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MooCowSteph
Guest
I’ve been pondering since I first read it. If God knows what’s going to happen for all eternity and our prayers make no difference, than why offer prayers of petition? Why do we attribute good things to prayer? Say, for example, a child has a terrible illness. Large numbers of people pray for this child to get better, and he does. People then attribute this to prayer, but in reality, wouldn’t he have gotten better even if no one prayed for him, since that was God’s will all along? After all, according to Fr. Serpa we can never change God’s mind.
Fr. Vincent Serpa:
Fr. Vincent Serpa:
No prayer changes God’s mind—ever. He has known what we need and what we think we need from all eternity. You are correct when you say that if you pray for something, and it is God’s will for it to happen, then it happens. But when He doesn’t answer us in the way we prefer, it is not just a matter of our prayer not matching up with His will. It is also the fact that what we are asking for is ultimately not for our own good—even though it seems so to us. But our prayer still has value because we have come to Him, trusting His love for us. And such trust is a form of love. When we love, we win. It is always the best thing for us and God always wants that.
When we pray for and with each other, we are adding other people’s love to the mix. This is what the Mystical Body of Christ is all about. It’s what the communion of saints is about. We are all related. It’s all a matter of love and it’s good. Hot dog!