Pray, as well as to be grateful, does good to all

The theme gratitude is the central subject of the interview published in this edition, in which physician Jean Rafael Rodrigues, speaking to journalist Giovana Campos, enumerates the benefits that the feeling of gratitude bestows on people of all age, as a propitiator of health and spirituality in our lives.
Gratitude is mentioned in Spiritism as one of the goals of the prayers that we all do - or should do - every day.
According to question 659 of The Spirits' Book, three things we can do through prayer: to praise, to ask and to thank.
To praise is to acknowledge and praise God for all that He has created. It means to accept with joy all that surrounds us, which, as far as the participation of the Lord in our life, is always fair, balanced and perfect.
An example of prayer of praise is the well-known Psalm 23 of David:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me in quiet waters.
He refreshes my soul; guide me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.
Surely kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for a long time. (Psalms 23: 1-6)

Asking is what else we do in our prayers. They are of the robust type the notebooks in which we annotate, in the Spirit House, the names of the people who turn to the Spiritual Benefactors. And they soon get full, requiring prompt replacement.
The third type - thanksgiving prayers - is, however, little remembered by people, who miss out on this great opportunity to exercise their sense of gratitude by ignoring their immense benefits.
There is something that has happened so recently in relation to forgiveness and its positive results, which are not only of a moral nature but also of a physical nature, since the person who forgives lives better and is more resistant to illness.
Prayers are far more important in our lives than we can imagine, whatever their purpose - praising, asking, or thanking.
In questions 658 to 666 of Allan Kardec's The Spirits' Book, spirituality teachers made important revelations about prayer.
Here is a brief of what they teach us:

a.) Prayer is always pleasing to God when dictated by the heart. It is thus preferable to the Lord to pray from the heart to the prayer read, however beautiful, if it is read more with the lips than with the heart.
b.) Prayer is an act of worship, with which we can offer ourselves three things: praise, ask, thank.
c.) Prayer makes man better, because he who prays with fervor and confidence becomes stronger against the temptations of evil and God sends him good spirits to assist him.
d.) The essential thing is not to pray a lot, but to pray well. There are, however, people who mistakenly assume that all merit lies in the length of prayer and they close their eyes to their own faults. Such creatures make of prayer an occupation, a use of time, never a study of themselves.
We can ask God to forgive us our faults, but we will only obtain forgiveness by changing our course, since good actions are the best prayer and actions are worth more than words.

f.) The proofs we are passing through are in the hands of God, and there are some that have to be endured to the end, but God always takes resignation into account. Prayer brings to us the good Spirits, who give us the strength to bear them bravely.
g.) Prayer is never useless when done well, because it strengthens who prays. Of course, prayer can not have the effect of changing God's designs, but the soul we pray for experiences relief and always feels refreshed when it meets charitable people who pity their pains.

Joanna de Ângelis, who is thought to have best dealt with the subject to this day, says that the act of prayerfulness with trust and faith is important in and of itself, regardless of the answer that prayer will have. In praying, says Joanna, one comes in contact with the superior forces that govern life and thereby becomes vitalized.
This is certainly the reason why recent research in the medical field has been proving the value of prayer and religion in therapeutic and immunological processes.