Chapter 2 — That prayer is recommended to men to obtain what they hope from God, and on the diversity of prayers to God and man

In the order of divine providence, each being has assigned to it a way of reaching its end in keeping with its nature. To men, too, is appointed a suitable way, that befits the conditions of human nature, of obtaining what they hope for from God. Human nature inclines us to have recourse to petition for the purpose of obtaining from another, especially from a person of higher rank, what we hope to receive from him. And so prayer is recommended to men that by it they may obtain from God what they hope to secure from him.

But the reason why prayer is necessary for obtaining something from a man is not the same as the reason for obtaining a favor from God. Prayer is addressed to man first to lay bare the desire and the need of the petitioner, and second, to incline the mind of him to whom the prayer is addressed to grant the petition. These purposes have no place in the prayer that is sent up to God. When we pray we do not intend to manifest our needs or desires to God, for he knows all things. The Psalmist says to God: Lord, all my longing is known to thee (Psalm 38 [37]:10); and in the Gospel we are told: Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all (Matt 6:32). Again, the will of God is not influenced by human words to will what he had previously not willed. For, as we read in Numbers 23:19, God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should be changed; nor is God moved to repentance (1 Sam 15:29).

Prayer, then, for obtaining something from God is necessary for man on account of the very one who prays, that he may reflect on his shortcomings and may turn his mind to desiring fervently and piously what he hopes to gain by his petition. In this way he is rendered fit to receive the favor. Yet a further difference between the prayer offered to God and that addressed to man is to be marked. Prayer addressed to a man presupposes a certain intimacy that may afford the petitioner an opportunity to present his request. But when we pray to God, the very prayer we send forth makes us intimate with him, inasmuch as our soul is raised up to God and converses with him in spiritual affection, and adores him in spirit and truth. The familiar affection thus experienced in prayer begets an inducement in the petitioner to pray again with yet greater confidence. And so we read in Psalm 17 [16]:6: I have cried to you, that is, in trusting prayer, for you, O God, have heard me; as though, after being admitted to intimacy in the first prayer, the Psalmist cries out with all the greater confidence in the second.

For this reason, in prayer to God, perseverance or repetition of our supplication is not unseemly, but is regarded as acceptable to God. Indeed, we ought always to pray and not lose heart, as we learn from Luke 18:1. Our Lord, too, invites us to pray, for he said: Ask, and it will be given you . . . knock, and it will be opened to you (Matt 7:7). But in prayer addressed to man, persistence in begging becomes irritating.