A Quick Look: Prayer, Performance, Perspective

It’s been another ‘one of those weeks’, so I’m sharing a Bishop Fulton Sheen video (from a family retreat in the 1970s, I gather), talking about whatever comes to mind, and calling it a day.

One thing Bishop Sheen mentioned was prayer.

Prayer, Briefly

Prayer isn’t the only part of being a Christian, a Catholic, but it’s an important part. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2558-2856)

Okay, first things first. Just what is prayer, anyway?

“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart;
it is a simple look turned toward heaven,
it is a cry of recognition and of love,
embracing both trial and joy.”
(“Manuscrits Autobiographiques”, St. Therese of Lisieux (1895-1897) via Catechism of the Catholic Church)

But if prayer wasn’t anything more than a gush of emotions, I wouldn’t have much use for it. Nothing wrong with emotions, I’ve talked about that before.¹

Prayer is also a gift from God. (Catechism, 2559-2561)

So is everything else, and I’m drifting off-topic.

The Catechism’s Glossary (English language) has a pretty good definition.

“PRAYER: The elevation of the mind and heart to God in praise of his glory; a petition made to God for some desired good, or in thanksgiving for a good received, or in intercession for others before God. Through prayer the Christian experiences a communion with God through Christ in the Church (2559-2565).”
(Catechism, Glossary)

Prayer involves words, gestures, or both. But it’s not just words and gestures. When I pray, all of me is praying, not just my voice and hands. That’s how it should be, at any rate. (Catechism, 2562-2564)

Putting Performance in Perspective

Another point, an important one.

Prayer isn’t magic.

Words mean things and what I’m doing as I pray matters.

But prayer isn’t about putting on a technically-competent act. What I’m doing inside matters.

“Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.”
(Catechism, 2111)

Another point.

Asking God for something — better health, wisdom, whatever — can make sense. Imagining I can make God do something: that profoundly does not.

God is large and in charge. Almighty. (Catechism, 268-269)

“Our God is in heaven
and does whatever he wills.”
(Psalms 115:3)

That’s a scary thought, but there’s emphatically an ‘up’ side to God’s omnipotence.

“Indeed, before you the whole universe is like a grain from a balance,
or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.
“But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things;
and you overlook sins for the sake of repentance.”
(Wisdom 11:22–23) [emphasis mine]

Categories

There’s a whole mess of ways I can sort prayers out. One of them is by looking at why I’m praying.

Taking the ‘intent’ angle, there are at least five sorts of prayer. (Catechism, 2623-2643)

Let’s see. What else?

Some places are better than others for praying. (Catechism, 2691)

But “It is always possible to pray….” (Catechism, 2743)

There’s more, lots more. But like I said, it’s ‘one of those weeks’.

Doing, Understanding, Caring

When I get an impulse to pray, it’s very often giving thanks for something.

Or maybe it’s praise and adoration. For me, those two are much alike.

But all sorts of prayer are important. Which is why my daily prayer routine includes a bit from each category: no great virtue there, there’s lots to pray about in each one.

Happily, most of the heavy lifting for ‘intercessory/petition’ prayers — thinking of what to ask for — gets done for me. I’m part of a ‘prayer chain’, and get ‘pray for…’ items via text/email. Actually, my youngest daughter gets them, writes them on slips of paper, then passes those on to me.

The issues are mostly medical, very often distressing, and as anonymous as whoever makes the request wants.

About intercessory/petition prayers — Sometimes I’ll clearly ask for “A”. Then nothing happens, or maybe I get “∃∑”.

I figure there’s a reason. Reasons. But I also figure that, even if I got a full explanation, I still wouldn’t understand. God’s God, I’m not, and I’ve read the book of Job.

Demanding explanations? I like understanding things. But sometimes I don’t need to, so I try to avoid fretting when I don’t understand God-level decisions.

Letting ‘I don’t understand’ morph into ‘I don’t care’: sometimes indifference makes sense, like when I don’t understand why folks extol the excellencies of pepperoni pizza. Not that many do.

But when it comes to God — indifference is not an option. Not a viable one.

Not-entirely-unrelated posts:

• “Satan, Sin, Politics, and Making Sense Anyway” (January 3, 2026)
  • Theology, Slogans, and Human Nature
• “King Josiah, Consequences, and Love” (September 13, 2025)
  • Authority and Consequences
  • “And He Found it Very Good”
  • Sin is Real, Forgiveness is an Option
• “Cancer in the Family” (January 27, 2024)
  • Another Operation, Radiation, and Prayer
• “Just Who is This Jesus Person, and Who Does He Think He is?” (October 8, 2022)
  • “Those Who Followed Were Afraid”??
  • Claiming Divinity

¹ Emotions matter, to an extent:

• “War, Feelings, Jesus, and Making Sense” (April 18, 2026)
  • Feeling and Thinking
• “Anger and Justice: Aquinas, Berra and Me” (February 11, 2021)
  • (Self?) Righteous Rage?
  • Sound, Fury — and Thinking