A Beginner's Guide to Prayer: The Orthodox Way to Draw Closer to God

by Patrick Henry Reardon and Michael Keiser

This is a book for those struggling to establish an effective life of prayer. Written neither for seasoned monastic nor lofty scholar, "A Beginner's Guide to Prayer" speaks to the average man or woman on the street who desires a deeper relationship with God but is unsure how or where to begin. Drawing from nearly 2000 years of Orthodox spiritual wisdom, the author offers warm, practical, pastoral advice whose genius is to be found in its homespun...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1888212640
• ISBN13: 9781888212648
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Ancient Faith Publishing
• Length: 106 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

marci b

What a wonderful resource!!!! One reading was not enough, I'm going to re-read and probably re-read it several times. Even if one is NOT Orthodox(I happen to be), he/she would find this a very useful tool indeed.

Pray

If you thought you knew how to truly pray you were wrong. This is a step by step way to spend time time with Jesus, God, the Most Holy Spirit, and Our Blessed Mother. This is how you life can be a prayer without words.

A great book for any Christian laity

If you are a Christian and have a prayer life that is lacking,THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO PRAYER is a first-rate place to start understanding, get organized, and move forward in your prayer life. The Orthodox way is a different approach from either Porotestants or Catholics, the two Christian traditions we are most familiar with in the west. As Archpriest Father George Sondergaard once told a class of Catechumens, "You Protestants and Catholics think everying is either-or; sometimes it's both!" Thus it is with prayer-- the Orthodox way espoused herein by Father Michael introduces the reader to the concept and importance of having both formalized and personal prayer, that we may include ACTS--Adoration, Contrition, Thanks, AND Supplication in our prayer lives, rather than just asking favors of the all-holy Trinity. Since the last great Church father, St. Symeon the New Theologian stressed the importance of a personal prayer life in addition to ritual prayer, it has been a vital component of Orthodoxy. Protestants may balk at some of what Orthodox pray, for they pray for the dead, pray to Saints, and ask the Blessed Mary for intercessions. Yet, did not Mary intercede (successfully) to get her Son to change His mind at Canae? Do you not believe that virtuous men and women who have gone on before are alive in Christ and just as capable of praying for you as the car mechanic or office clerk you wouldn't hesitate to ask to pray for you? Don't you think that the Godhead exists in an eternal NOW where all is always unfolding and that thus you can pray effectively for those who have departed mortal life because their lives are yet unfolding before God? This is the Orthodox way. And this book is a great place to start learning all about it. Not the sort of reading a monastic or cleric would benefit from, but certainly a great book for cradle Orthodox, Catechumens, converts and the curious.

More than a beginner's guide

Fr. Michael presents much more than simply a beginner's guide in this jewel of a little book. It is practical, realistic, and humorous and contains great advice on developing a wholistic life around prayer rather than a compartmentalized one in which one simply includes prayer. The idea is to do more than pray. The idea is to become prayer. Highly recommended