Does prayer work as promised, or is it just private meditation?
The church teaches that in times of need, a personal communication with God is available.
Prayer is an important part of worship as it provides the opportunity to communicate with God. The Catholic Catechism states, Prayer is the raising of one’s heart and mind to God or the requesting of good things from God (Catholic Catechism 2259). This shows that prayer is considered a two-way process.
The problem with the idea that one can ask God to change things is profound. Having the foundation that God is all knowing and all powerful, it makes sense that God could change the order of things in response to prayer, but in doing so, he undermines his own authority. Prayer is effectively saying ‘God, I know you know everything, you have arranged the order of humanity to serve your needs, and that you have a plan. But I have a better one!’
So, what can one expect from Prayer?
The traditional expectation is that God will simply answer ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or ‘Not Now’.
But has the power of prayer even been tested?
As long as there are tests, there will be prayers in schools.
Anon
One can only conclude that prayer is just one of many promises of religion that give one a nice warm fuzzy feeling, but just a moment’s consideration reveals as a false claim.