Thursday, June 13, 2013

4 Books on Prayer and Praying I Am Now Reading and Re-reading

Climbing the large dune at Warren Dunes State Park

Here's a few books on prayer and praying I am now reading and re-reading. 

Henri Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life (beautiful, deep, meditative)

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude (deep, meditative thoughts on the purging quality of solitary praying)

Stanley Grenz, Prayer: The Cry for the Kingdom (I'm currently reading this excellent little book very slowly - how Grenz connects praying with the kingdom of God is very good)

Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (emphasizes prayer as relationship with God)

I'm re-reading the Merton and Foster texts, and reading the Nouwen and Grenz books for the first time. 

Remember there is no greater learning to be had than by actually praying. You will learn more by engaging in real prayer than could be gotten from any book. Here's the order of learning:

1. Have an ongoing prayer life.

2. Read what some others say about this. 

It's more effective to do it in that order.

Always sacrifice 2 for the sake of 1.