“Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you.”

In Christ’s Last Discourse to the apostles, He prepares them for the sorrow they will experience after His departure then encourages them with a promise.  In speaking to His disciples, He speaks to us; if we ask anything of the Father in His name, the Father will give it to us.

But perhaps we have tried praying for something and have not obtained it; perhaps even the total opposite happened.  I prayed for the success of my business and it failed; I prayed for the return of a friend to the Faith and it did not happen.

But our Lord meant what He said.  “Amen, amen (which is to say, ‘Truly, truly...): if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you.”

Our Lord means what He says. He was not speaking a platitude nor a simple flowery phrase.  Our Savior speaks the truth; He tells us things we need to hear and to practice.

Today, we will discuss the prayer that is always answered, i.e. the infallible prayer.

When we ask for something from the good God, St. Thomas Aquinas says we will always obtain it so long as the prayer meets four conditions: 1) we pray for things necessary for salvation; 2) we pray for ourselves; 3) we pray piously; 4) we pray perseveringly.  When these four elements concur in prayer, we will always obtain our request.

Now we will describe each one of these elements of infallible prayer.
1) Prayer for things necessary for our salvation: “Amen, amen if you ask anything in My name.”  St. Augustine tells us that here the word “anything”, or “whatsoever” as found in some translations, does not mean anything simply, but that kind of some-thing which, because it refers to heaven, is not no-thing.

When we pray for things related to our salvation, we meet the first condition of infallible prayer.

So, suppose a man prays to obtain some illicit pleasure from God.  God will not hear him, for God will not help a man in sin.  But suppose a man prays to overcome his poverty or recover his health.  God may or may not hear him in reference to his salvation.  If acquired riches or recovered health should assist the man to heaven, God will hear him, otherwise, He will not.  For riches, health, fame, glory are so many non-things in comparison with heaven.  And many have abandoned God when their health or wealth returned and now suffer hell fire, forever.

Moreover, prayer for the things of salvation models scripture, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you”(Mt 6:33); “One thing have I asked of the Lord, this I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” (Ps 24:4); “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss; that you may consume it on your concupiscence.”(Js 4:3)

2) Prayer for ourselves:  “...if you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.”  St. Augustine directs our attention to the fact that our dear Lord does NOT say simply, “He will give it” BUT, “He will give it to you.”
 When we pray for something for ourselves we meet the second condition of infallible prayer.

St. Thomas says although all the saints are heard for themselves, not all are heard in regard to others.  This is fitting.  For when I pray for myself I humble myself and freely surrender my will to the will of Almighty God ~ a prerequisite for gaining salvation.

God honors man’s free will; He will never force a human will to love Him.  And if the Creator of the universe will not force a sinner’s conversion nor will the prayer offered by another.  So while we pray for others that God send them helps at conversion, their conversion will not happen unless they voluntarily respond to these helps and ask for salvation themselves.

3) Prayer which is pious: Another word for pious is devout.  The pious or devout man is one who wholly subjects himself to a superior.  In religious terms, the pious man promptly gives his will over to things in the service of God. 

As regards prayer, when we pray while acting in ways corresponding to that prayer, we fulfill the third condition of infallible prayer.

Contrary to this spirit of prayer is the man who asks to be liberated from a bad habit but does not remove the occasions of his sin.  This man is not pious, but impious; and his prayer will go unheard.  St. James admonishes this man in today’s Epistle, “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  For unless, while praying for the grace to overcome our weakness, we take practical steps to remove occasions of sin from our life, we become like the drowning man whose cries for help would avail if only he were to release the anchor he holds.

4) Prayer which is persevering: Only God really knows what we need and when we need it while we guess and want it right away.
 
When we pray with unwavering patience, however, we fulfill the last condition of infallible prayer.  And such is enjoined in Sacred Scripture: “We ought always to pray,” (Lk 18:1); “pray without ceasing,” (1 Thess. 5:17)

Perseverance in the spiritual life is a gift of God that no man can merit (Trent). But St. Augustine says we can obtain it by prayer: “if we ask for it daily, we may daily receive it.”

If our prayer is persevering, meaning continual and unflagging, then God will answer us in His time.  And we will receive nothing better than what God gives, when He gives it.

“Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you.”

God can neither deceive nor be deceived.  If He says our prayers will obtain, they will obtain. God the Father has given all authority, on earth and in heaven, to the Son.  It is enough to pray in His mere name to receive results... and Holy Church does this every time she ends her prayers, “per Dominum Nostrum Jesum Christum...”  Praying in His name, our own prayers will never fail if we ask for things necessary for salvation, for ourselves, and with piety and perseverance.