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Questions / Prayer and the Church year

Why pray if God already knows?

Church teaching

Answered on video by Ascension Presents

Video: If God is Good, Why Do We Need to Pray?, Ascension Presents, published Feb 2, 2022. Checked 10 October 2026. Loads from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) only when you press play. Watch on YouTube

In short: Prayer isn’t a status update to God. It’s a relationship: God thirsts for you to thirst for Him. CCC 2560 CCC 2564

The answer, in writing

Church teaching

Christ comes to meet us at the well and asks us for a drink: “Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us.” CCC 2560

Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and us in Christ. CCC 2564

Our words

Your best friend knows you’re having a bad day. You still call. Prayer isn’t informing God; it’s being with Him.

Next step: Try Evening Prayer

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Related questions

Why do my prayers seem unanswered? Ascension Presents · 8 minDo Catholics also pray for the dead? Ascension Presents · 7 minWhat is the Rosary? Bishop Robert Barron · 4 minWhat is the Liturgy of the Hours? Fr. Mike Schmitz · 11 min

Sources on this page

How we know · 2 Catechism paragraphs
  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2560, 2564 (official text on vatican.va).

Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words and cites every teaching claim. Our own wording is not an official Church text. Found a mistake? Report an errorCorrections.