I'll start with this quote from Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P. (Dominican priest) from CatholicAnswers (website and radio). He's quoted as saying/writing:
The Lord told us to ask for what we need—not because he doesn’t already know, but that we come to him in love, humbly acknowledging our complete dependence on him—and willingly accepting whatever and however he chooses to respond. The prayer of petition is a matter of loving trust and absolutely nothing else.
To that I would add that God wants us to co-create with God. My charismatic community in L.A. taught me the phrase "agreeing in prayer," which means that we are agreeing with each other and with God's will (whatever that may be) for the best possible outcome - even if it's not the one we'd prefer. This acknowledges that God sees far more than we can in our limited scope, while offering ourselves as a community and individually to be God's presence to others in a difficult situation, as God longs for us to be. It makes us present to God and to each other.
St. Therese of Liseux, the Little Flower, described prayer this way:
For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and love, embracing both trial and joy.
Whether one is a practicing Christian, Jew, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Muslim, Pagan or any other faith tradition for that matter, prayer is important. It's defined differently by different spiritual traditions, but all of them have at least some form of prayer. There is an awareness that there is some form of Divinity that interacts with humanity (the varying details of which are part of what makes all these traditions different from each other).
In the Catholic tradition, prayer is generally experienced and perceived as (1) praise/blessing (2) thanksgiving, and (3) petition/intercession. For more specifics on Catholic prayer, please refer to this link to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which includes scriptural references.
I'm sure there is probably a lot more of #3 going on, especially these days.
Oh, but then there's this:
The outcry on social media has been a storm of "prayer is worthless; fix this sh*t" in response to some people's and politician's statements about offering prayers for the victims of the mass shootings and terrorist attacks.
And to be honest, there is something to this. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't pray. I am saying that there is more we can and should be doing, as individuals, as people, as a society, as a nation, as a world on fire.
But this is why I think prayer matters so much. God isn't going to wave his hand and take away all our pain, all our violence, all our suffering, all our sinfulness. If he'd wanted to do that, he would have done it already.
(Oh, and again, just as a reminder, I'm using "he" because we have no gender neutral pronoun in English, and I'm not going to start calling God "they" for all kinds of theological reasons, not to mention the confusing awkwardness of a "singular they." God isn't an old white guy on a throne, right. Just so we're clear. God is Father and Mother.)
As much as we trust in God to hear our prayers and help us, God also trusts US to let God act in and through us. He's waiting for us to quiet down and let Him move in us. He wants us to allow his peace and charity to flow through us into the world. In other words, he's calling us to be The Body of Christ - we are to be God's presence on Earth.
So what's prayer got to do with it? Prayer helps us to be the change we want for ourselves and for each other, no matter what our religion.
Through prayer, we can know God's intention for us, what is best to do and to withhold (i.e. discern God's will).
Through prayer, we can be strengthened with Christ's strength to do what is right, even in the face of opposition and oppression. "I can do all through Him who strengthens me." (Phi 4:13) See also 2 Cor 12:9, Eph 3:16, Col 1:11, 1 Tim 1:12.
Through prayer, we can be emboldened as a community in God's light, to be light in the world.
Through prayer, we change the (stay with me here) vibrations of the world from fear into love. We bring God's energy into our being, manifested in our world.
But of course, all of this is contingent upon whether one believes in a Divine Loving God or not. But even if you don't, you cannot deny that coming together with others of like minds for a shared purpose of building a better world is never worthless.
One last thought here is that there are as many ways of praying as there are human beings. I hold that contemplative prayer is every bit as important as vocal prayer. How else can we be still to hear God's voice? In quiet contemplation, we are energized in God's presence.
Contemplation in action is what the world needs right now, what God wants for us to pursue. In community, in God's light and desire for our transformation. If we abandon that, we abandon all hope.
