Praying for help

Prayer is not a list of requests; it is an introspective process, a refining process of discovering what one is, what one should be and how to achieve the transformation. " "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God." (Catholic Catechism, 2559)

Can we change the course of events through prayer? Can we manipulate the mind and heart of God? Can we ward off some evil occurrence by specifically imploring God to save us from it? Richard McBrien in his text Catholicism (1994) states that we need to avoid the two extreme positions on prayer - namely:

one end of the spectrum argues that prayer is a completely useless activity because it cannot change the course of events, or is simply auto-suggestion
and the other extreme, which depicts God as some sort of dispenser of beneficence who can be bargained with, cajoled or harassed into changing our destiny.

Both of these two extremes need to be avoided.

Christian prayer is perhaps most associated with seeking the help of God, the saints or any or all of the company of heaven for everything from living a life worthy of Jesus and therefore heaven, to finding lost items, being cured of disease and passing exams. Prayers for help stem from words attributed to Jesus: “I will do whatever you ask for in my name” (Jn 14: 13); and “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you” (Mt 7:7-8).

Note though, there is a difference between petitions such as “May your will be done on earth as in heaven” and a petition for personal help such as “Give us today the food we need”. Not all prayers of petition are prayers for help.

Praying to God, saints and angels

Prayers for help across the centuries have been addressed to God as father or loving parent, stern judge or powerful creator; to Jesus as Lord, redeemer and brother to humanity; to the Holy Spirit particularly for inspiration and presence in difficult times; to angels, saints and even members of the Church triumphant - that is, departed relatives and friends. An examination of traditional texts of Catholic prayer, such as the websites below, provides a fascinating insight into the Catholic tradition of appealing to saints for help in every one of life’s challenges and difficulties. See for example, prayers to saints and angels and their causes:

Intercession through the saints

Traditional Catholic veneration of saints causes various degrees of discomfort among Protestant Christian denominations and elements of the Catholic Church, who draw attention to Jesus’ statement to ask “in my name”, not through other brokers. Some contemporary theologians point out that Jesus’ scattering of the markets in the Temple was a dramatic rejection of the current Jewish understanding that God could only be approached by the qualified or anointed: Jesus claimed that God was not to be brokered and could be approached by anyone without the aid of the temple, its priests or its sacrifices.

One reason for the development of Catholic veneration of the saints - especially Mary - was when, in the history of the Church, God and Jesus were put out of the reach of the ordinary people through insistence on rules of fasting, confession, ritual purity and the development of hierarchical structures in the priesthood. Unable to access God through the sacraments and denied access to, or deemed unworthy to pray the Scriptures, Christians turned to the saints, especially Mary as “Mother of God”, to intervene with God on their behalf. An examination of prayers to Mary reveal the strong theme of intervening with God on our behalf - e.g. “Remind thy son that he has paid the price of our iniquity” in the hymn Hail, Queen of Heaven.