God does not need to have our will made known to Him – He cannot but know it – but He wishes our desire to be exercised in prayer that we may be able to receive what He is preparing to give us.
– St. Augustine of Hippo
We must pray, not in order to inform God of our needs and desires, but in order to remind ourselves that in these matters we need divine assistance.
– St. Thomas Aquinas
Prayer is not offered to God in order to change His mind, but in order to excite confidence in us. Such confidence is fostered principally by considering God’s charity toward us whereby He wills our good.
– St. Thomas Aquinas
We do not pray in order to change, by petitionary prayer, the decree of Divine Providence, rather we pray in order to acquire by petitionary prayer what God has determined would be obtained by our prayers.
– St. Thomas Aquinas
God is good, dispassionate, and immutable. Now someone who thinks it reasonable and true to affirm that God does not change, may well ask how, in that case, it is possible to speak of God as rejoicing over those who are good and showing mercy to those who honour Him, and as turning away from the wicked and being angry with sinners. To this it must be answered that God neither rejoices nor grows angry, for to rejoice and to be offended are passions; nor is He won over by the gifts of those who honour Him, for that would mean He is swayed by pleasure. It is not right that the Divinity feel pleasure or displeasure from human conditions. He is good, and He only bestows blessings and never does harm, remaining always the same. We men, on the other hand, if we remain good through resembling God, are united to Him, but if we become evil through not resembling God, we are separated from Him. By living in holiness we cleave to God; but by becoming wicked we make Him our enemy. It is not that He grows angry with us in an arbitrary way, but it is our own sins that prevent God from shining within us and expose us to demons who torture us. And if through prayer and acts of compassion we gain release from our sins, this does not mean that we have won God over and made Him to change, but that through our actions and our turning to the Divinity, we have cured our wickedness and so once more have enjoyment of God’s goodness. Thus to say that God turns away from the wicked is like saying that the sun hides itself from the blind.
– St. Anthony
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