The Basic Book of Catholic Prayer: How to Pray and Why

Description

Whether you ve just begun to pray or have been faithfully praying for years, the wisdom in this book will help you pray better. It will rescue your prayers from distraction and superficiality and transform them into real occasions for communion with God. Fr. Lawrence Lovasik here clears away misunderstandings that many people have about prayer and shows you innumerable ways you can avoid common obstacles and deepen your prayer life, no matter how much or how little you may have prayed before. You ll learn what prayer is, why it s necessary, and how to practice the essential forms of Catholic prayer. You ll discover how the Church s sacraments fortify your prayer and how prayer, in turn, enhances your reception of the sacraments. You ll find out how to bring to your own prayers the qualities that make prayer effective. Your prayers will become more heartfelt, more focused, and more full of love for God. Soon your prayer will fill you with a divine peace and joy that no one will be able to take from you. You ll achieve the glorious aim of all prayer: union with God! Review: Nice Book / Easy Read - One problem I have with lots of books on prayer is they get too deep for me. This one was an easier read. It is not a "prayer book" in that it does not contain all the basic prayers, but focuses on how & why to pray. Loaded with references to scripture and chock full of statements on prayer from saints, this is a good resource to help get a bit "unstuck" in prayer life. It has five sections: 1) Develop an understanding of prayer, 2) Practice the forms of prayer, 3) Develop the qualities that make prayer effective, 4) Perfect your prayer, and 5) Let prayer permeate your life. This book has something in it for almost any Catholic, because those sections are written almost as a ladder, climbing from the bottom (understanding) to the top (permeation). I found the 'Forms of prayer" especially helpful at my stage in life, with a focus on meditation (that is not like the eastern transcendental movements). Nice book - recommend! Review: I really enjoyed reading this - I really enjoyed reading this. It was a good primer on how to pray and why. There were many Biblical quotes and quotes from saints on prayer. The only downside, for which I don't think merits any loss of stars, is that I would have liked to have seen a recapitulation at the end of the text on best practices for prayer - perhaps a bulleted list. Otherwise, I highly recommend the book.