Why Do We Pray?

We pray in answer to God’s call and as a consequence of our status as beings of his creation. He has called us from nothingness into exist once, and he continues to call us to be his children. We are made in his likeness and thus we have embedded in us the need, the desire, the impulse to praise him for all the majestic wonders he has created and for the gift of our own salvation. We may forget our Creator or follow after false idols or accuse him of deserting us, but our true God relentlessly summons us and reveals himself to us throughout the whole of salvation history. 

We pray in response to the presence and action of God in our world. We pray because we believe; we pray as a response of faith to the reality of God’s existence in our lives. Prayer also expresses our ear nest hope, our firm stance, that our salvation is at hand, that Christ will indeed return on the last day. Prayer fills us with the Holy Spirit who brings us an abundance of hope, joy, and peace. We pray be cause we are in love with Christ and wish to respond by loving him as he has loved us in his dying for us. Love, says the Catechism, is the “source and summit of prayer” (CCC §2658).