The Benefits of Prayer

Part 3

From its very nature we can understand how rich in benefits is prayer.  It honors God and helps us both in soul and body.  We are God's children, and as a child honors its father by speaking reverently to him, by manifesting its love for him, by showing that it depends upon him for its needs and by begging forgiveness of offenses committed, so do we in these various ways give honor to God through prayer.  Moreover, by this holy exercise we obtain for ourselves all we need both spiritually and temporally; we are strengthened against temptation and our natural weaknesses; our life is ennobled and filled with virtues and we are better fitted for heaven.  In the words of St. Lawrence Justinian, prayer, "pleases God, gets what it asks, overcomes enemies, changes man." Rightly, then, has it been called incense ascending before the throne of God, or a golden key which unlocks for us the treasures of heaven.