PRAYER, or rather, the injunction to pray, has always baffled me. If God can do all things, since He is all-powerful; if He is so wise as to know all that has to be done well, since He is all-knowing; if He is so good that He would only do what He knows is excellent, since He is all-benevolent, then what part would I have to do, let alone pray?

Jesus’ own discussion about prayer when the Apostles asked him to teach them to pray does not quite illuminate—well, at least not yet. He tells them the Father knows all that they need, and therefore they should pray without repeating themselves needlessly. But if God knows all that we need, then why in the first place do we need to pray to Him, as it were, to tell Him?

Some people have tried to get around this curiosity by suggesting that prayer, understood as petition or asking for favours, misconstrues the very notion of prayer itself. They say prayer does not mean asking for help, for a better job, for some money to help pay the rent, for a successful surgery etc., but really about thanksgiving, or about establishing a relationship.

No doubt we ought to give thanks and acknowledge God’s existence, but even in the Lord’s Prayer we see clear indications of petitions—indeed, most of it, if not all, are petitions: Your Name be Glorified, Your Reign in our Lives, Your Will be fulfilled, our daily spiritual and material needs, forgiveness and our ability to forgive others, escape from occasions of offense and deliverance when evil comes to meet us face to face. So to brush aside the import of asking, of petition, of seeking God’s gifts and help here and there seems to me not to be on the mark.

Why then prayer? Why then this asking, this articulation of our needs when God already knows? Obviously it is not for the sake of God that we pray-our prayer does nothing to add to the glory of God, which is already infinitely complete in itself without our praise. After some musing, the answer seems to me possibly along the following lines.