Should we pray for earthly needs?

In the introduction to the encyclopedia of prayer (La Preghiera, Rome 1967) writes prof. R. Bocassino, his memories of Central Africa. A primitive woman of a forest tribe does from a clay pot. He prays to the gods in search of clay, at mixing, firing. He asks her who taught her that. He shrugs shoulders: «Who teaches children to cry? They do it themselves. Prayer also goes from the heart.” Prayer erupts from need and uncertainty. Begging to bless occurs in all religions of the world.

Most Christian prayers seem to be of this kind. People pray for the harvest in the field, for success in business, for healing in sickness. It’s not the rest primitivism, paganism? There have always been those who find such prayers less Christian and want to discourage them, like the rest of the old pagan mentality. Origen called all earthly worries the term “shadow.” None of the people buy the shadow. We only take care of the object; its shadow goes with it free. Thus, according to Origen, we are supposed to ask only for true spiritual things; earthly and bodily needs to be with us, they add without asking, like a shadow. St. Thomas Aquinas gathered objections, they put against prayer for early needs. Prayer to us, it is to elevate to heaven and not draw attention to earthly worries, which are often harmful. After all, the gospel itself encourages us not to worry about what we eat or what we eat (cf. Mt 6:25). Understandably, on the contrary, it is true that even in the Fatherland, we pray for “our daily bread.”
The rule for distinguishing between correct and incorrect requests even during Christ’s lifetime, great people came to him. Most people with a request for healing in sickness, restoration of sight, and bread miraculously multiplied. And yet, he fundamentally rejected some pleas or did not hear them immediately and as people would like. So how do we know each other in evaluating prayer requests? St. Augustine set the basic rule: «We can pray for what we can desire, what we can wish for ourselves and others.” Prayer for something wrong is ruled out. St. Gregor of Nazianz speaks ironically against those who would like to harm your neighbor’s prayer Father: «What a father are you calling, Not the one who is in heaven and gives only good! Your father, from whom you demand evil, is Satan, the spirit of hatred. .. »God will not hear the prayer for conscious sin, guide him at the same time, such a request offends and is sinful. It occurs as we hope very rarely and reveals a perverted character. However, we often want to achieve nothing wrong with what we don’t see: success, money, place. Can we laugh at that to pray? According to St. Augustine’s principle, of course, there is nothing wrong with asking for what we long for. After all, however, striving for similar values ​​has its limits. We must not want to get rich by stealing; to get better , Instead of cheating, take care of the body to the detriment of the soul. Work and the pursuit of some values ​​must stop where they were no longer suitable but rather evil. Prayer also wants to involve God in life
efforts for success and prosperity. It must always be conditional. It always thinks about what is so nicely expressed in the novena in honour of St. Francis of Xaver: «If not what I ask for the salvation of my soul, then I ask you  ask me something else, more necessary! »
Then, of course, nothing would seem more perfect not to choose and not to ask for anything in particular, namely. The same is that the perfect one is, the more indifferent one is. He cares little about what the worldly cares about people.

About St. Gertrude writes that she more often promised her acquaintances that she would pray for their affairs. Hardly, though she prayed, she forgot everything. But God, did he hears about it. No wonder, then, that it seems more perfect to some people if they don’t ask for anything special. Already, Socrates said that prayer was enough for us to be god’s gracious. They attribute this opinion to Wyclef. They can, in addition, the texts of Scripture, e.g., from Romans (8:26): We do not even know what to pray for. However, if we took such indifference quite consistently, then nothing would be left of the prayer, which, after all, is so widespread in all religions and confirmed in the gospel: You will receive everything you need begging in faith in prayer (Mt 21:22). The Church, therefore, makes pleas for all that is good and for all that we tie for sound if this is done with the modest judgment of the appropriateness or unsuitability of completion. Such is the prayer always heard, even if I guess differently than we thought. For only the supplication that is with Christ and in Christ is made.