Way We Pray: Prayer Practices from Around the World

by Maggie Oman Shannon

Book Overview

The Way We Pray is the first book to explore prayer practices from the world's many religions. Author Maggie Oman Shannon presents and celebrates fifty wonderfully diverse prayer practices, creating... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573245712
• ISBN13: 9781573245715
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Conari Press
• Length: 251 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Useful Techniques for Sacred Living: Prayer as a Way of Life

Yes, this book is about prayer. It is a guidebook for the spiritual person to integrate methods from many different traditions and beliefs into their spiritual development.Several aspects of this book that really makes it especially rich include the large variety of cross cultural practices including activities and ritual which you might not have necessarily thought of before as "prayer". Oman Shannon reminds the reader that prayer practice is best moved beyond the realm of our "juice draining" early religious training and into the world of sacred intention so that we can truly encounter the divine.Each chapter outlines another prayer practice and includes a feature called "Suggestions for beginning the exploration." This tool is especially helpful as it continues the integration process.... I mean learning about these practices is interesting AND actually using them takes them to the next level.I found the sections on "Chants", "Milagros", "Mastermind Groups" and "Forgiveness Practices" to be among the most beneficial... although I am sure as different scenarios appear in my life, different chapters will be applied and utilized.

The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices From Around the World

Prayer may take many forms and be for an infinite variety of reasons. In The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices From Around the World, Maggie Oman Shannon provides a "compendium of prayer practices with enough context to acknowledge the cultural traditions behind them, while offering an invitation for further exploration." Oman Shannon is a spiritual director, and founder of The New Story, an organization that helps people discover the deeper purpose to their lives. She's also a writer and editor, with a previous anthology of healing prayers to her credit. Although many of us think of being on our knees with hands folded in front of us as the way to pray, practices as diverse as fasting, haiku, meditation, storytelling, and visual arts can all be a way of prayer. Oman Shannon quotes Catherine of Siena with the thought that "everything you do can be a prayer." What you physically do is of less importance than your sacred intentions. She says that prayer can become the "enfolding fabric in which we live our lives, and everything we do has the potential to be prayerful." She describes over fifty ways of offering prayer. Each description details how that practice developed and how it has been used throughout time. Then Oman Shannon provides suggestions of how each method can be used in contemporary times, for contemporary difficulties. Each description is finished with a section containing several suggestions as to how individuals can explore that particular means of prayer to determine if it's something they can use. An extensive resource section is provided to assist readers who want to investigate a particular practice in more depth. Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, has this to say in the Foreword: "The Way We Pray offers us a treasury of integrating spiritual practices [and] they all have the power to open us up to a deeper and more generous reality." Readers will find the Oman Shannon has provided an invaluable resource for discovering the power of prayer in the way best suited to meet their needs.

Practical and Powerful Ways to Pray

Maggie Oman Shannon does such a great job of making devotion through prayer seen alluring, rewarding and even fun. I enjoyed learning about all the differnt methods of praying that I have heard about before but knew little about. Finding out about prayer bowls, tea ceromonies and prayer dancing was very interesting. Maggie shares many ways that whatever way of prayer we are interested in can become accessible to use immediately. I enjoyed as the quotes from different traditions included and learning about different cultures. The Way We Pray does a great job of giving the reader so many different ways to be spiritual that they can never get bored and always have more paths to explore. What an inspirational book.

A Rich Collection

Maggie Oman Shannon brings us a wonderful collection of practices by which we might deepen our faith and strengthen our connection to the sacred. The Way We Pray is an excellent resource for those looking to begin a practice, or those seeking options for inspiring an ongoing wisdom practice.

A Golden Book

There are lots of books on ways to become "spiritual," but few so practical as this one. Just reading it makes me relax into a deep comfortable place where time seems to stop. You can do any one of these practices in the moment. Oman Shannon makes all of them appealing by explaining each one with beautiful simplicity. "Abundance can be had simply by consciously receiving what already has been given," a Sufi proverb notes. What is given here is blessedly rewarding and full.If you're looking to enrich the way you pray--no matter what your practice--this beautiful book is golden. "The Way We Pray" has become my constant companion.