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William777
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Your thoughts?
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TEPO
Guest
No, God controls these things therefore if we ask God to be smarter through prayer and God willed it, then it would actually be Gods Grace and not the prayer itself that made us smarter.
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UpUpAndAway
Guest
I pray at least an hour every day and I’m dumber than a box of rocks. So, no.
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AlanFromWichita
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I do see your point. You open yourself up to get smarter, but God is in charge, right? So to say we pray and that made us smarter is to take God “out of the loop?”
That said, I look at it more that the God will part is based on what you ask. I voted “yes” because prayer was a huge component of the things I did while God was giving me back my own scrambled brains, all fixed up and renewed. And I think that if we ask for the right kind of wisdom – knowledge of the kingdom – we automatically know that God wills us to have it.
If we ask for our candidate to win the election, then we don’t know if it’s God’s will. If we pray for a kind and understanding heart, then we don’t have to guess because we know it’s God’s will. The catch is that He usually doesn’t do the fairy godmother/magic wand thing. Usually if you ask for kindness and understanding, you’ll get situations that require you to stretch your abilities in these areas.
So “does prayer make you smarter?” I answer with a qualified “yes.” Because it can, nuances of the way I word it notwithstanding.
Alan
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Robert_Sock
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Prayer makes you wiser, not smarter.
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Jeanne_S
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My persective,as we grow closer to God through prayer,we are opening our hearts and souls to the fruits of the Holy Spirit,one of which is wisdom.So in this way we grow in our understanding of our faith,hopefully living it out on our daily lives.
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R_C
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Wiser, I’d also say.
After all, if talking to creatures develops our intellect, talking to God also should
After all, if talking to creatures develops our intellect, talking to God also should
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CatholicGuy22
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God gives us wisdom through prayer. I would rather be wise than smart any day of the week.
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AlanFromWichita
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I think it’s smart to gain wisdom.
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Dorothy
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The gifts of the Holy Spirit are greater than all earthly knowledge. I’m thinking you have gotten more of the gifts of the Holy Spirit!
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William777
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My turn to chime in.
It’s interesting to note the responses here.
The CCC tells us prayer is of the heart. And, yet, we know it is something even the most simple can do, as God is open to all.
Yet half of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are intellectual gifts. It’s not just Wisdom. Wisdom is only one of the seven gifts. The remaining six are Knowledge, Counsel, Understanding, Fortitude, Fear and Faith. It’s arguable they are ALL intellectual, but at least four out of the seven definitely pertain to our intellect.
One thing that might also be interesting to note is the Gifts are infused by the Holy Spirit. However, if I had told my Catholic High School Algebra teacher I stayed up all night praying for the Holy Spirit to do my homework, and I couldn’t hand in my homework because my prayer wasn’t granted, she probably would have given me detention for not taking either God or my homework seriously. In other words, there is also a point at which we must exercise our will to learn something, so we can serve others as well. Given the Catholic School scenario above - I don’t think it goes contrary to our faith to learn, or possibly equate prayer with learning.
And, this is nothing new. Back in the day - the monks and religious were the teachers and educators, so it seems there is a definite connection between study and prayer. However, I would not go so far as to say someone lacking in understanding is necessarily not praying correctly.
In school, we learn by logic and reason, when our mind is lead to draw inferences from self-evident, empirical knowledge; but in church we learn by faith and prayer, whereby ideas (often times hidden to logic and reason) are revealed to us through trust in God.
That’s my take. It’s why I asked.
I appreciate all the feedback.
It’s interesting to note the responses here.
The CCC tells us prayer is of the heart. And, yet, we know it is something even the most simple can do, as God is open to all.
Yet half of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are intellectual gifts. It’s not just Wisdom. Wisdom is only one of the seven gifts. The remaining six are Knowledge, Counsel, Understanding, Fortitude, Fear and Faith. It’s arguable they are ALL intellectual, but at least four out of the seven definitely pertain to our intellect.
One thing that might also be interesting to note is the Gifts are infused by the Holy Spirit. However, if I had told my Catholic High School Algebra teacher I stayed up all night praying for the Holy Spirit to do my homework, and I couldn’t hand in my homework because my prayer wasn’t granted, she probably would have given me detention for not taking either God or my homework seriously. In other words, there is also a point at which we must exercise our will to learn something, so we can serve others as well. Given the Catholic School scenario above - I don’t think it goes contrary to our faith to learn, or possibly equate prayer with learning.
And, this is nothing new. Back in the day - the monks and religious were the teachers and educators, so it seems there is a definite connection between study and prayer. However, I would not go so far as to say someone lacking in understanding is necessarily not praying correctly.
In school, we learn by logic and reason, when our mind is lead to draw inferences from self-evident, empirical knowledge; but in church we learn by faith and prayer, whereby ideas (often times hidden to logic and reason) are revealed to us through trust in God.
That’s my take. It’s why I asked.
I appreciate all the feedback.
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Linusthe2nd
Guest
Pooly phrased. Question should be does living in the State of Grace make you smarter?
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maxdouglas402
Guest
if you’re in a state of Grace and you ask God to make you wiser and smarter he would probably do it if you weren’t going to use your gifts for selfish desires 
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William777
Guest
Why not just answer the question?Pooly phrased. Question should be does living in the State of Grace make you smarter?
But, since you find my manner of speaking to be of poor quality, I’ll rephrase the question in the loftier terms your suggest.
Does living in a state of grace make you smarter?
I guess, if were going to be critical of one another, the answer is somehow “no”.
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CalCatholic
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Well, during that hour a day praying, you are not; watching campaign commercials on the idiot tube, you are not staring mindlessly at a few hundred mindless tweets on you mobile device, you are not overeating, you are not shopping for things that you don’t need with money that you don’t have, you didn’t burn 3 gallons of overpriced gasoline in your gas sucking automobile. So I would say that you are indeed smarter than a bag of rocks!
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AlanFromWichita
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Francie3
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Awww.:knight2: Maybe you could say, “I might phrase the question a different way” And go on to state your thoughts.Pooly phrased. Question should be does living in the State of Grace make you smarter?
That way you are getting your point across without making William feel “put down” by criticizing his phrasing!
His question!
You can post your own question in a new thread.
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AlanFromWichita
Guest
That’s kind of what I thought.Awww.:knight2: Maybe you could say, “I might phrase the question a different way” And go on to state your thoughts.
That way you are getting your point across without making William feel “put down” by criticizing his phrasing!
His question!
You can post your own question in a new thread.
Alan
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Robert_Sock
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Living in the state of grace sure does improve your ability to grasp and understand spiritual knowledge from the Holy Spirit.
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Marie1234
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Haha I literally laughed out loud when I read this!
I guess it depends on your definition of “smarter”…
If you mean wiser, I would say yes.
If you mean book smart…I’ve yet to see it happen. Although anything is possible through God
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