Posted on 08/25/2016 7:14:46 AM PDT by Salvation
The Lord says that we have to pray and indicates that without prayer we will give way to temptation. Thus prayer is essential for us to escape sin and keep our lives on the right path. While God offers many graces to overcome sin and live holy lives, those graces are often delivered through the doorway of prayer. Prayer is God’s way of knocking at the door of our heart; prayer is our way of answering. Prayer is God’s offer and prayer is our response. Jesus says,
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me (Rev 3:20).
The shared meal referred to here, beyond its reference to the Eucharist, is also a sign of intimacy. While our culture is casual about eating (and just about everything else), in those days sharing a meal was not done with just anyone. Meals were shared with close family and friends. That is one reason that people of Jesus’ time were often surprised to see the people with whom Jesus shared meals. St. Peter also shocked the people of his time when he entered the household of a Gentile (Cornelius) and ate with him (Acts 10 & 11).
So, Jesus knocking at the door of our heart, seeking entrance, and sharing a meal, is a sign of reverence and intimacy. And we surely also need the food He offers: His Word and His Word made flesh.
Yes, prayer is both beautiful and essential.
Yet many Christians find prayer difficult. To some degree, our difficulties today are greater than in previous eras due to the constant noise and abundant distractions of our time. So noisy and frantic are our lives that sitting still and being silent is downright unnerving for many.
This is all the more reason that we must pray and pray well!
Learning to pray is not just a “fake it till you make it” proposition. As with any other area of life, we need to be taught; we can benefit from the experience of those who have gone before us. While it is true that prayer must be more than a “technique,” it is also true that prayer is more than a vague and purely subjective experience. Thus teaching can help us to find what is best and to avoid pitfalls that can discourage us.
Of all the books on prayer I recommend, The Fulfillment of All Desire by Dr. Ralph Martin is at the very top of my list. Anyone for whom I have been a spiritual director will attest that my first request of him or her is to obtain a copy of Dr. Martin’s book and begin reading it.
The book is valuable not only due to Ralph’s own wonderful insights, but also because he organizes and summarizes the teachings of the great Doctors of prayer (from the Catholic and Western traditions) so well. He draws heavily from St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis De Sales, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and St. Thomas Aquinas.
He organizes the material along the fundamental stages of prayer: the purgative way, the illuminative way, and the unitive way. In the purgative stage we seek, by God’s grace, to identify our sins and attachments and to become increasingly free of them. We undergo basic conversion and begin to develop the habit of prayer. In the illuminative stage we see our love for and intimacy with God and neighbor increase, the virtues grow stronger within us, and our prayer become quieter and deeper. In the unitive stage, having made progress by grace, we receive a habitual, deep, and ever-deepening union with God, marked by joy, humility, and stability.
In his presentation of each stage, Dr. Martin samples richly from the writings of the saints and the teaching of the Church. He also gives much practical advice that helps to root the teaching within the setting of the modern world. He goes to the sources and brings them to us, applying their wisdom to our situation.
Simply put, the book is essential to anyone who seeks a guide to prayer.
And, dear readers, I hope you do seek a guide to prayer, for prayer is essential. Jesus said that temptation is looming, and if we don’t pray our lives can go off track pretty quickly without that remedy. But the Lord did not leave us alone to respond to so great a summons! He has sent us saints and biblical wisdom to teach us. And in our times, He anointed Dr. Ralph Martin to compile and present this wisdom to us freshly and comprehensively.
If you don’t have a copy of The Fulfillment of All Desire, go sell all that you have and buy one! 🙂
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Seems to me that if you want a book on prayer you would get the Bible.
Why not start with the Bible?
Ralph Martin’s book is excellent, but it is a very large book and may overwhelm a first time investigator seeking to improve his prayer life.
I always recommend the following:
The Basic Book of Catholic Prayer: How to Pray and Why by Lawrence G. Lovasik. Especially good for Catholic traditionalists.
Prayer For Beginners by Peter Kreeft
Jacques Phillipe, Time for God.
All three are excellent, very thought provoking aids to prayer.
And if someone is looking for books to use for meditation:
If you want to meditate following the 1970 Mass readings, nothing in the world today is better than this:
https://www.amazon.com/Conversation-God-Meditations-Each-Year/dp/0906138191
If you want to follow the 1962 Mass/Breviary readings:
https://www.amazon.com/Church-Meditations-Missal-Breviary/dp/B00EWS4K8O/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472135187&sr=1-1&keywords=mathias+goossens
Between the two I would pick With The Church by Fr. Goossens. His meditations are wonderful, packed with scriptural insights, and the book is small enough to carry around easily (compared to Divine Intimacy). By the way, if you read French, you can get the book for a pittance: Hardback: https://www.amazon.com/Cum-Ecclesia-M%C3%A9ditations-Textes-Br%C3%A9viaire/dp/B0018BIR0K/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472135270&sr=1-3&keywords=mathias+goossens
I don’t need a book describing, explaining or teaching me how to talk to my Dad .. !
The Bible is not a book on prayer. It is a book of some prayers, a book that can be prayed (especially the Psalms), a book of truths that can be prayed about, but not a book on prayer. Protestants have always known this and have acted accordingly: https://www.amazon.com/M-Bounds-Prayer-M/dp/0883684160
I already have a book on prayer...
its called the Bible...
“I don’t need a book describing, explaining or teaching me how to talk to my Dad .. !”
So you don’t need Jesus either, right?
He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.” (Luke 11:1-13).
I find that God listens to me if I talk.......then I must remember to listen to Him
I don’t need someone else’s words to tell what is on my heart
“I already have a book on prayer...its called the Bible...”
Except the Bible is not a book on prayer. It’s a book on salvation history. It contains prayer. It encourages and exhorts prayer. It is not a book on prayer.
Some of us could use some help on listening though.
For such a time as this. . . Psalm 91
Psalm 91 1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. [1] 2 I will say [2] of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. 9 If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the LORD, who is my refuge—10 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 14 “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
“I don’t need someone else’s words to tell what is on my heart”
That isn’t what Ralph Martin’s book does. Let’s face it: you’ve never read the book, right? Perhaps you never even heard of it until today. Is that the case? You might be surprised what you could learn from it.
You don’t have to believe me. Just use the “Look Inside” tool at the Amazon.com page for the book: https://www.amazon.com/Fulfillment-All-Desire-Ralph-Martin/dp/1931018367
Thank you for proving my point. The whole passage you posted never once mention prayer by name but is about prayer. Thus, we can all see the Bible is not a book on prayer. It contains prayer, it tells us somethings about prayer, but it is not a book on prayer. Thanks for the assist.
I just ordered it.
Just a wild guess, but I imagine the Monsignor assumes the reader already has a Bible.
I think Msgr. Pope assumes the reader already has a Bible. Every Christian home should have one.
By the way, for those Protestants who mistakenly believe the Bible is a book on prayer, or think they need or should not desire any other book on prayer than the Bible even though the Bible is not a book on prayer, I highly recommend you at least get a Bible that is dedicated to the study of prayer. I thought this was very good: https://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Bible-Modern-Translation/dp/0768404339/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472136796&sr=1-1&keywords=prayer+bible There’s really nothing like it. I have a copy around here somewhere.
“Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
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