When seeking advice about a decision, have you ever been told to “pray about it”? Maybe you were looking for help deciding which house to buy, which company to work for, or even which charity should receive your tithe. Being advised to pray about such decisions is good advice – as far as it goes. After all, St. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to “pray always.” But what exactly is the role of prayer in decision-making?

The simplest definition of prayer is ‘conversation with God’. Indeed, for those whose souls are marked by being baptised into the life, death and resurrection of Christ, our whole lives should be one long conversation with our Maker. But in the history of humanity, and within the Judeo-Christian tradition, prayer itself takes many forms: the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to it as “a mysterious encounter… Prayer unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation as a reciprocal call between God and man.” (CCC 2591) Sometimes this reciprocal call takes the form of signs and wonders, like Moses encountering God in the burning bush, or St. Paul being knocked to the ground; more often it seems to involve the ‘still small voice’ that Elijah hears from his cleft in the rock. One contemporary priest-poet even describes it, in a metaphor that will no doubt feel familiar to many of us, as a kind of game of hide and seek.