Q. I’ll bet a dime to a donut this won’t see print. My question regards praying. Hitler exterminated some 12 million Jews and Christians. They were deeply religious people who prayed that God would spare them. But He did not answer their prayers. If He did not answer these prayers, why would He answer my “insignificant” prayers? Your answer can only be that we don’t know why God does what He does, that He has a plan that we will not understand until the Last Judgment. So why pray? – E.W.L., Kansas

A. First of all, there is no such thing as an “insignificant” prayer. Prayer is the elevation of our mind and heart to God, and it can never be an unimportant or inconsequential action to maintain communication with the One who created us and who sustains us with His divine providence.

Second, we don’t pray to let God know what we need; He already knows everything that is on our minds. We pray to acknowledge that we need God, that we are utterly dependent on Him. Recognizing this and placing ourselves humbly before God is a good thing for us, regardless of the outcome of our prayers.

 

Third, while we’re talking here about prayers of petition, remember that there are also three other purposes of prayer: adoration, thanksgiving, and reparation. Yes, God wants us to ask Him for things (“Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you”), but don’t forget our obligation to praise God, to thank Him for our blessings, and to repair for our sins and the sins of the world.

On the one hand, says the Catechism, we are not particularly concerned whether God hears our prayers of praise and thanks, but “on the other hand, we demand to see the results of our petitions. What is the image of God that motivates our prayer: an instrument to be used? Or the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?” (n. 2735).

Fourth, God answers every prayer, but sometimes the answer is no or not right now. E.W.L. is right that we don’t know why some prayers are not answered in the way that we would wish. Our only response is that we must continue to have trust and confidence in God, the God who loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sins so that we could get to Heaven. A God who would do that cannot be characterized as uncaring. As the Catechism says:

 

“Do not be troubled if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask Him; for He desires to do something even greater for you, while you cling to Him in prayer.”

 

Fifth, we don’t know if everyone in Hitler’s concentration camps was a deeply religious person. Many of them might have been, but some perhaps ignored God, and others may even have cursed God for their plight. Furthermore, those who did pray may not have been praying just for their own well-being. Some may have been praying for other prisoners, or offering prayers of adoration or reparation.

What we do know is that God can bring good out of even the most horrific circumstances. So the prayers of those in the camps, although not answered in the manner that E.W.L. would have preferred, were not useless. The fact that the suffering prompted prayer at all was a good thing, but we will not know until the Last Judgment how much good prayer wrought in those camps, how many people it brought closer to God, how many souls it saved, how many Maximilian Kolbe’s became saints because of extraordinary sacrifices made for their fellow prisoners.

That’s why we should never underestimate the power of prayer, even prayer that we might think is “insignificant.” And we should never assume that prayer is fruitless because it does not produce the effects that we think it should. God hears all prayers and will use them in ways that we cannot imagine to facilitate His plan for humanity.

P.S. We’ll take the dime instead of the donut since you might get in trouble sending a powdery substance through the mails.