TEN PRAYERS GOD ALWAYS SAYS YES TO

Divine Answers to Life’s Most Difficult Problems

by Anthony DeStefano

Doubleday, 2007

208 pages, $18.95

Available in bookstores

Have you ever wondered if there are any “can’t-miss” prayers? Requests that, like a soft-hearted parent, our heavenly Father is anxious to accede to any and every time we ask? Stated another way: If a 3-year-old child asks his mom or dad to tie his shoes, shouldn’t the answer be an automatic Yes? Are there any requests we can make to God that have that same effect?

Anthony DeStefano believes there are such prayers. Employing the same chatty, informal style that made his first book, A Travel Guide to Heaven, such a huge success, the author — who is also executive director of Priests for Life — now confidently asserts that there are certain things Our Lord wants us to ask him for.

The assertion does not come without a caution. We must never pray, he writes, “with the same kind of consumer mentality with which we view the rest of domestic living: We want this, that, and the other thing, and we want it now. … God is not some supermarket clerk, and the world is not some huge Wal-Mart. As long as we continue to labor under this misconception, we will continue to get upset every time God says No to us.”

Some readers might find DeStefano’s approach a tad too neat. Simplistic, even. But if he errs on the side of simplicity, that’s because he’s aiming to reach as broad an audience as possible — and anticipating objections and refutations before they’re even made.

For example, the first “can’t-miss” prayer is “God, show me that you exist” — which is, in essence, an entreaty for the grace of faith.

“If … you pray to God, ‘Please show me that you exist,’ and at the same time think to yourself, ‘And if you don’t show me, I will know that you’re not there,’ then I wouldn’t put too much stock in God’s answering you,” he writes. “The reason is that this is not really a prayer at all. It’s a demand. You’re essentially telling God to do something — or else. … That is not the proper way to ask God for a sign of his existence. The whole point is to try to be sincere, even if you have tremendous doubts about God. The goal here is to suspend your disbelief — if only temporarily — to give God a chance to enter your life.”

This book would be a good primer for the friend, relative or co-worker who isn’t so much a firm unbeliever as a cool skeptic. It might be offered with a quick explanation that the three theological virtues — faith, hope and love — aren’t inherited quirks. They’re lived attitudes. Before they become components of character, they’re first acts of the will. So, too, petitionary prayer.

“God gives us what we need, not what we want,” writes DeStefano. “Like a good father, he is not concerned about gratifying our every wish. Instead, he is concerned about only one thing: our ultimate good, which boils down to whether or not we make it to heaven. Every request we make of God is ‘evaluated’ by him in light of that long-term goal.”

And not a one goes unanswered.

Clare Siobhan writes from

Westmont, Illinois.