Lost faith in (or don't understand) Intercessory Prayer and the Rosary

[ethereality]

Is praying the Rosary a good thing? How can I regain confidence that my prayers are useful and effective?

Recently I was listening to “The World Over” (EWTN Google Play app, audio on demand show) and heard them describe recent murders by ISIS, and they struck me as demonic. I then recalled what I had read previously, that popes – and perhaps the Blessed Virgin herself, e.g. at Fatima – had instructed the faithful to pray the Rosary for world peace (implying to me a causal relationship, i.e. if enough people prayed it, then we would have peace).

I thought to myself, “I should resume praying the Rosary, every day!” thinking also of the Body of Christ, and how selfish it would be of me to not pray for those being persecuted in the Middle East and Africa. Yet I immediately became despondent, because it seemed a waste of time from prior experience.

For a time, I prayed the daily set of mysteries of the Rosary every day. Eventually I switched to Latin and would do the entire thing in Latin, thinking doing so would be more pleasing to Our Lord, making the prayers more effective. (I thought Latin was the holy language of Christianity, (whereas Jews have Hebrew and Mohammedans have Arabic) but since every church I’ve been to with the exception of one has entirely abandoned Latin, perhaps I am mistaken and the Church is discarding it, despite the written instructions of a few priests.)

I became fatigued, and, not seeing the effects of my prayers, switched to the Liturgy of the Hours, after Marcellino D’Ambrosio talked about it on “Catholic Answers Live”: Apparently it is the common prayer of the church, whereas the Rosary is “merely” a private devotion, and so it’s “better” to pray the Liturgy of the Hours since one is joining in the common prayer of the church. But asking local priests, they seemed to equate them as “either is fine; it’s whatever helps you personally”, as if the only important point was how I was personally affected by them.

I also tried praying for a list of intentions, asking for intercession from saints as well. Some for myself, some for others.

I’ve basically quit praying, after I finally got tired of no results, of feeling like I was wasting my time, after countless disappointments where I thought maybe a prayer would be answered. It seems to me that, if the Church isn’t wrong, then perhaps I’m too sinful for God to listen to my prayers. (After all, the American lifestyle is terribly self-centered and wasteful.)

Perhaps I also don’t understand prayer, because there are some objections to praying the same things every single day, namely, as Jesus Himself says, God already knows what we need, so why ask Him more than once? See NABRE Matthew 6:

7 In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
8 Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

It seems a red herring to argue about what their babbling was, because Jesus literally says, “Do not be like them who think that they will be heard because of their many words.” That is, it appears Jesus is telling me I was wrong for thinking that, if I prayed the Rosary every day, God would eventually grant the good things I’ve requested (this includes praying for those persecuted by ISIS). He seems to imply that one Rosary is just as good as one every day. More to the point, He seems to teach that just one Our Father is better than a Rosary every day. But here I am at a loss, because this appears to contradict the message of the persistent widow (NABRE Luke 18:1-8) – Isn’t Jesus telling us to continue praying, to not lose heart, so that we may obtain what we request?

So I gave it up entirely since it wasn’t making sense, since God wasn’t giving me any clarity, since my prayers were tempting me to despair and apostasy. (Elsewhere in the Gospel, Jesus promises results if one has faith, and I had faith, but there were no results.)

That history being said, now I’m reconsidering prayer, since ISIS’ actions seemed evidence of the demonic, seeming to confirm the Church’s message, but I’m faced squarely with all these obstacles, these discouragements and questions. I’m hoping you can help me by answering my questions, explaining my experience (i.e. God’s apparent inactivity), perhaps even by praying for me that God may have mercy on me and give me more grace for faith, hope, and love (faith in prayer, hope to persist in it, love to sacrifice the time for it).

I honestly want to leave the Church, to quit Christianity – I’m sick of the mind games and the disappointments. But, as Jimmy Akin has indicated, we don’t need to understand everything; we just need to do it. So I make simple prayers, ones that I don’t feel are a waste of time; simple petitions like “Lord, please help those people,” rather than spend 25 minutes for a set of Rosary mysteries or 5-15 minutes for the Divine Office, and I continue working to live as a Christian, e.g. trying to simplify my life and give away whatever I don’t need, to receive the Sacraments and try to believe. But I feel like “it’s a shame”, that I’m not praying the Rosary, if it would be helping those people ISIS is persecuting – or, even better, causing conversions among those doing the persecuting – but I just don’t see that it’s anything more than me talking into the air in front of me.

 

[AttendeDomine]

Perhaps I also don’t understand prayer, because there are some objections to praying the same things every single day, namely, as Jesus Himself says, God already knows what we need, so why ask Him more than once?

St. Augustine commented on this:

Still it may be asked, what is 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.

I think that what is at the core of your question is a certain dissatisfaction with the way in which you feel you’ve been treated by God. After all, you did try praying for certain things, and it would seem that God has not heard your prayer, and that He doesn’t want to grant it.

Perhaps there is an issue here, therefore, of lacking longanimity. I appreciate Fr. Hardon’s definition, but I would also describe the word simply as having the ability to wait for the good without tremendous unrest.

We should of course know that, when we pray, God will grant our prayers only if they are in accordance with His will, and that He will do so in His own time and in His own way. But actually putting this sort of understanding into practice is itself something that is difficult if we are not in the habit of doing so. Frankly, most of us are in the habit of doing the opposite: when we ask God for something, especially if we are absolutely convinced He should grant it, we want it done. Now. Okay, maybe tomorrow. Maybe even next Tuesday. But definitely before we have to suffer through too much evil.

This is understandable, but, as we can see here, it’s a sort of habit (or vice) that will inevitably lead to other problems. Bashing our heads against a brick wall of expectations imposed upon God simply does nothing whatsoever but give us a headache. Therefore, it’s best to put our knowledge of God’s ways into practice, and to actively trust Him.

I would certainly recommend that you take up praying your daily Rosary, and I would warn you that the less you pray, the further you will slip away. This is precisely why you’ve been tempted in the way that you have: the enemy knows that, when you become preoccupied with difficulties, when you focus on distrust of God, when you abandon prayer, that you will inevitably start to turn away from God, and will eventually leave Him altogether. Perhaps Rosaries should be prayed for intentions, but there’s a bigger reason, too: simply to love God with them, and to open our hearts to His graces, as St. Augustine alluded to above. Intentions are not the final end of prayer. In simple justice, we owe God a certain amount of prayer, and we rob Him of glory when we refuse to give it.

Yes, ISIS’s actions are demonic. But demons don’t want to be heard and they don’t want to be seen. Their actions are usually much more subtle than that, and I warn you that you shouldn’t listen to them.

Also, if there are huge sources of pain in your life that could be used to manipulate you into distrusting God, then I would certainly urge you to seek council from a trusted priest on how to work through that pain.

 

[Mintaka]

1. Unless you’re a priest or religious who is bound to pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day, there’s no need to prioritize the Liturgy of the Hours or the Rosary over each other.
2. Plenty of people pray both, every day. (Pope Emeritus Benedict and Pope Francis, for example.)
3. There is no such thing as obligation when it comes to a devotional prayer. You’re allowed to change your mind about how you pray. You’re allowed to try different things. As long as you are praying, you’re not losing out.
4. If you want professional advice on what form/s of prayer and devotion will work best for you, you should get a spiritual director who will know you, and who will give you personalized advice.
5. Expecting to see “results” is natural. But you can’t command God or make assumptions about His plan. It’s a good idea to pray and hope, but it’s also a good idea to expect nothing, thank God however it works out, and be happy with any “results” you end up getting. Many of the results of prayer are invisible to us, and will help people far away from us in distance and in years.

If you read the correspondence of St. Therese’s mom and dad, and of her aunt, you will see that they were always praying for various needs of others and of themselves, but often their prayers were not granted in any way that they could see.

St. Therese’s mom Zelie got a message from Mary the same year that St. Bernadette saw Mary at Lourdes. That’s what led her to marry St. Therese’s dad, and to have a whole family of saints. But when she prayed to God, she was often refused. When she went to Lourdes and other shrines to have her breast cancer healed, she was not healed. God had different and harder plans, and they helped make her a saint. But she had to tough it out, without any guarantees or comforting knowledge (or modern painkillers). She didn’t get miracles every day.

“Cast your bread upon the waters, and you will get it back after many days.” How many? We don’t know. What will the bread look like, and how will it feed us? We don’t know.

God knows what will work best for us. We have to trust Him, and keep on praying.

1. Jesus specifically orders us to keep praying. Remember His story of the widow woman who kept bugging the wicked judge to grant her what she was supposed to get? (Lk. 18:2-8)

"There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’

For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her - lest she finally come and strike me!’”

The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.

"Will not God then secure the rights of His chosen ones who call out to Him day and night? Will He be slow to answer them?

“I tell you, He will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.”

But then Jesus adds:

“But when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

God wants us to pray, and He will do what is best for us. We are the ones who are prone to failing Him. Since He is patient with us, we owe Him the courtesy of being patient with Him. Sometimes our ideas of “speedily” are not the same as His, but He will get it done.

1. God bless you for worrying about the folks being treated horribly by ISIS. I can tell that you are one of those people who “hunger and thirst for justice.” Don’t lose hope, and don’t stop yearning for things to be put right. But after you pray, leave it in God’s hands for the rest of the day and do the stuff you can do. Worrying doesn’t help.

 

[AttendeDomine]

Also, I would add a small, tangential statement to this notion of the Rosary being less efficacious than, for example, praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

Okay, it’s true that the LOTH is liturgical, and the Rosary is not. BUT … the Rosary consists both of vocal *and *mental prayer, and mental prayer is a more advanced form of prayer than is the merely vocal (so say the spiritual theologians).

Reciting the Our Father with devotion is a wonderful and holy and efficacious practice.

But being able to meditate on the Our Father is even better.

 

[Mintaka]

Re: efficaciousness of different kinds of prayers and devotions, it’s six of one, half-dozen of the other.

Which is better, bread or protein or vegetables? We need them all. They all have different strengths.

On the other hand, if you tried to eat the entire contents of a grocery store at every meal, it wouldn’t work. You need to eat only as much as your body is capable of digesting. Similarly, it’s best to pick just a few prayers, or one, and stick with it. So the best prayer is what you can get done.

Praying is better than not praying.

Being indecisive about what prayer is better is just a distraction from getting it done. If you have to pick a specific prayer by counting “Eeny meeny miney mo,” start counting and get it picked!

God is very pleased by any sincere prayer, and prayers that are made despite “spiritual dryness” and disappointment are very precious to Him. No prayer is too simple to please Him. You are not preventing world peace by not praying the Rosary; you are following God as best you can.

 

[StGerardMajella]

Is praying the Rosary a good thing?

Yes, definitely. Praying the Rosary is an effective, positive form of prayer.

How can I regain confidence that my prayers are useful and effective?

You need to change your focus from what you get out of praying the Rosary, to a focus on helping others. It’s not about getting what you want. It is about praying for others and helping others.

You might try varying your prayer routine. Between Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours/Divine Office, Bible study, silent meditation, and the Rosary, you can create a varied routine that is suitable to your personality and temperament.

Prayer groups are also effective. In Judaism, they refer to this as a minyan, and the belief in Judaism is that prayers are more effective when said in a group versus individually.

Isn’t Jesus telling us to continue praying, to not lose heart, so that we may obtain what we request?

See above. It’s not about getting what you want. It is about praying for others and helping others.

The Jews pray three times per day in accordance with the daily Mosaic offerings that were said in the Temple. The Divine Office has seven (7) sets of prayers, in accordance with the Psalmist David stating that he prayed 7 times per day.

The point that Christ is making is that one should have proper intention when praying. We should not cease praying, but having the proper intention and focus when praying is important.

Look at the Jewish sages, such as the Vilna Gaon and others. They would pray continuously, studying the Torah, reading the Mishnah and commentaries. Our monastic brothers and saints are the same, praying without ceasing.

Eventually I switched to Latin and would do the entire thing in Latin, thinking doing so would be more pleasing to Our Lord, making the prayers more effective.

Actually, prayers in Latin are more effective. The Devil hates Latin. Just Google “The Devil Hates Latin” and read what Fr. Amorth, the Vatican’s exorcist, has to say about the effectiveness of Latin in prayer.

I’m hoping you can help me by answering my questions, explaining my experience (i.e. God’s apparent inactivity),

The Creator is anything but inactive. Those who pray go through many cycles of highs and lows and times when it seems to be ineffective.

You must persist.

 

[Dorothy]

“ethereality”,

You have been given such excellent responses!

The only thing I have to say is that when you did all that praying, the Lord was answering in ways that you did not understand or see. You have no idea how those graces helped those who were about to be martyred and sent to their reward, and various other blessings that others received.

The evil one hates when we pray! He tempts us, little by little, to back away from the Lord.

We don’t want the evil one to win.

---

I pray the Rosary and also the LOTH (four of the hours, which is anywhere from 12 minutes to 25 minutes each). I am a widow and can fit that into my life style.

 

[fred_conty]

It isn’t important that you see the results of your prayers. It is important that you do it because it pleases the one you love…Jesus. Trust him, knowing that he always listens to a good prayer. Though you may not know just how this prayer is applied for good.

Do all out of love…and for no other reason. Let him take care of the rest.

You might want to look into the act of full consecration to Mary. That would help resolve this.

 

[Dorothy]

It isn’t important that you see the results of your prayers. It is important that you do it because it pleases the one you love…Jesus. Trust him, knowing that he always listens to a good prayer. Though you may not know just how this prayer is applied for good.

Do all out of love…and for no other reason. Let him take care of the rest.

You might want to look into the act of full consecration to Mary. That would help resolve this.

Great advice!

 

[MariaChristi]

Is praying the Rosary a good thing? …

…Perhaps I also don’t understand prayer, …

…I’m faced squarely with all these obstacles, these discouragements and questions. I’m hoping you can help me by answering my questions, explaining my experience (i.e. God’s apparent inactivity), perhaps even by praying for me that God may have mercy on me and give me more grace for faith, hope, and love (faith in prayer, hope to persist in it, love to sacrifice the time for it).

Dear ethereality,

I read all your “obstacles” as you wrote them but I underlined above the one basic statement which seems to me to be at the root of all the obstacles.

Prayer is “relationship with God”. It is not merely saying words, even beautiful words like those included in the Rosary and the Divine Office. St. Teresa of Avila told her sisters that the essentials were attention and devotion. She warned them: If you not paying attention to the One to Whom you are speaking, to what what you are saying and who you are who are speaking, then you may be moving your lips but you are not praying.

Prayer in fact does not always include words; as St. John Vianney defined prayer as “Nothing other than union with God”. As Our relationship grows, our prayer grows deeper. As little St. Therese described prayer:

For me, prayer is a surge of the heart;it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.

To admit that you don’t understand prayer is a good beginning, it makes you “teachable” before the Lord. Faith is believing in God’s love when we cannot “see” or “understand” but we persevere because we believe in His love for us. If you feel you are losing faith in prayer but you are wanting to believe that is is a great grace and partial answer to your prayer, it is an invitation to persevere. The Scriptures assure us, God hears the cry of the poor. He answers the lowly man who trembles at His word.

I am praying for you today, especially as I pray my Rosary for I believe that Mary has interceded for me and continues to intercede for all of us. The Rosary helps me to ponder as Mary did all that Jesus said and did. Praying the Rosary with attention and devotion helps me to know God more and grow in my relationship with Him.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

 

[fide]

Is praying the Rosary a good thing? How can I regain confidence that my prayers are useful and effective?

…
Perhaps I also don’t understand prayer, …

.

Hello etherreality. I see from your profile that you are a physicist - that is a good foundation for prayer, in one sense. To quote Mariachristi who has responded to you on this thread, “St. Teresa of Avila told her sisters that the essentials were attention and devotion.”

Attention and devotion are the two essential requirements for effective vocal prayer, especially the “formula prayers” of the Church. A formula prayer is a written and often memorized prayer, including simple ones such as the Our Father, the Hail Mary, even the Rosary, and more complex ones like the Liturgy of the Hours and even the Mass. For these prayers the words are already settled - and this means two things:

1. the words of these formula vocal prayers are trustworthy. I can have confidence that if I pray them I am not saying anything “wrong” or self-centered or heretical to God when I pray them,
   BUT on the other hand
2. to pray such prayers is dangerous in this sense: I can merely recite them, and not even be aware of what I am saying. I can recite the words on “automatic pilot” and turn my interior attention even as I am reciting the prayers to secular things: working on a physics problem, or thinking of what I need to buy at the grocery store or Walmart, or reviewing what I said to so-and-so about this-or-that earlier that day, or wondering whether I should buy that new whatever. All the while “praying” - or rather, reciting the prayers.

But no, to pray a prayer that God desires, I need to be present to Him as a real human person, speaking with Him who is a divine Person. God wants person-to-Person relationship with us. That is what love is requires: being real with the other, being present to the other, paying attention to the other.

So prayer requires attention and devotion. Physics ought to help you with “paying attention” - observing carefully what is in front of you, so you can (one hopes) begin to understand it. We ought never - or at least rarely - be distracted or inattentive in prayer. We need to know:

1. who is praying (me, a poor and needy creature)
2. to whom I am praying (ultimately to God, the all-holy God!)
3. what I am saying - and I had better mean it, from the heart.

That #3 is the element of devotion: attention is the focus with the mind, on truth, on reality; devotion is focus with the heart - that God made to seek, to find and to love and to live TRUTH - on the truth I am praying. Thus the great value of the formula prayers of the Church: they are TRUTH. Thus we can apply the word AMEN to those prayers: Amen, “Truth”.

My suggestion is that you begin with the Our Father and pray it very, very slowly, and if you do not or cannot mean what you say, take a break and begin to pray for the grace TO believe those words! Jesus gave us those words, and we can trust Him.

The Catechism has a great section on the Our Father - read it (and read it slowly, seeking to understand everything that is written there about the prayer) as an extended meditation on the prayer. Praying the Our Father very slowly, with increasing attention and devotion (which will increase), will begin to deepen your “prayer life” - your relationship with the Father in the Son, with the Holy Spirit.

May the Lord guide you into His life…

 

[Casilda]

Is praying the Rosary a good thing? How can I regain confidence that my prayers are useful and effective?

Recently I was listening to “The World Over” (EWTN Google Play app, audio on demand show)

this is noise pollution

I thought to myself, “I should resume praying the Rosary, every day!”

this is listening to good noise

I …switched to the Liturgy of the Hours, after Marcellino D’Ambrosio talked about it on “Catholic Answers Live”:…But asking local priests, they seemed to equate them as “either is fine; it’s whatever helps you personally”, as if the only important point was how I was personally affected by them.

bad advice, sorry

I also tried praying for a list of intentions, asking for intercession from saints as well. Some for myself, some for others.

I’ve basically quit praying, after I finally got tired of no results, of feeling like I was wasting my time…

you were doing great, talking (praying to God). To quit praying is stopping your conversation with God.

Perhaps I also don’t understand prayer, because there are some objections to praying the same things every single day, namely, as Jesus Himself says, God already knows what we need, so why ask Him more than once?

God is our Father in heaven, He wants you to talk with Him everyday, constantly, because He loves us, and because we love Him. When we arise in the morning, before we have breakfast, on our way out to work, when something bad happens or good, etc.

But, as Jimmy Akin has indicated, we don’t need to understand everything; we just need to do it. So I make simple prayers, ones that I don’t feel are a waste of time; simple petitions like “Lord, please help those people,” rather than spend 25 minutes for a set of Rosary mysteries…

He said what?!?! I am sorry but we do not check out our brains when we enter the church. Simple prayers are good, 25 minutes of Rosary prayers is good and NEVER A WASTE OF TIME, N-E-V-E-R!
.

My advice, read your Bible, devote yourself to simple prayer and allow yourself other devotions to petition the Saints for prayer and talk to God everyday. Stop tuning into noise, radio programs, etc and read about the Saints and their lives and how they nurtured their relationship with our Father in heaven

 

[fin]

OP, I haver heard in an episode of The World Over of Raymond’s interview of Fr. Benedict Kiely. The priest suggested that the faithful write to their bishops to petition the Holy Father to pray a Rosary Crusade for the persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

You’re doing a very charitable deed by praying the Rosary for the conversion of ISIS.

Why is it that nobody else (or so it seems) is doing or spearheading what Fr. Kiely has suggested? I have read in several comments and blogs that a Rosary Crusade is in order with all that’s happening right now. Remember the battle of Lepanto. Raymond even said that it is mentioned every now and then at the Prayers of the Faithful, but that’s about it.

Is praying the Rosary a good thing? How can I regain confidence that my prayers are useful and effective?

Recently I was listening to “The World Over” (EWTN Google Play app, audio on demand show) and heard them describe recent murders by ISIS, and they struck me as demonic. I then recalled what I had read previously, that popes – and perhaps the Blessed Virgin herself, e.g. at Fatima – had instructed the faithful to pray the Rosary for world peace (implying to me a causal relationship, i.e. if enough people prayed it, then we would have peace).

 

[ethereality]

God wants person-to-Person relationship with us.

Really? Then why is it always instead person-to-inanimate-object (me before the Tabernacle or Blessed Sacrament), or person-to-empty-room (me alone in my room)? The elephant in the room is that there is no elephant in the room, so to speak – why is God hiding if God wants this person-to-person relationship? Surely God is not a quadriplegic, paralyzed in the Host unable to move or respond!

“Oh, but God is answering you through others, and the Holy Spirit is inspiring your thoughts when you come up with answers to your questions.”
Really? Then how do I distinguish between divine agency and human agency, between the Holy Spirit and my own intellect?

 

[Dorothy]

Really? Then why is it always instead person-to-inanimate-object (me before the Tabernacle or Blessed Sacrament), or person-to-empty-room (me alone in my room)? The elephant in the room is that there is no elephant in the room, so to speak – why is God hiding if God wants this person-to-person relationship? Surely God is not a quadriplegic, paralyzed in the Host unable to move or respond!

“Oh, but God is answering you through others, and the Holy Spirit is inspiring your thoughts when you come up with answers to your questions.”
Really? Then how do I distinguish between divine agency and human agency, between the Holy Spirit and my own intellect?

Our Lord is the great "I AM’. Our Lord and Savior is right before you in the tabernacle. He is in you, around you, before you, etc. Reach out without feelings (they are not necessary) and adore, bless, praise and thank Him. If you wish, ask Him politely why He is hiding from you (if that is what is in your mind).

Ask. Seek. Knock…

Imagine you are in the upper room with the apostles before Jesus came into the locked room and said “Peace be with you.”

I apologize in advance if what I have written here is not pleasing to you. They are my suggestions to you, and also such rhetoric is in the Psalms. (respectful complaining…then listen!).

Peace,

Dorothy

 

[holyrood]

why is God hiding if God wants this person-to-person relationship? Surely God is not a quadriplegic, paralyzed in the Host unable to move or respond!

“Oh, but God is answering you through others, and the Holy Spirit is inspiring your thoughts when you come up with answers to your questions.”
Really? Then how do I distinguish between divine agency and human agency, between the Holy Spirit and my own intellect?

Ethereality, I have the same questions, disappointments, and struggles with prayer that you do. So much so that I double checked your OP to make sure I hadn’t written it, myself, long ago, and forgotten doing so.

That said, I can offer this answer to God being paralyzed in the Host: Eucharistic Miracles. I think the site is linked to the same display that came to my church–dozens maybe hundreds, of documented Eucharistic miracles over the years.

The blood at Lanciano was analyzed and found to be blood type AB (universal donor), same as what was found on the Shroud of Turin. The flesh was found to be specifically that of the heart.

And the Eucharistic miracles are only one set of miracles. Throughout history, there are the Incorruptibles, Marian appearances, and many others.

God is definitely speaking to us.

Yes, I struggle with the same questions you do. The same feeling that prayer is pointless and that ‘God always answers–sometimes the answer is no’ type of explanations become word games.

In the last weeks, as I’ve again faced these questions more head on, as I see prayer after prayer go unanswered, for both the small and the big things you speak of, I have pressed God: Can You at least give me some understanding of why You seem so silent and why every single prayer goes unanswered? I could easily have patience if I could just see some reason!

I can only offer the gradually growing feeling (understanding?) I’ve had in resonse, that this is why we call it faith. It would take no faith at all if we plugged in a prayer and got our answer every time, or if we were told the reasons and the ‘battle plan’ so to speak. Then it wouldn’t be faith.

I’m coming to understand that I, at least, need to walk in complete faith for a time. At the very least, I know praying is not hurting anything, whereas some of the things people are spending their time on in this world are hurting things. And yes, as others have said, it does change my heart, and as I pray, insights do come to me, even if I’m not getting what I pray for.

 

[Vic_Taltrees_UK]

A correction if I may make so bold regarding Mt 6:7-8. Nowhere does Jesus say don’t repeat ourelves when praying. He and the Apostles continually say we should repeat ourselves. He says don’t be show-offy, verbose and grandiose, and then He leads straight into the Our Father.

The world would be that little bit further down the drain if you hadn’t said that one Our Father to start with.

I too am sick of the mind games. I have to guard against giving details.

I have respectful Protestant friends I meet and then we pray jointly. Over a period of time one of them gets a home, someone stops harassing them, or a third party’s mental illness improves etc. Hence God stops being invisible.

You are abroad and have no fellowship. Those debates you have must be draining.

God has His feet on the ground more than anyone in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.

I too make simple prayers like the ones you report saying. In between times I say lots of Our Fathers back to back because that keeps me praying and I don’t need to count them.