A Little Book About Prayer

It is far from being a lost art. So many people pray. There is so much need to pray. And there are many books on prayer. There are many books on the history of prayer, the structure of prayer, collections of prayers, books of daily prayer, but there aren't so many books introducing the everyday themes, practice and practicalities of prayer. This is a little book of prayer to help you think about some of these themes and practicalities to encourage you to reflect upon your routine of prayer, perhaps even help you in your prayer. Also, this book will give you just a little push towards thinking of prayer as a sacrament. Prayer isn't listed among the three or the seven sacraments. And a wider definition of sacrament doesn't give prayer its most essential part in spiritual life. So this book tries to bring prayer into a central and focal place in our spiritual life. This book will encourage you in prayer, but also it will try to convince you to explore the focal place in prayer of listening, discerning God's will, and letting go. It's only a little book. It isn't definitive, nor is it academic, nor scholastic. It is intended for the person of prayer, or the person who wishes to begin to pray. I hope it has a simplicity, but with a more profound "essence-tiality."