+JMJ+
Traditionally, the four parts of prayer has been what is given in 1 Timothy 2:1.
I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men.
St. Thomas Aquinas explains as thus:
Three conditions are requisite for prayer. First, that the person who prays should approach God Whom he prays: this is signified in the word “prayer,” because prayer is “the raising up of one’s mind to God.” The second is that there should be a petition, and this is signified in the word “intercession.” On this case sometimes one asks for something definite, and then some say it is “intercession” properly so called, or we may ask for some thing indefinitely, for instance to be helped by God, or we may simply indicate a fact, as in John 11:3, “Behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick,” and then they call it “insinuation.” The third condition is the reason for impetrating * what we ask for: and this either on the part of God, or on the part of the person who asks. The reason of impetration on the part of God is His sanctity, on account of which we ask to be heard, according to Daniel 9:17-18, “For Thy own sake, incline, O God, Thy ear”; and to this pertains “supplication” [obsecratio] which means a pleading through sacred things, as when we say, “Through Thy nativity, deliver us, O Lord.” The reason for impetration on the part of the person who asks is “thanksgiving”; since “through giving thanks for benefits received we merit to receive yet greater benefits,” as we say in the collect [Ember Friday in September and Postcommunion of the common of a Confessor Bishop].
ST, II-II, Q 83, A 17
Therefore your question on thanksgiving and blessing God are interrelated, for they ensure that our prayers are heard and answered. On the part of God, His holiness and His greatness is the reason for our confidence in God, for it would be against His very Nature to
not help us, and thus we make “a pleading through sacred things” by praising Him in supplication. On the part of the pray-er, it is the acknowledgement and gratitude of God’s love and care for us in the past and present that gives us hope for the future, for “through giving thanks for benefits received we merit to receive yet greater benefits”.*
