The prayer God always answers

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Sunday Morning by Thomas Waterman Wood (Wikimedia Commons)
How can we know that God will hear and answer our prayers?
I learned a new word the other day that I want to share with you: impetration. Impetration is a prayer that God infallibly answers. The concept comes from such New Testament passages as this:
Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Mt. 7:7)
Now we know from experience that God does not answer every prayer. Or, as we like to say, He sometimes answers with a “no.” So where is the fulfillment of this verse?
St. Thomas Aquinas taught that there are four requirements for impetration:
  1. We must be praying for ourselves, since freewill is involved.
  2. We must be praying for something necessary for salvation (but theologians include in this all the goods that could help us grow in grace).
  3. We must pray piously–in Jesus’ name, with humility, trust, and attention.
  4. We must persevere in prayer when necessary.  

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