Rereads: Prayers from the Heart, The Shape of Living, The Cloud of Unknowing

This is why you have your own personal library: so you can reread the books again and again.  High compliment to the author as time for reading isn't always in your life! What motivates me to reread a book ..... longing remembrance of the content of the book, subject you are pondering, research, pull it off the shelf for any reason, referred to in the book you are reading,  discussion, calls out to you like ice cream in the freezer, on the reread list and many more odd ways and I almost always read it completely the second time.

Prayers From The Heart by Richard J. Foster is a must for those of us who collect and read prayers. Many times another can say clearly what my own heart is speaking or it helps me pray outside of my personal emotions.  Also, I think it is a way to access the part of the community of believers that is beyond your own community. He has grouped these prayers into three parts: 1) Prayers for the Journey Inward, 2) Prayers for the Journey Upward, 3) Prayers for the Journey Outward.  Section from the Foreword:

"My whole life in one sense, has been an experiment in how to be a portable sanctuary -- learning to practice the presence of God in the midst of the stresses and strains of contemporary life. The grand experience is to experience in everyday life what jean-Pierre de Caussade calls "the sacrament of the present moment"; seeking, ever seeking to live, "light as a feather, fluid as water, innocent as a child, responding to every movement of grace like a floating balloon."  Prayer is central to this reality of ongoing interaction with God. It is the foundation of all the spiritual disciplines of engagement -- the via positiva. Over the years this has led me into many ways of praying, including the experience of praying as my own the prayers that have been preserved throughout the centuries."

A Prayer of Protection

Loving Lord, as I begin this journey into a prayer-filled life,

please be with me -- guarding and guiding.

 Protect me, O God, from all evil.

Surround me with the light of Christ; 

Cover me with the blood of Christ;

seal me with the cross of Christ.

This I ask in the name of Christ. 

Amen. 

Author David R. Ford in The Shape of Living Spiritual Directions for Everyday Life offers insight on these areas: Shaping a Heart; Life-Shaping Desires; The Shaping of Character; Soul-Shaping; Shaping Time and Energy; Evil, Suffering, and Death; Resurrection, Joy, and Feasting.  He presents a Christian faith that focuses on Christ's being central to the community of our hearts and does not leave out the "overwhelming" experiences common to all of us.  This book introduced me to the poet Micheal O'Siadhail through the use of his poetry as clarification and an avenue of expression. As this book was a gift to me from my pastor on my last day of living in Weaverville, it has meaning beyond what the author presents. My first reading was the summer of 2007 in Erwin, TN .  


The book with the "nameless mystic monk" as author, although Evelyn Underhill who did the introduction in the copy I own, gives a suggestion that is held by most scholars. I prefer keeping the author of The Cloud of Unknowing a mystery with a foreword  that gives us the warning "that it shall on no account be lent, given or read to other men: who could not understand and might misunderstand in a dangerous sense, its peculiar message." In this third reading, I'm beginning to see the message. This "Guide to Contemplative Spirituality and Christian Mysticism" made an entrance in the 14th century. I'm sure it will call me again to read the wisdom offered on its pages preserved through all of these years.