My favourite part of this book were the Heroes of Prayer at the end of each chapter.
Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. — Abraham Heschel
P.4
Canadian psychologist David G. Brenner describes prayer as “the soul’s antic language,” observing that “our natural posture is attentive openness to the divine.”
P.4
“He remembers,” as the Psalmist says, “that we are dust.”1 He understands we sometimes get tongue-tied, distracted, overwhelmed, and confused.
P.16
I pray all the time. My prayers are not only talking to God. They are questions, they are dialogue, they are the burning of sage and incense. When I’m dancing in the pow-wow, every step is a prayer: I dance my prayers for the people. Sometimes I imagine my prayers, I fantasize my prayers; they’re not always audible. — Native American Pastor Richard Twiss
P.18
Sit in thy cell and thy cell will teach thee all. — Abba Moses
P.47
Perhaps it’s better after all to have a little faith in a great big unshakable God than a great big unshakable faith in a little god unworthy of the title.
P.59
Miracle is just a word we use for the things the Powers have deluded us into thinking that God is unable to do. Walter Wink, Engaging The Powers
P.79
The passage says that “being in anguish, he prayer more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood.”2 Jesus was suffering from a rare medical condition called hematidrosis, in which capillaries around the sweat glands can rupture under extreme anxiety and stress.
P.116
Generally I find it more useful, therefore, to pray Where? rather than Why? prayers. Where were you, Lord, in our medical appointment today? Where are you now in our weariness and disappointment?
P.174
March 2022