How I Pray.

The book has an exhaustive scriptural index but, alas, not a topical or subject one. This book will find an honored place on my shelf of biblical reference works. I would especially commend it to those who have a keen interest in spirituality.

I was just finishing Miller's thorough work when Jim Castelli's little book came to me in page proofs. Castelli had the good idea of asking people from a wide range of religious backgrounds about how they prayed. It should not surprise us that Jews pray Jewishly, Christians Christianly, and Buddhists pray not at all (they meditate). Beyond the obvious, however, there are certain common threads that run through the book. Prayer is seen as not only worship but as an integrating factor that gives coherence to life. Prayer demands discipline of ordering time but it can also arise in the midst of the quotidian. Prayer derives both from the common memory and use of a tradition as well as the deeply personal articulation coming from one's own experience.

There are things in this book which I fully expected and some that I didn't. Why does it not surprise me, for instance, that Martin Marty tells us that he prays every morning at 5:59 A.M.? Why did it surprise me to learn that Norman Lear prays each morning while on his exercise machine and that the prayer he recites is the one ascribed to Saint Francis ("Lord, make me an instrument...," a prayer mentioned by others in this book.)? Why was I heartened ecumenically to know that the Quaker, Richard Foster, cites the Orthodox "Jesus Prayer" as his favorite while the Russian Orthodox contributor cites John 3:16 as her favorite Scripture verse?

Many things can be learned from a work ranging from the Hindu stages of life or centeredness to the normative books of prayer of church and synagogue to the deep richness of Buddhist meditation. I copied out some blessings cited by Rabbi Kushner but was also pleased to know that a Catholic convert like Jane Redmont finds much richness in them. It was wonderful to read about the prayer life of Charismatic Christians and a Mormon psychiatrist. The old monastic writer, Evagrius of Pontus, said that the person who prayed was the true theologian. Jim Castelli has provided us with some excellent first-person narratives of these authentic theologians going about their daily lives in the presence of the One whom they lovingly and faithfully address.