Why Do People Pray? The Purpose Of Prayer According To Saint Thomas Aquinas
Have you ever wondered what the purpose of prayer is? Why do billions of people do it? This work by Aquinas discusses the nature and utility of prayer within the context of Divine providence and human action.
The text is from “Summa Theologica” by Thomas Aquinas. Specifically, it is from the section “The First Part of the Second Part” (Prima Secundae), Question 83, Article 2. This work is a foundational text in Catholic theology, where Aquinas addresses various theological and philosophical questions, including the nature and efficacy of prayer. The specific reference is “ST, I-II, q. 83, a. 2”.
Utility Of Prayer
Wherefore it behooves us so to account for the utility of prayer as neither to impose necessity on human affairs subject to Divine providence, nor to imply changeableness on the part of the Divine disposition. In order to throw light on this question we must consider that Divine providence disposes not only what effects shall take place, but also from whsat causes and in what order these effects shall proceed. Now among other causes human acts are the causes of certain effects. ST, I-II, q. 83, a. 2
Divine Disposition
Wherefore it must be that men do certain actions, not that thereby they may change the Divine disposition, but that by those actions they may achieve certain effects according to the order of the Divine disposition: and the same is to be said of natural causes. And so is it with regard to prayer.
For We Pray
For we pray not that we may change the Divine disposition, but that we may impetrate that which God has disposed to be fulfilled by our prayers in other words “that by asking, men may deserve to receive what Almighty God from eternity has disposed to give,” as Gregory says.
God’s Help
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. As stated above, our motive in praying is not that we may change the Divine disposition, but that, by our prayers, we may obtain what God has appointed.
Pray For Others
As stated above (Article 6), when we pray we ought to ask for what we ought to desire. Now we ought to desire good things not only for ourselves but also for others: for this is essential to the love which we owe to our neighbor, as stated above.
Charity
Therefore charity requires us to pray for others. Hence Chrysostom says (Hom. xiv in Matth.): “Necessity binds us to pray for ourselves, fraternal charity urges us to pray for others: and the prayer that fraternal charity proffers is sweeter to God than that which is the outcome of necessity.”
Our Father
As Cyprian says (De orat. Dom.), “We say ‘Our Father’ and not ‘My Father,’ ‘Give us’ and not ‘Give me,’ because the Master of unity did not wish us to pray privately, that is for ourselves alone, for He wished each one to pray for all, even as He Himself bore all in one.”
Pray For Yourself
It is a condition of prayer that one pray for oneself: not as though it were necessary in order that prayer be meritorious, but as being necessary in order that prayer may not fail in its effect of impetration.
Piety And Perseverance
For it sometimes happens that we pray for another with piety and perseverance, and ask for things relating to his salvation, and yet it is not granted on account of some obstacle on the part of the person we are praying for, according to Jeremiah 15:1, “If Moses and Samuel shall stand before Me, My soul is not towards this people.”
Losing Reward
And yet the prayer will be meritorious for the person who prays thus out of charity, according to Psalm 34:13, “My prayer shall be turned into my bosom, i.e. though it profit them not, I am not deprived of my reward,” as the gloss expounds it.
Pray For Sinners
We ought to pray even for sinners, that they may be converted, and for the just that they may persevere and advance in holiness. Yet those who pray are heard not for all sinners but for some: since they are heard for the predestined, but not for those who are foreknown to death; even as the correction whereby we correct the brethren, has an effect in the predestined but not in the reprobate, according to Ecclesiastes 7:14, “No man can correct whom God hath despised.”
Help Of Prayer
Hence it is written (1 John 5:16): “He that knoweth his brother to sin a sin which is not to death, let him ask, and life shall be given to him, who sinneth not to death.” Now just as the benefit of correction must not be refused to any man so long as he lives here below, because we cannot distinguish the predestined from the reprobate, as Augustine says (De Correp. et Grat. xv), so too no man should be denied the help of prayer.
Pray For The Just
We ought also to pray for the just for three reasons: First, because the prayers of a multitude are more easily heard, wherefore a gloss on Romans 15:30, “Help me in your prayers,” says: “The Apostle rightly tells the lesser brethren to pray for him, for many lesser ones, if they be united together in one mind, become great, and it is impossible for the prayers of a multitude not to obtain” that which is possible to be obtained by prayer.
Grace
Secondly, that many may thank God for the graces conferred on the just, which graces conduce to the profit of many, according to the Apostle (2 Corinthians 1:11). Thirdly, that the more perfect may not wax proud, seeing that they find that they need the prayers of the less perfect.
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