Shared conversation · June 12, 2026
Explain the point of prayer.
The primary purpose of prayer is to cultivate our communion with God, acknowledge our total dependence upon Him, and align our hearts with His will. Rather than attempting to inform or change God—who already knows our needs and has ordained all things—prayer serves as the means by which we receive the blessings He has eternally disposed to give us [, , ].
We pray because it is the way we recover our peace and nourish our relationship with our Creator []. In this act of drawing near, we are reminded of our own misery and our absolute need for His help [, ]. Prayer acts as a "key" to open God's storehouses, and by turning our hearts toward Him, we purge our inner eyes of temporal desires, making our hearts more capacious for the divine gifts He is always ready to pour into us [, ].
Because we are weak and ignorant of how to pray properly, God provides His Word as our guide, especially the Lord’s Prayer, which teaches us to pray with reverence, confidence, and a focus on His glory [, , ]. We are to pray only to God, in the name of Jesus Christ, and for things that align with His revealed will []. This includes confessing our sins, acknowledging His mercies, and presenting our petitions with sincerity, humility, and faith []. Ultimately, prayer is the "language of dependence," and to live without it is to attempt to live independently of God—the very thing that keeps our hearts from finding their true rest in Him [, ].
For context: Thomas Aquinas approaches this through the lens of divine providence, noting that our actions, including prayer, are themselves causes through which God achieves the effects He has already ordained [].