"For everyone that asketh receiveth."
For many people, religion is a powerful, personal, and very important aspect of their lives. Their belief in a deity or deities is a primary component of who and what they are and represent.
And one of the most important aspects of any religion is the practice of prayer, which is held to be a direct communion with whatever god(s) one believes in.
Some writers will decide to suggest that their universe is, in fact, run by a deity or deities (sometimes hinted to be the writer themselves), by having those prayers answered. It could be a direct and verbal response from a powerful, thunderous voice, or a more subtle response of having an object or set of circumstances favorable to a character suddenly be realized.
Common in High Fantasy and works of religious allegory. It is also common in works with Physical Religion and Religion is Magic as part of their universes.
This can be done for purposes of drama or it can be Played for Laughs. In either case, due to the oft-times controversial nature of religion and religious beliefs, if this trope is executed poorly, whether for serious matters or laughs, it can earn audience backlash, while if well done it can be a powerful moment in a work.
In some cases, it can be an Author Tract, though not necessarily in a bad way.
If somebody who's not a deity answers when a character addresses their god, that's Answers to the Name of God.
More secular works, or even satirical, will play very fast and loose on just who or what is being prayed to, from inanimate objects to that world's equivalent of Satan or some other demon. A nervous or skeptical person may offer an Emergency Multifaith Prayer to every potential deity they can think of, just to cover all their bases.
If a human victim is offered up in exchange, that's Human Sacrifice.
If the petitioner expects every prayer to be answered just for the asking, they're probably Egocentrically Religious. More likely, the god in question will work In Mysterious Ways that leave their followers still needing to have a little due faith and humility.
Compare with All Wishes Granted and Divine Intervention. May overlap with Prayer Is a Last Resort, Prayer of Malice, and Turn to Religion. May become a Retroactive Wish if the answered prayer is immediately followed by more prayers in the hope of similar outcomes. Contrast Gods Need Prayer Badly.
Not to be confused with Word of God, which is about creators confirming or denying aspects of their work.
Due to the personal nature of religious beliefs, No Real Life Examples, Please!. Historical examples are permitted, provided they appear in a work of fiction such as literature or film.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- BanG Dream!: When Ran gets sick, the other members of her band, Afterglow, are desperate to make her well again. They look up numerous folk remedies on their phones, with Moca saying that prayers to a south Pacific deity known as Babanbo-sama, worshipped by the Ungalohoganga tribe, will bring good health. Cue Ran tied to a stake with burning incense. The next day, she's feeling much better, but has no memory of anything (though later it's revealed that she's possessed by Babanbo-sama)
- Chihayafuru: During the nationals in Season 2, Taichi, who is notoriously unlucky about having his card read during a sudden-death match, prays, "Please, God, I'm begging you, I don't care if my card never comes up in another sudden-death match, again. Just, please, this once," at this point Chihaya recovers from her exhaustion and wakes, looking at Taichi, a radiant light shining from her, "Just this once..." Taichi's card is called, securing victory for Mizusawa High.
Comic Books
- Wonder Woman (1987): Hippolyta's yearning for a child led to her sculpting a clay statue in the form of a baby and beseeching the goddesses of Olympus to give it life. The goddesses answered her prayers and thus Princess Diana of Themyscira was born.
Fan Works
- Pony POV Series: Abbatissa is the Alicorn of Prayer. Her duty is to ensure that every mortal’s prayer in the universe, no matter how small, reaches the ears of the deity it was meant for.
Films — Animated
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney): The Villain Song "Hellfire" is, despite its name, a two-part monologue sung by Frollo as a prayer to the Virgin Mary. He begs her to free him from the spell of the gypsy witch Esmeralda, send her to Hell "or else let her be his and his alone ". Immediately after delivering the last line, one of Frollo's guards opens the door to his lord's chambers and reports that Esmeralda left the cathedral. Frollo replies by promising he'll find her even if he had to burn Paris to the ground. Despite not being openly stated, this sudden occurrence is implied to have a symbolic meaning: the Virgin Mary offers Frollo the chance to give up his obsession over Esmeralda, but the villain rejects the divine sign and sets course for the path which, courtesy of a fiery Disney Villain Death, will lead him to eternal damnation.
- The Rescuers: Orphan waif Penny is in the clutches of the wicked Madame Medusa, made to search a small cave to find a diamond. She has tried getting help by launching messages in bottles, but her keeper Snoops caught her doing this. Penny then gets on her knees and prays for rescue, "because sending messages in bottles isn't working." As it turns out, one bottle does come to the attention of the Rescue Aid Society, which dispatches Bernard and Bianca to rectify her plight.
- Watership Down: In the Animated Adaptation, a desperate Hazel pleads with the great god Frith to spare his warren from the hostile forces of General Woundwort. Hazel even offers to perish himself to make this come true. Frith responds, "There does not pass a day or a night that some honest captain of owsla [sic] does not offer his life for his chief, or a mother rabbit offer her life for her kittens. But there can be no bargain, for what is, is what must be." It's all up to Hazel now: do or die.
Films — Live-Action
- Bruce Almighty: After God grants Bruce His powers, Bruce starts receiving prayers from people around the world. God tells him he needs to start answering them. Bruce, not thinking the situation through, decides to grant EVERYONE'S prayers, without regard to consequences. This results in, among other things, EVERYONE winning the lottery, and a woman losing substantial weight on an all-Oreo diet.
- Evan Almighty: That people might not understand the answer is discussed in the film.
God: Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?
- It's a Wonderful Life: The Film opens with the voices of several people praying for George Bailey, and then the Heavens preparing to answer those prayers.
- Keeping Mum: Played with, when the Reverend Walter Goodfellow stands in his pulpit, asks God about his forthcoming speech "God's mysterious ways", and provides God's answer himself, using the pulpit microphone.
Walter: God?
Walter: (switches microphone on, and speaks in a deep voice, pretending to be God) Yes, Walter?
Walter: (as himself) How do you think it's sounding?
Walter: (as God) Well, the title stinks, for a start.
Grace: (who has suddenly appeared in the church) I wouldn't agree with God on that one. - Patton: During the Battle of the Bulge as the Germans are overwhelming American positions in Belgium, the titular American General asks the Chaplain to write a prayer for good weather, interspersed with him visiting a church and praying in silence. The very next day, his prayer is answered, with clear skies overhead to enable Allied fighters and bombers to fly.
Patton: I'm tired of 3rd Army having to fight <snip> this ungodly weather. I want a prayer, a weather prayer.
Chaplain: A weather prayer, sir?
Patton: Yes, let's see if you can't get God working with us.
Chaplain: Gonna take a thick rug for that kind of praying.
Patton: I don't care if it takes a flying carpet.
Chaplain: I don't know how this will be received, general. Praying for good weather so we can kill our fellow man.
Patton: I assure you, because of my relations with the Almighty, if you write a good prayer, we'll have good weather. And I expect that prayer within an hour. - Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. The devoutly religious Holly begs no-nonsense atheist Lola Beck to pray in their hopeless situation as Behemecoatl, a planet-sized "God of bugs", prepares to devour them and assimilate their knowledge. Lola then sees seven lights of light appears in the night sky as a halo around Holly's head, which are in fact a unit of advanced Marauder mechs dropping from orbit who bomb the God Bug and hundreds of Warrior Bugs. This convinces Lola to convert to Christianity, which the Federation then use to better control the masses.
Jokes
- A man is stranded on the dangerous ledge of a cliff. A rescue boat arrives, but he refuses to board, saying that God will save him. A helicopter arrives, but again he says that God will save him. Later, after he has died, he asks God why he didn't save him. God replies, "I sent you a boat and a helicopter. What more did you want me to do?"
- After her cat died, an eight-year-old girl prayed to God to bring it back. Her older brother heard her and laughed, telling her that God would never answer a prayer like that. The girl ignored him and kept praying. The next day, after the cat hadn't come back to life, the brother told the girl "See, I told you God wouldn't answer your prayer". The girl replied, "God did answer my prayer. He said 'No'!"
- A deeply religious man is in financial trouble, and prays, "Dear God, please let me win the lottery." He doesn't get an answer. He loses his job and prays again, "Dear God, please let me win the lottery." Again, he doesn't get an answer. He loses his house and ends up living on the street, and prays again, "Dear God, please let me win the lottery." Suddenly, there is a huge flash of light, and a voice comes down from the heavens: "My son, please meet Me halfway and buy a ticket!"
Literature
- Deryni: Some advanced Deryni magic workings are couched in explicitly religious terms, with direct calls upon the four Archangels for power and protection, and other religious imagery. In the short story "The Priesting of Arilan", it's strongly implied that Denis Arilan's successful ordination to the priesthood — the first Deryni priest in two hundred years — is due to direct intervention by God in response to Arilan's prayers.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: In "Dog Days", Greg claims that whenever his grandmother can't find something, she prays and it appears.
- The Faraway Paladin: Will is a paladin of the goddess Gracefeel and swore a mighty oath to her service. When he prays to her, she regularly speaks back to him directly.
- All gods in The Craft Sequence take part in a transactional Physical Religion in which they perform services and bestow gifts in exchange for worship. Both this practice and the gods themselves have largely been supplanted by the FunctionalMagic of the Craft. Then in Last First Snow, the Nay Thiest Craftswoman Elayne prays for the first and last time in her life as she strains her power to its limit trying to save lives. Despite her prayer being an expression of pure desperation addressed to no god, something answers her immediately, and does as she wills.
- Heralds of Valdemar: There are many gods, and at least some of them do respond directly to prayers and appeals for aid. In one book, the Star-Eyed Goddess of the Shin'a'in makes a direct appearance in response to a prayer by one of Her followers. In other stories, Vkandis Sunlord, God of Karse, sometimes acts directly in response to prayers by His followers.
- Johannes Cabal and the Fear Institute: Johannes tries to scare off some ambushers by making a big show of entreating Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos to smite them. They promptly disintegrate, leaving Johannes terrified that the most vicious Trickster God in the cosmos called his bluff.
- The Lord of the Rings: Varda, one of the Valar (archangels), seems to respond quite directly to her name being invoked. When Samwise Gamgee holds up the Phial of Galadriel and calls on the power of Elbereth (another name for Varda), the Phial glows so brightly that it blinds and terrifies the many-eyed spider-monster Shelob the Great.
- The Screwtape Letters: C. S. Lewis has the eponymous Screwtape suggest to his nephew Wormwood that it was possible for demons to use Insane Troll Logic to convince their "patients" that even answered prayers are proof that there is no God, noting that humans bound in time have great difficulty in conceiving a being without such restrictions.
- Small Gods: At several points, the depowered god-turned-tortoise Om manages to answer Brutha's prayers, usually unconventionally. For example, he saves him from the sea (by begging another god), provides him with water in the desert (by digging into a water deposit deep under the sand), and at the climax smites his enemy and saves him from an agonizing death (by persuading an eagle to fly over him and dropping from the sky like a rock).
- The Thirteen Problems: In "The Thumb Mark of St. Peter," Miss Marple tells a story about a time when she was called to help prove her niece's innocence in a murder. When things looked bleak, Miss Marple shut her eyes and prayed for help; after opening them, she saw a fresh haddock in the fishmonger's window, which proved the key to understanding the murder victim's bizarre last words and thus finding his killer. Miss Marple acknowledges that it may sound silly, but she does genuinely believe that God answered her prayers by showing her the fish.
- The War Gods: The gods don't often act directly in the world of mortals for fear of destroying it. Instead, they intentionally limit themselves to acting only in specific ways and only in response to direct requests by their followers. Main character Bahzell Bahnakson is a champion of the war-god Tomanak, and his...unusual approach to calling on his god for aid is the source of quite a bit of humor.
Live-Action TV
- Blackadder: Played for laughs in "Corporal Punishment" in the fourth series. At the end, when George and Baldrick have admitted that they forgot to send the telegram to George's uncle which would have been sure of saving his life although he was saved anyway, Blackadder says that he hopes that God will do something nasty to them both. Moments later, he receives a telephone call asking for two volunteers for "Operation Certain Death".
Blackadder: I'm not a religious man, but I shall pray nightly that God who killed Cain and squashed Sampson comes out of retirement, and gets back into practice on the pair of you. (answers telephone) "You need two volunteers for a mission into No Man's Land? Codename: Operation Certain Death. Yes, I think I have just the fellows. (puts phone down) God is very quick these days.
- Fargo Season One: In a flashback, Stavros Milos and his family are shown having lost his job and their home, and are stranded in the middle of nowhere when their car breaks down. Stavros gives a quiet, impassioned prayer promising to serve God forever if He helps them out of their predicament; when he looks up, he sees a windshield scraper sticking out of the snow, and when he digs underneath it he finds a bag stuffed with money, causing him to believe God is real.
- M*A*S*H:
- Father Mulcahy lives by the Bible, and prays regularly. Some of his granted prayers are heartbreaking, though, such as the time they needed an arterial graft from a patient who was mortally wounded, but not dead yet, to save another soldier. "Dear God, I've never asked you for this before, and I don't know what you'll think of my asking it now. But if you're going to take him anyway, do it soon, so we can save that other boy." They do succeed.
- "Quo Vadis Captain Chandler": The bomber pilot Captain Chandler who had been dropping bombs on what could've been innocent women and children had a mental breakdown and started telling people he was Jesus Christ. Chandler is brought to the 4077 after being wounded. When he tells the staff he is Jesus Christ, Col. Potter summons Dr. Sidney Freedman to assess Chandler and during the evaluation, Freedman asks Chandler if God answers prayers.
Dr. Sidney Freedman: Tell me, is it true that God answers all prayers?
Captain Chandler: Yes. Sometimes the answer is no. - In "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen", the series finale, Mulcahy's hearing is damaged when the enemy shells the 4077th. Examined by B.J. it's found that his hearing loss is getting worse. Mulcahy asks God how he can continue to be a priest if he loses his hearing before being inspired to minister to the deaf once he gets home to the United States.
- Saturday Night Live: Played for laughs in a season 19 (1993-94) sketch. Tina (host Sally Field) prays about everything, and, after one overly-long prayer, Jesus (Phil Hartman) appears and asks her to stop praying to him all the time.
Tina: (sobbing) I'm very, very sorry! I guess I was just wasting your time! I certainly wish you had told me about this sooner!
Jesus: Well, I thought about it, and I decided to finally say something.
Tina: Oh, God, I'm so embarrassed...
Jesus: Well, believe me, there are a billion people with the same problem! - Star Trek:
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In the episode "Starship Down" Sisko suffers a head injury in a Jem'Hadar attack. Advised that she has to keep Sisko awake until medical help can reach the bridge Kira engages him in conversation. Eventually she runs out of things to talk to him about and seeing that he's not getting better she starts reciting Bajoran prayers - which help keep him awake long enough for a doctor to reach the bridge and treat the injury.
- Star Trek: Discovery: The USS Discovery jumps to a system 50,000 light years from Earth where the lost colony "New Eden" was located. Captain Pike and an away team beam down and find the chapel which shows how people in an Indiana town prayed for deliverance during the worst days of World War III, and that a mysterious red angel answered their prayers and delivered them to safety.
- Supernatural: During his brief stint as Viceroy of Heaven in season 13, Lucifer decides to answer God's prayers. Unfortunately, these go hilariously badly. He personally intervenes when two priests pray for God's help to exorcise a demon (obviously, being the former ruler of Hell, he can just casually send the demon away with a finger-snap), but the priests freak out when they learn his name. He smites them and slinks back to Heaven to mope.
Myths & Religion
- The Bible has numerous passages that speak to God answering prayers.
Radio
- Adventures in Odyssey: A show focused on Biblical teaching and Christian values, the denizens of Odyssey, particularly at Whit's End, are regular communicants, and often show prayers being answered.
- "When In Doubt...Pray!" Eugene uses the Imagination Station to demonstrate to Mandy that God answers prayers after a classmate says that hasn't happened since Biblical times, including William Tyndale
who prayed for a Bible all could read, and Rev. George Muller, who prayed for provisions for his orphanage.
- "Timmy's Cabin", Whit and Tom pray for aid when a cabin belonging to Tom's late son is to be seized by eminent domain and torn down for a highway. A wandering historian named Mr. Chapman discovers evidence the long-standing cabin was once used by Johnny Appleseed and was thus a historical site that must be preserved.
- "When In Doubt...Pray!" Eugene uses the Imagination Station to demonstrate to Mandy that God answers prayers after a classmate says that hasn't happened since Biblical times, including William Tyndale
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- In all editions, clerics are described as preparing their spells for the day by praying for them to their Patron God. Depending on how fleshed-out the setting is, things may be more specific: the Forgotten Realms book Faiths & Pantheons for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition specified particular times of day that a cleric of a particular deity should pray for spells, and sometimes particular rituals they should perform.
- Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition: The cleric can use the Divine Intervention ability to have their deity literally intervene in whatever situation the cleric is in. The GM determines exactly what the deity does (the handbook recommends the casting of a thematically appropriate spell), and to ensure it's not a win button, it has a 10 to 19% chance to succeed (except at level 20, where it automatically succeeds), and can only be attempted once per day (and if successful, can't be used again for a week).
- GURPS Powers: The system presented in Divine Favor relies on a cleric praying and their deity answering.
- Pathfinder: In addition to clerics and other divine casters needing to pray to refresh their spell list for the day, the First Edition feats Deific, Fiendish, and Monitor Obedience grant specific divine boons to a faithful follower of a given deity by performing a specific daily ritual, ranging from planting acorns in a specific pattern for a follower of the Fertility God Erastil, to having sex with someone while calling out to the Love Goddess Calistria and encouraging one's partner to join in.
- Warhammer 40,000: The Scourged are a Chaos warband who used to be a particularly devout Chapter of loyalist Astartes, seconded to the Inquisition's service. Disturbed at all the torturing they had to do to get the truth out of prisoners, their Chapter Master prayed daily for the ability to tell truth from lies, and his prayer was answered... by Tzeentch. Cursed with the ability to hear every lie being told across the Imperium, they went insane and fell to Chaos in record time.
Video Games
- The Elder Scrolls: In the backstory, Alessia the Slave Queen led her fellow Nedes (Precursors to most modern races of Men) in a Slave Revolt against their Ayleid overlords. She prayed to the Aedra for their aid and, with the Ayleids having largely abandoned Aedra worship to worship the darker Daedra, the Aedra responded. They sent Morihaus (a demi-god "winged-bull man) and Pelinal Whitestrake (a berserker knight simultaneously believed to be a God in Human Form and a Cyborg from the future) to aid her armies to great effect. Further, after Pelinal's rampages, Kyne (one of the Aedra) would "send in her rain" to "cleanse" the destroyed Ayleid forts and villages so Alessia's forces could use them. After defeating the Ayleids and founding the first Cyrodiilic Empire, Alessia would found the religion of the Eight (later Nine, then Eight again) Divines to worship the Aedra who aided her while she became Saint Alessia. She married and had a son with Morihaus, who seems to have left the mortal world again after her death.
- EarthBound (1994): Paula can Pray for help during battles. Sometimes it works and you'll party will get a buff or healed for free, sometimes it backfires and harms the party, and sometimes it does nothing at all. During the Final Boss fight, your entire party gets beaten into a corner and is so overwhelmed by Giygas that praying becomes your only option. It results in everyone you ever helped or befriended in the game answering your prayers and attacking Giygas, before finally you (that is, you playing the game) answer and deliver the final defeating blow.
- FAITH: The Unholy Trinity: The final flashback in Chapter III has then-amateur exorcist John Ward, having escaped the Martin household and the demon-possessed Amy, pray to God for help. God (or at least a figure who claims to be God, but is implied to actually be the UNSPEAKABLE) answers and personally speaks to John, who expresses his fear and desire to save himself even if he has to leave poor Amy behind. God gently cautions that he is acting in cowardice, but otherwise helps him leave. In the final phase of the True Final Boss, God (definitely the real one this time) empowers John to fight Super Miriam, allowing him to take ten hits instead of the usual one.
- Feather Of Praying: It turns out that the inhabitants of Gray Fairyland got there because their prayers were heard by the Prayer Realizer, who drew them there to answer. However, it always demands a cost to be paid in turn. Wing/Bai Yu got him and Qiu Xiaoqi trapped in Gray Fairyland by praying to the Realizer to save Xiaoqi's life when she got hit by a car, offering his life in exchange.
- NetHack: The /pray command is a powerful tool for getting yourself out of tight spots, such as starving to death with no food on hand, or turning to stone or slime when you have none of the normal countermeasures. If you have no problems and are standing on an altar to your god, you can also gain boons from prayer such as having your weapon blessed, being given intrinsic powers, or even being crowned as The Chosen One. However, it's not something that should be overused; praying too many times in a short period will make your god angry at you for pestering them, causing them to start giving you punishments.
- Pico: Nene's Interactive Suicide has one of the titular character's options to kill herself be praying in the hopes that God will kill her instead. A lightning bolt then comes through the window to disintegrate her. At least He in His infinite mercy made it a quick death.
- Total War: Warhammer III: In the prologue story, Prince Yuri Barkov leads an expedition to the far northern wastes on a quest to find the god Ursun, whose recent disappearance has ushered in an Endless Winter in his homeland. As the expedition slowly succumbs to attrition, Yuri faces a choice of whether to keep pressing forward or give up and return home. He spends the night praying to Ursun for guidance, begging for a sign. Just as he gives up hope, however, a booming voice calls to him from the heavens, revealing that Ursun has in fact been kidnapped and needs to be rescued. Emboldened by a mandate from his god, Yuri resolves to follow the voice further north, leading his expedition deep into the Chaos Wastes. It is eventually revealed that the voice was not truly Ursun, but Be'lakor, the demon lord who kidnapped the god to begin with. Posing as Ursun, Be'lakor persuades Yuri to adopt extreme measures on his journey, to dabble in Black Magic and wield Evil Weapons, as a ploy to corrupt his soul and have the prince betray and wound Ursun.
Web Videos
- Acquisitions Incorporated: At the climax of season 7, Omin, a priest of the goddess Tymora, has second thoughts about piloting a giant magical mech and decides to pray to his deity for a sign of guidance. Not just a mere sign, Tymora takes his call directly and tells him in no ambiguous terms to get into the mech so he can "fight the kaiju" a.k.a. the Tarrasque.
Western Animation
- Animaniacs: When candy shop owner Flaxseed refuses to offer a donation of candy to an orphanage, the head nun leaves, but returns with her sister nuns to try and persuade him, only to find him menacing the Warners. The nuns prepare to attack, but Flaxseed reminds them that they're not allowed to use physical violence, which the head nun acknowledges. Instead, she calls for prayer; the sisters huddle up, and in a few seconds, the bus for the Notre Dame football team pulls up outside the candy shop, and everyone on board rushes inside to beat the tar out of Flaxseed.
- The Simpsons:
- "Bart Gets an F": Bart prays for a miracle to help him get a passing grade on a test, or he'll be held back. The next day is a snow day, giving Bart more study time. When Bart is about to go play in the snow, Lisa stops him, pointing out that this is the miracle he'd asked for, and that he shouldn't waste it, to which Bart agrees. After he passes the test by the skin of his teeth and his parents are putting his test on the refrigerator, he says, "You know, part of this D- belongs to God."
- "A Star Is Burns": Played for Laughs. Todd Flanders falls into a river and is being swept away. Ned Flanders drops to his knees and immediately prays, "Flanders to God, Flanders to God; Get off your duff and save my Todd!" Instantly, a tree falls over, barring the river and allowing Todd to cling to it and pull himself to safety. When Flanders gives thanks, a giant hand comes out of the clouds making the OK sign, and a booming voice says "Okely Dokely!"
