catholic prayer, from www.bibletruthsaboutcatholics.
By Rev Fr Miller CSSR


There is no Christian life without prayer. Yet, we often pray with difficulty, distraction and complaint:
“I am distracted
When I pray”,
“God does not seem to answer
My prayer”,
“I don’t feel any satisfaction
In prayer”.
We feel our prayers are not heard and do us no good. Thus, prayer is sadly abandoned. The reason for comments such as these, is that prayer is often misunderstood. We have the wrong idea of the principle of prayer and its fruits. We tend to judge prayer’s effectiveness by concrete, sensible and immediate result. This is a form of the heresy of pragmatism, according to which all things are to be evaluated upon the instant and practical results produced for oneself or for others. The only cure for prayers that have become infected with the virus of pragmatism is to review the primary purpose of prayer, its infallible benefit and its eternal merit for souls.
Almighty God wants three things for every human being that He has created: these, then, are the infallible fruit of prayer. The fourth thing is relative and must always be left to the wisdom, foreknowledge and goodness of God. Therefore, every Christian should make an agreement with God, covering his entire life, according to which he directs all the prayers he will ever say.
The FIRST purpose of every prayer I ever say, O my God, will be to ask of thee the grace to save my soul, to reach the happiness of Heaven, and to enjoy the glorious Beatific Vision of Thyself forever. No true prayer can ever bypass or rightly ignore this primary end of all human endeavors. No prayer could ever be granted by God if it asks for something that would interfere with the salvation of the one who prays. Every prayer that is directed first to the attainment of Heaven is infallible heard.
The SECOND purpose of every prayer I say, O my God, will be to ask thee for an ever-increasing measure of the means to salvation, that is the actual grace necessary to do Thy Holy Will, and the courage I shall need in using my free will to cooperate with those graces. God never wills an end for us without providing the means to attain it. Heaven is a supernatural goal, far above the capacity of man to achieve it through his own merits. Therefore, God’s Grace is needed if any man is to attain it. All the graces necessary to reach Heaven have been promised to man as the fruit of his prayers. My God, grant me the grace of perseverance in doing always Thy Holy Will.
The THIRD purpose of every prayer I ever say, O my God, will be to ask thee for the grace of salvation for all whom I love, for all whom who are dependent upon me, for all whom I am indebted and, in a special manner, for my enemies. The purpose of prayer is too often smothered by thoughts of temporary and material blessings, or for the immediate and dramatic conversion of the one ,for others is to help them reach Heaven in the end, no matter how far from its path they may have drifted before reaching the goal. Our prayer for others should be humble and trusting: “O my God, I ask only to see them in Heaven some day, let nothing else that I ask interfere with Thy granting this petition.”
God wants the salvation of every person. God wants everyone who loves Him to pray and work for the salvation of others, especially those who are united to him in life by any bond of relationship or association. God accepts the prayers of one human being for another, sometimes manifestly, other times secretly, answering them all with the extraordinary graces needed by the wandering soul to reach Heaven.
The FOURTH purpose of prayer is to obtain relief from anyone of a thousand forms of temporal suffering, if this be God’s Holy Will. There is no winning Heaven without some suffering. There is no sharing in the Redemption of Christ without a sharing in the cross. God wants me to suffer something to win perfect happiness. God never asks or forces me to suffer more than I can bear. God will take away temporal suffering in answer to prayer, and to encourage his followers. But, He never does so when He knows that such relief would make it more difficult for that man to reach Heaven.
Let us pray with perseverance, attention and humility, God will be faithful to His promise.
WHATEVER YOU ASK,
YOU SHALL RECEIVE,
If we will pray as we ought. We must believe with all our heart and soul that God’s will for us is perfect!
Published under title :Prayer is the life of the soul
Source: The Universal living Rosary Association, USA http://www.philomena.org