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Benefits
of Prayer
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Catholic Prayer (Topic Page)
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"Again,
(amen,) I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything
for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my
heavenly Father." (Our Lord Jesus Christ, Mt. 18:19)
"Whatever
you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive." (Our
Lord Jesus Christ, Mt.
21:22)
"Therefore
I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will
receive it and it shall be yours." (Our Lord Jesus Christ,
Mk. 11:24)
"If you remain in me and my words remain
in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you."
(Our Lord Jesus Christ, Jn. 15:7)
"He who prays most receives most."
(St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)
"However great the temptation, if we know
how to use the weapon of prayer well, we shall come off conquerors
at last; for prayer is more powerful than all the devils."
(St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church)
"Pray,
pray, pray; prayer is the key to the treasures of God. It is the
weapon of combat and of victory in every battle for good over
evil." (Pope Pius XII)
"It is simply impossible to lead, without
the aid of prayer, a virtuous life." (St. John Chrysostom,
Doctor of the Church)
"Prayer and contemplation shut out the
temptations of the devil." (St. Vincent Ferrer)
"We cannot underestimate the power of
prayer and the difference it will make in our world." (Mother
Teresa)
"Prayer is a wine that makes glad the heart
of men." (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church)
"Prayer is the best armor we have, it is
the key which opens the heart of God." (St. Padre Pio of
Pietrelcina)
"Prayer is the key to heaven." (St.
Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the
soil. Fertilize the soil ever so richly, it will remain barren
unless fed by frequent rains." (St. John Vianney)
"A soul arms itself by prayer for all kinds
of combat." (St. Faustina Kowalska)
"As water extinguishes fire, so prayer
extinguishes the heat of the passions." (St. John Chrysostom,
Doctor of the Church)
"By humble and faithful prayer, the soul
acquires, with time and perseverance, every virtue." (St.
Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church)
"Faith furnishes prayer with wings, without
which it cannot soar to heaven." (St. John Climacus)
"For if you persevere in asking, without
doubt you will receive what you ask for." (St. Bede the
Venerable, Doctor of the Church)
"Prayer nourishes our hope and confidence,
for the more often we speak with another person, the more
confidently we approach him." (St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor
of the Church)
"The more one prays the more one wishes to
pray." (St. John Vianney)
"There is nothing easier than to pray to
God and nothing is more comforting." (St. John Vianney)
"The weapons which prayer supplies are the
most powerful against our bitterest foes. With the cries of our
prayers, says St. Hilary, we must fight against the devil and his
armed hosts." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
"Troubles melt away before a fervent prayer
like snow before the sun." (St. John Vianney)
"Vigilance and prayer are the safeguards of
chastity." (St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle)
"We always have need of God, therefore we
must always pray. The more we pray, the more we please him and the
more we obtain." (St. Claude de la Colombiere)
"Prayer will remove the fundamental cause
of present day difficulties." (Pope Pius XI)
"Prayer opens the mind and heart to God. It
deepens our longing for His Kingdom." (Pope John Paul II)
"Prayer is a powerful good. For if someone
speaking to a man about what is virtuous is seen to bear no
insignificant fruit, how much greater weight of benefits will not
he enjoy who engages in conversation with God?" (St. John
Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church, circa 388 A.D.)
"Prayer consciously links us to the
Communion of saints, who support us by their continual
intercession." (Pope John Paul II)
"Men by petitioning may merit to receive
what almighty God arranged before the ages to give them."
(Pope St. Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church, 6th century A.D.)
"All the virtues assist the soul to attain
to a burning love of God, but, above all, pure prayer. By means of
it the soul escapes completely from the midst of creatures,
carried to God, as it were, on wings." (St. Maximus, 7th
century A.D.)
"All the saints are in heaven because they
have prayed much. They would be less holy if they had prayed less,
and they would not have been there at all, if they had not
prayed" (St. Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church)
"A person who does nothing more than
lovingly pray to God for his brethren participates in the great
work of saving souls." (Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich)
"Where
prayer is poured fourth, sins are covered." (St. Ambrose,
Doctor of the Church)
"The
daily prayers of the faithful make satisfaction for those daily,
tiny, light faults from which this life cannot be free." (St.
Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"[N]othing
is more fitted for the nourishment of divine faith than the pious
habit of prayer, and the need of it at this time is seen by its
weakness in most, and its absence in many men." (Pope Leo
XIII, "Exeunte Iam Anno", 1888)
"We
need to pray to God, not in order to make known to Him our needs
or desires but that we ourselves may be reminded of the necessity
of having recourse to God's help in these matters." (St.
Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian
in the history of the Church")
"Words
therefore are needful for us that we should be moved by them, that
we should understand clearly what it is we ask, not that we should
think that by them the Lord is either instructed or persuaded." (St. Isidore of Seville, Doctor of the Church)
"For,
as you know, fervent prayer carries with it a mystic power that
penetrates Heaven and calls down supernatural light and Divine
impulses to illumine men's minds and incline their wills to good,
to persuade and move them to charity." (Pope Pius XII, "Quemadmodum",
1946)
"Hence
that universal condition and law of life, which We have said is a
perpetual battle, brings with it the necessity of prayer to God.
For, as is well and wisely said by St. Augustine, pious prayer
flies over the world's barriers and calls down the mercy of God
from heaven." (Pope Leo XIII, "Exeunte Iam Anno",
1888)
"As they who have not faith in God, cannot pray as they ought, for
how can they call on him, whom they have not believed? So the
faithful, in proportion to the fervor of their prayers, possess a
stronger and a more assured faith in the protecting providence of
God, which requires principally that in all needs we have recourse
to Him." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
"Jesus Christ has taught us to pray for
grace to do the will of God on Earth, as the saints do in Heaven.
'Thy will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven' (Mt. 6:10). Hence
St. Teresa says, that 'they who practice prayer, should seek in
all things to conform their will to the will of God.' In this, she
adds, consists the highest perfection. He that practices it in the
most perfect manner, shall receive from God the greatest gifts,
and shall make the greatest progress in the interior life."
(St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)
"From prayer we also derive this important
advantage that though we are inclined to evil and to the
indulgence of various passions, as a consequence of our natural
frailty, God permits us to raise our hearts to Him, in order that
while we address Him in prayer, and endeavor to deserve His gifts,
we may be inspired with a love of innocence, and, by effacing our
sins, be purified from every stain of guilt." (Catechism of
the Council of Trent)
"In recognizing God as the author of every
blessing and of every good, we are led to cling to Him with the
most devoted love. And as those who cherish a mutual affection
become more ardently attached by frequent interviews and
conversations, so the oftener the soul prays devoutly and implores
the divine mercy, thus holding converse with God, the more
exquisite is the sense of delight which she experiences in each
prayer, and the more ardently is she inflamed to love and adore
Him." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
"...as St. Jerome observes, prayer disarms
the anger of God. Hence, these words of God addressed to Moses:
Let me alone (Ex. 32:10), when Moses sought by his prayer to stay
the punishments God was about to inflict on His people. Nothing is
so efficacious in appeasing God, when His wrath is kindled;
nothing so effectually delays or averts the punishments prepared
for the wicked as the prayers of men." (Catechism of the
Council of Trent)
"The first fruit which we receive is that
by praying we honor God, since prayer is a certain act of
religion, which is compared in Scripture to a sweet perfume. Let
my prayer, says the Prophet, be directed as a incense to thy
sight. By prayer we confess our subjection to God; we acknowledge
and proclaim Him to be the author of all good, in whom alone we
center all our hopes, who alone is our refuge, in all dangers and
the bulwark of our salvation. Of this fruit we are admonished also
in these words: Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify me." (Catechism of the Council
of Trent)
"Christ Jesus, our kind Master, inspires us
to implore the gifts of His grace, when he says: 'Ask, and it
shall be given to you: Seek, and you shall find: knock, and it
shall be opened to you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth: and
he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be
opened.' The very gift of perseverance 'can be won by humble
petition.' For that reason, public and private prayer never fails
in God's churches." (Pope Pius XI, "Ad Salutem",
1930 A.D.)
"God
bestows many things on us out of His liberality, even without our
asking for them: but that He wishes to bestow certain things on us
at our asking, is for the sake of our good, namely, that we may
acquire confidence in having recourse to God, and that we may
recognize in Him the Author of our goods. Hence Chrysostom
says..:'Think what happiness is granted thee, what honor bestowed
on thee, when thou conversest with God in prayer, when thou
talkest with Christ, when thou askest what thou wilt, whatever
thou desirest.'" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")
"Still
it may be asked, what is in the use of prayer at all, whether made
in words or in meditation of things, if God knows already what is
necessary for us. The mental posture of prayer calms and purifies
the soul, and makes it of more capacity to receive the divine
gifts which are poured into it. For God does not hear us for the
prevailing force of our pleadings; He is at all times ready to
give us His light, but we are not ready to receive it, but prone
to other things. There is then in prayer a turning of the body to
God, and a purging of the inward eye, whilst those worldly things
which we desired are shut out, that the eye of the mind made
single might be able to bear the single light, and in it abide
with that joy with which a happy life is perfected." (St.
Isidore of Seville, Doctor of the Church)
"Every one who prays finds the door open to
impetration, both from the very nature of prayer and from the
promises of Christ. And we all know that prayer derives its chief
efficacy from two principal circumstances: perseverance, and the
union of many for one end. The former is signified in those
invitations of Christ so full of goodness: ask, seek, knock (Matt.
vii., 7), just as a kind father desires to indulge the wishes of
his children, but who also requires to be continually asked by
them and as it were wearied by their prayers, in order to attach
their hearts more closely to himself. The second condition Our
Lord has born witness to more than once: If two of you shall
consent upon earth concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask,
it shall be done to them by My Father who is in heaven. For where
there are two or three gathered in My name, there am I in the
midst of them (Matt. xviii. 19, 20)." (Pope Leo XIII, "Fidentem
Piumque Animum ", 1896 A.D.)
"Prayer
is offered up to God, not that we may bend Him, but that we may
excite in ourselves the confidence to ask: which confidence is
excited in us chiefly by the consideration of His charity in our
regard, whereby he wills our good - wherefore we say: 'Our
Father'; and of His excellence, whereby He is able to fulfill it -
wherefore we say: 'Who art in heaven.'" (St. Thomas Aquinas,
Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history
of the Church")
"For
nothing has so great a power as prayer, because in it there are
certain qualities with which it pleases God to be moved. For in
prayer we separate ourselves from things of earth, and filled with
the thought of God alone, we become aware of our human weakness;
for the same reason we rest in the embrace of our Father, we seek
a refuge in the power of our Creator. We approach the Author of
all good, as though we wish Him to gaze upon our weak souls, our
failing strength, our poverty; and, full of hope, we implore His
aid and guardianship, Who alone can give help to the weak and
consolation to the infirm and miserable. With such a condition of
mind, thinking but little of ourselves, as is fitting, God is
greatly inclined to mercy, for God resisteth the proud, but to the
humble he giveth grace. Let, then, the habit of prayer be sacred
to all; let soul and voice join together in prayer, and let our
whole daily life agree together, so that, by keeping the laws of
God, the course of our days may seem a continual ascent to
Him." (Pope Leo XIII, "Exeunte Iam Anno", 1888)
"Another most pleasing and invaluable fruit
of prayer is that it is heard by God. Prayer is the key of heaven,
says St. Augustine; prayer ascends, and the mercy of God descends.
High as are the heavens, and low as is the earth, God hears the
voice of man. Such is the utility, such the efficacy of prayer,
that through it we obtain a plentitude of heavenly gifts. Thus by
prayer we secure the guidance and aid of the Holy Spirit, the
security and preservation of the faith, deliverance from
punishment, divine protection under temptation, victory over the
devil. In a word, there is in prayer an accumulation of spiritual
joy; and hence our Lord said: Ask, and you shall receive, that
your joy may be full. (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
"For since, as St. Cyprian remarks, by
prayer man converses with God, it happens in a wonderful manner
that the divine Majesty is brought nearer to those who are engaged
in prayer than to others, and enriches them with singular gifts.
Those, therefore, who pray devoutly, may not be inaptly compared
to persons who approach a glowing fire; if cold, they derive
warmth; if warm, the derive heat. Thus, also those who approach
God (in prayer) depart with a warmth proportioned to their faith
and fervor; the heart is inflamed with zeal for the glory of God,
the mind is illuminated after an admirable manner, and they are
enriched exceedingly with divine gifts, as it is written: Thou
hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness. An example for all
is that great man Moses. By intercourse and converse with God he
so shone with the reflected splendors of the Divinity, that the
Israelites could not look upon his eyes or countenance."
(Catechism of the Council of Trent)
"When Our Lord, coming down from the
splendors of Thabor, had healed the boy tormented by the devil,
whom the disciples had not been able to cure, to their humble
question: 'Why could not we cast him out?' He made reply in the
memorable words: 'This kind is not cast out but by prayer and
fasting' (Matt. xvii. 18, 20). It appears to Us, Venerable
Brethren, that these divine words find a peculiar application in
the evils of our times, which can be averted only by means of
prayer and penance. Mindful then of our condition, that we are
essentially limited and absolutely dependent on the Supreme Being,
before everything else let us have recourse to prayer. We know
through faith how great is the power of humble, trustful,
persevering prayer. To no other pious work has ever been attached
such ample, such universal, such solemn promises as to prayer:
'Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and
it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth;
and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall
be opened' (Matt. vii. 7). 'Amen, amen I say to you, if you ask
the Father anything in my name He will give it you' (Io. xvi. 23).
And what object could be more worthy of our prayer, and more in
keeping with the adorable person of Him who is the only 'mediator
of God and men, the Man Jesus Christ' (I Tim. ii. 5), than to
beseech Him to preserve on earth faith in one God living and true?
Such prayer bears already in itself a part of its answer; for in
the very act of prayer a man unites himself with God and, so to
speak, keeps alive on earth the idea of God. The man who prays,
merely by his humble posture, professes before the world his faith
in the Creator and Lord of all things; joined with others in
prayer, he recognizes, that not only the individual, but human
society as a whole has over it a supreme and absolute Lord."
(Pope Pius XI, "Caritate Christi Compulsi", 1932 A.D.)
"Prayer
places our understanding in the brightness and light of God, and
exposes our will to the heat of heavenly love. There is nothing
that so effectually purges our understanding from its ignorance,
or our will from its depraved affections, as prayer. It is the
water of benediction which makes the plants of our good desires
grow green and flourish. It washes our souls from their
imperfections, and quenches the thirst of passion in our hearts.
But, above all, I recommend mental and cordial prayer, and
particularly that which has the life and passion of our Lord for
its object. By making Him the frequent subject of your meditation,
your whole soul will be replenished with Him; you shall learn His
carriage, and frame all your actions according to this model. As
He is the light of the world, it is then by Him, in Him, and for
Him that we ought to acquire luster and be enlightened. He is the
tree of desire under whose shadow we ought to refresh ourselves.
He is the living fountain of Jacob, in which we may wash away all
our stains. In fine, as little children, by hearing their mother
talk, lisp at first, and learn at length to speak their language,
so we, by keeping close to our Savior, by meditation, and
observing His words, actions, and affections, shall, by the help
of His grace, learn to speak, to act, and to will, like Him."
(St. Francis De Sales, Doctor of the Church)
"Now
the effect of prayer is threefold. The first is an effect which is
common to all acts quickened by charity, and this is merit. In
order to realize this effect, it is not necessary that prayer
should be attentive throughout; because the force of the original
intention with which one sets about praying renders the whole
prayer meritorious, as is the case with other meritorious acts.
The second effect of prayer is proper thereto, and consists in
impetration: and again the original intention, to which God looks
chiefly, suffices to obtain this effect. But if the original
intention is lacking, prayer lacks both merit and impetration:
because, as Gregory (Hugh Saint Victor, Expos. in Reg. S. Aug.
iii) says, 'God hears not the prayer of those who pay no attention
to their prayer.' The third effect of prayer is that which it
produces at once; this is the spiritual refreshment of the mind,
and for this effect attention is a necessary condition: wherefore
it is written (1 Corinthians 14:14): 'If I pray in a tongue...my
understanding is without fruit.' It must be observed, however,
that there are three kinds of attention that can be brought to
vocal prayer: one which attends to the words, lest we say them
wrong, another which attends to the sense of the words, and a
third, which attends to the end of prayer, namely, God, and to the
thing we are praying for. That last kind of attention is most
necessary, and even idiots are capable of it. Moreover this
attention, whereby the mind is fixed on God, is sometimes so
strong that the mind forgets all other things, as Hugh of Saint
Victor states (De Modo Orandi ii)." (St. Thomas Aquinas,
Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history
of the Church")
Also
See: Exhortations
to Prayer | Faith
/ Prayer | God
Gives in the Measure We Ask | God
Listens to Sinners | God
Seeks Our Prayers | How
to Pray | Necessity
of Prayer | No
Prayer is Lost | Perseverance
in Prayer | Praise
of Prayer | Problems
/ Difficulties in Prayer | Time
in Prayer is Not Wasted | "Unheard"
/ "Unanswered" Prayers | What
Prayer Is
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