What is the purpose of prayer?

Maybe too much of a think piece for a Friday, but CNS has a story (posted here at USC.org) about prayer that raises an interesting question: “If the pope used Twitter or Facebook to rally people together to pray for one intention, how many millions of prayers could be raised to heaven within minutes?”


The story doesn’t really answer that question–it’s more about using Twitter and Facebook to create a community of prayer–but I still have to wonder if prayer is “raising” an intention to heaven. Are we trying to get God to “do” something when we pray? Or is prayer about God changing us?


Discuss–and no Catholic “both-ands”! What are we doing when we pray?