The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer
by Joan Chittister
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joan ChittisterEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-07-23
ISBN: 158595747X
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: Twenty-Third Publications
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781585957477
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer
Book Review: A book to accompany prayer
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a deceptively small book. It fits easily in the hand, which makes it convenient for tucking into a purse or pocket. Although the dimensions are small, the book is hardback and thus fully up to the bumps a book takes when it accompanies a reader.
And "accompanying" is really what this book is about. It can "keep company" with the reader in the sense of being easy to tote around but, crucially, it keeps company with the mind and heart.
It is not a book with a rota of prayers, in a conventional sense. Nor does the book comment on various forms. It is a book about how we bring ourselves to pray, about the attitudes that help and hurt us as we try to find our way toward knowing God.
Each of the 42 chapters is brief. A chapter begins by denoting a topic -- humility, for example, which actually appears more than once -- and then offering a quotation related to the topic. A short essay follows, and the chapter is capped by a few words of prayer and a quotation from scripture. The chapters hang together beautifully, but the author does not promise any special benefit from reading them as ordered. Indeed, she encourages readers to take the book as they can, in order or not, repeating a chapter several times or moving on.
I am tempted to add that each chapter is deceptively brief. More than once, I've read a sentence and started onto the next when -- whoa! What did I just read there? How can I begin to unpack the implications for my life? Ultimately, this is not a book about "saying your prayers"; it is a book about living our prayers. Therein lies its central challenge, a short and simple book that packs a spiritual wallop for a lifetime.
Summary of The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer
This simple little book from a great spiritual giant attends to what we human beings are most inclined to forget, preparing for and engaging in prayer. It is an examination of what we ourselves must bring to the discipline of prayer whatever form it takes in order to make prayer authentic and real, a deep and profound part of our lives.Prayer is the link to a life beyond the mundane, the daily, the routine, the immediate dimensions of life. It is the beginning of a relationship with the God who is closer to us than we are to ourselves. It is a relationship with both creation and the Creator. It helps us grow into the fullness of ourselves, both spiritually and psychologically.
But authentic prayer requires something from us, as well as from the God we seek. It requires that we bring to it an open heart, a good deal of self-knowledge, constancy in darkness, and a willingness to attend to the Light, even when all we can see is darkness.
None of the brief reflections in this book are ever finished, ever closed, ever fully resolved. They are all ongoing steps along the way, steps we retrace over and over again as we do all the other parts of life, until they become the very breath we breathe, the vision and energy of our souls.
This is great spiritual reading for every person who longs for prayer to be the the very breath of his or her soul.
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