The tradition of writing prayer guides reaches back to the early centuries of the church, to Origen and Evagrius and to the many treatises on the Lord’s Prayer by church fathers. The tradition has ...

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” Romans 8:26 As we draw closer to ...

When I was younger, a nun told me that if I only prayed when I was in trouble, then I was indeed in trouble. That maxim was filed away and revived when I began reading Learning to Pray: A Guide for ...

There are many ways to pray. But three weeks into the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, I can say this: The Ignatian Way, for me, is like filling up with high-octane gas. They had me at Day 1, ...

Buried deep in the Norton Anthology, George Herbert’s little poem with the unpretentious title “Prayer” is easy to miss. Decorously contained on a half-page with regular rhyme and punctuation, it ...

“All that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours” (Mark 11:25). Sir 44:1, 9-13; Mark 11:11-26 There are times when the Jesus we hope to meet in prayer is the ...

“I prayed for 20 years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs,” said slave turned abolitionist statesman Frederick Douglass. His words give a sweet reminder of the dangers of believing in ...

When our oldest daughter was a toddler, she had a unique way of speaking that very few people could understand. For one thing, she used the word “pa” and “ma” to refer to a host of different words.

Do you have children?” For most 30-somethings, this harmless question is the opening volley of a round of acceptable chit-chat. Colleagues at the office fill silences with news of recent pregnancies, ...

I have always prayed at night. I always felt like God could hear me the best just before bed, in the stillness before falling asleep. When I was younger it was formulaic prayers (as many as possible, ...

Imagine you love the sport of tennis. You watch every match you can on TV. You subscribe to Tennis magazine. You buy instructional videos and read biographies of famous players. Then one day you pick ...