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The importance of prayer

By Sean Martin
John Paul II Generation

The Church celebrates on Aug. 27 the feast of St. Monica and on Aug. 28 the feast of St. Augustine. St. Monica spent years persevering in prayer for her son Augustine to convert to Christianity. After many years, he did convert and is considered one of the greatest saints to have ever lived. St. Augustine was soaked in prayer and therefore had a deep understanding of prayer. Acknowledging that “we do not know how to pray as we ought (Romans 8:26)”, he stated that “man is a beggar before God (CCC 2559).”

Why doesn’t the culture place importance on prayer?
In society we hear many objections to prayer. Some people have false notions of prayer, such as prayer is a simple psychological activity, or an effort of concentration to reach a mental void, or it’s just mere ritual words and postures that don’t really mean anything at all. Some people say they don’t have time to pray or that it is unproductive and useless. Some people will say that if it can’t be verified by reason and empirical science then it must not be true. Others would say that prayer is a flight from the world in reaction to activism; in other words, we do not have to pray, rather just do good deeds and be a good person. Lastly, some people feel like they have failed at prayer and tend to give up for various reasons.

Whatever the objection is to praying, we must understand that we will never be happy without the Lord. We will never be truly joyful and peaceful without a deep authentic prayer life! St. Augustine said “for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you (CCC 30).”

Sometimes I think about other things or I don’t feel God when I pray. How can I tell when I pray that I am speaking to God and He is listening to me, and He is speaking to me and I am listening to Him?
When we pray, we may find that we are distracted. We can look at distractions as just that, distractions. They can be annoying and led us away from our focus on the Lord. Sometimes distractions may be the Lord communicating to us what he would like us to do. If that is the case, then it might be good to write down our thoughts and then continue our prayer. Other times, distractions may reveal to us what we are attached to, what is blocking our relationship with the Lord. In those cases, we might want to resolve to not be attached to those things.

We might experience “dryness” in prayer, our heart experiences a separation from God. This may be due to the lack of a prayer life or it may be due to a gift the Lord is giving in prayer. Whatever the case may be, we should persevere in prayer and not give up. The Lord is always listening to our prayers!

Why doesn’t God answer all prayers?
Some are people experience the temptation in prayer to not believe in the Lord Jesus. Others are tempted to get down on themselves because they haven’t been praying. And still some will stop praying because they think their prayer is not being heard and they have a wounded pride.

It is important to know that it is always possible to pray. We should never give up; we should always persevere in prayer! We should always be humble before the Lord and trust in Him. Prayer is a vital necessity. Prayer and the Christian life are inseparable.