is encouraged to do so.
On this last point of perseverance in prayer, Jesus stressed the need to keep on asking. He told a parable about a judge who was asked repeatedly by a widow for justice. The judge heard her case “because this widow bothers me. I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming” (LK. 18:5). And again, to stop a friend knocking on his door at midnight, Jesus gave assurance that the man “will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs” (Lk. 11:8).
St. Monica knocked on God’s “door” for 32 years while she prayed for her son to be baptized. Her son was St. Augustine who became a renowned Doctor of the Church. What an example she gave for perseverance in prayer!