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Sister Wendy on Prayer by Wendy Beckett
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Sister Wendy on Prayer (edition 2007)

by Wendy Beckett

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1064255,130 (3.91)1
Insightful book about the experience and vision on prayer. Sister Wendy gives a short introduction and then David Willcock gives a biographical introduction about Sister Wendy,which I found very helpful. The book is broken into 3 sections: Section 1 The Practice of Prayer. Section 2 Prayer and Belief. Section 3 Prayer and Personality.We all pray differently , at different times, and for different reasons. ( )
  laws | May 4, 2008 |
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I love Sister Wendy! In this book she ties prayer to the idea of non-busy-ness in one's life. And there's lots of artwork, too. ( )
  LaurelPoe | Dec 25, 2017 |
Sister Wendy on Prayer is an interesting and short book on prayer (150+ pages). Beckett is a Roman Catholic cloistered nun, technically a hermit, but has made a name for herself as a art expositor. This book is not limited to christian readers. She currently lives with Carmelite nuns in England. Here she talks about her perspective on prayer, using again, several color art plates which are included in the book. Beckett says that many sins can coexist with apparent piety. She says that most sins involve pride or sloth. There is an excellent biographical introduction about Sister Wendy included. One thing I learned from this book was the inability of language itself to be adequate to speak about ordinary life situations and then use the same language to describe states of interior prayer. I can understand better the genius of Teresa of Avila who moves easily back and forth between the two worlds while building her own unique vocabulary by comparing Beckett’s chapters. Beckett seems much freer to use art, or other prayer traditions (Buddhism) or scholastic language to describe her experience. Her main theme is that prayer has to be practiced individually. Studying it is not praying. Persevering in prayer (whatever that means for us) is the only way we can encounter God and learn to trust God in the slow process of friendship. Beckett talks about ‘admirable atheists’ who have rejected a false god. She says one false god that persists is the god of misinformed religion who is cruel, suspicious, watchful and punitive. Anyone who rejects that god is correct to do so. She says that atheists, who go looking for a different God, a true God, are admirable. This is actually the official Roman Catholic position, stated in Vatican II. Karl Rahner formulated the now outdated concept of ‘Anonymous Christians’ of someone who had yet to realize that their search for the truth would end in recognition of Jesus Christ if pursued to its final conclusion. She says the real God is found in the Gospels. Jesus reveals this God as Our Father. With that everything changes in our relationship. A book well worth reading and I plan to read it again. ( )
  sacredheart25 | Jan 11, 2016 |
Sister Wendy on Prayer by Sister Wendy Beckett. Epiphany Library section 5: Devotions and Prayer. You may remember this popular nun who hosted a PBS TV series about art. In this book she talks about her life as a modern-day hermit who devotes herself to prayer about seven hours a day. She has done so for over 40 years. She discusses all aspects of prayer, but she does not really discuss exactly HOW to pray. She achieves that through a discussion of our motivations, our uses, our hopes, and our attitudes for prayer and what they should be in order to pray effectively. Through the use of several color reproductions of paintings, she discusses the uses of prayer, how biblical figures or saints looked to God, the human need to pray, and the fact that God welcomes our prayers: conversations between us and God.
She says that prayer means being possessed by God. When you sit down to pray, what do you want? If you want God to take possession of you, then, she says, you are praying. That is all prayer is, and nobody needs to teach it to you. Accept that God is good, and that your relationship with God is prayer. You don’t need to knock loudly on God’s door. A humble tapping will do. God wants to draw us to himself, strengthen us, infuse us with peace. Prayer is the last thing we should be discouraged about. To me, this is a message of great hope in God’s abounding love.
Where we go in prayer is not the point, it is where God wants to take us. I found the next concepts interesting: that as we pray to God Jesus is also praying within us; and that God answers the “real” you, in all the fullness of your potential, not the incomplete works in progress we are at present. Wow! I knew that God wants us to be all we can be, but that God sees us in the perfection and fullness of our potential in advance, a fullness we can never realize, gives me great hope! Imagine if human beings were able to see each other as perfected human beings in spite of our sinfulness. Perhaps that is one of many definitions of God – to be able to see like that.
This book is easy to read and you can finish it quickly. It may seem rather light in style but Sister Wendy knows prayer and knows God. Their connection is intimate, affectionate, trusting.
It is a fascinating look at a woman who has devoted herself to God, and how we can grow closer to God through prayer. ( )
  Epiphany-OviedoELCA | Dec 1, 2011 |
Insightful book about the experience and vision on prayer. Sister Wendy gives a short introduction and then David Willcock gives a biographical introduction about Sister Wendy,which I found very helpful. The book is broken into 3 sections: Section 1 The Practice of Prayer. Section 2 Prayer and Belief. Section 3 Prayer and Personality.We all pray differently , at different times, and for different reasons. ( )
  laws | May 4, 2008 |
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