Question about effects of prayer

[Wlouis]

Howdy,

I recently began a prayer list of everything I want to pray for. I did this because I always felt that there was someone or something I was forgetting. Yet, I cannot help to feel overwhelmed when I view my compiled list. It seems that there is not enough time in the day to devote the appropriate effort.

I guess my question is more about the effect of prayer. Is a single prayer less efficacious if it is for several intentions rather than solely one intention? An analogy would be me watering a plant. I could give a gallon of water to a single plant, to which it would be healthy. However, if I were to have four plants the gallon would have to be stretched between the four, lessening the ability to grow. Or, would each of the four plants receive a full gallon? I realize that this analogy does not entirely encompass or illustrate the way God works. There are many factors that go into prayer and it is not simply calculable. At times I just cannot help but feel that I am neglecting those intentions.

Ultimately I understand that I need to continue to pray and have faith, and I recently began praying more for these intentions.

The quote to “pray, hope, and don’t worry” from Saint Pio has helped me to overcome my feelings of being overwhelmed with this.

Feel free to comment and thank you for your time.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

You might find this past thread on a similar topic to be helpful.

Do too many Intentions dilute the power of a prayer? Catholic Living

I often have many intentions while praying the rosary, if I have too many does that lessen the strength of the prayer to stretch it over all of the intentions?

Remember also that God Our Father knows what we need before we ask. You do not need to specifically mention every single intention. If you have written them on a list, or even prayed for them recently or told someone you would pray for them, it’s fine to mention one or two of the most urgent things and then say “and for everyone to whom I promised my prayers/ for whom I’ve recently prayed/ And all the intentions written on my prayer list” etc.

When we pray at Mass for all the intentions of the parish, or all those written in the prayer intentions book or placed in the prayer petitions basket, it’s not necessary to go through the book or the basket and have every intention mentioned and a special Lord Hear Our Prayer said for each. We’d be there all day long if that was the case.

 

[CelticWarlord]

“pray, hope, and don’t worry” from Saint Pio

I would focus on this aspect of prayer myself and get far, far away from any sort of idea that prayer is meant to accomplish something tangible like a healing or job, though we can certainly include those things. What I mean is, many of us have tended to view prayer as some sort of magic incantation that must be done in certain ways and with defined methods in order to be effective. God already knows what we need and with whom we are concerned. Prayer is for our benefit, not his. It is meant to draw us closer to the Divine in every aspect of life, in my opinion. At the same time we remain stuck in the human world and need to define it in ways you have done. It becomes a matter of how we personalize it.

It is a discipline which Father Ron Rolheiser describes as common to many traditions and philosophies. For prayer we can also use the word meditation or contemplation, though some within the Christian faith shy away from these terms. Rolheiser says in his book, The Holy Longing; “.…to stay in contact with one’s soul and keep some health and balance there, we must have a conscious dialog with God, however we conceive of that ultimate something within which we live, breathe, move, and have our being.”

If you are overwhelmed with prayer as you are currently practicing it, there is no harm whatever in greatly simplifying what you do and how you approach God. Just talk with him and forget, for a time at least, the rote and method forms you may be trying to spread very thinly.

 

[Dan_Defender]

St Teresa of Avila said: ‘prayer is the greatest of all gifts, the channel through which God grants us favors, the beginning of all virtue.’ So persevere in your prayer, in spite of any feelings that may get in the way.

 

[Dorothy]

It is good to remember that intercessory prayer is not the only way we pray. There is adoration and thankfulness as well.