REVIEW: 13 Powerful ways to Pray

13 Powerful ways to Pray
by Fr. Eamon Tobin

          This is the first book I have read by Fr. Eamon Tobin,  What a fabulous practical guide to prayer!  Fr. Eamon gives detailed guidelines on how to grow in our individual prayer life and also how to form and conduct prayer groups. His ideas are useful for private, family or small gathering.  It is Catholic and prayer using the Rosary is one of the chapters and it strongly echoes the sentiments of Great John Paul II.
          Each of the thirteen ways are each examined in detail a dedicated chapter. They include prayers
                                      1.   of Thanksgiving
                                      2.   of Petition                                  
                                      3.   of Intercession
                                      4.   of Contrition
                                      5.   of Forgiveness
                                      6.   of Consciousness Examen 
                                      7.   with Spiritual Journal
                                      8.   for Decisions
                                      9.   with Spiritual Reading
                                      10. of Contemplation 
                                      11. of Adoration
                                      12. using the Rosary
                                      13. in time of Spiritual Dryness
         All of the chapters are full of fabulous practical advice that will improve the quality of prayer.
         I do like the questions at the end of the chapter and the quotes that start each chapter are worth careful thought as well.  This is a text rich in opportunity for the reader to grow in the prayer life.
         I have only one caveat on the book.  This feature reflects cultural assumptions.  Feelings are depicted (in the book) as important to express and on page 38 states "forcefully expressing our feelings defuses their intensity" and is not always so. Psychological research and personal experience reveals to me that it can have a huge negative impact.  I think learning to talk and process emotionally loaded topics in a rational manner is a help though.  The assumption that feelings are ALWAYS helped by emotional expression is certainly not supported by the data on pseudomemories.  
        In fact feelings can be the outcome of physiology and have little to do with how you were raised (so not always "inner healing"), or how a person treated (you feel violated") you or how you suffered some injustice (if it is not fair does that mean we are suppose to be angry?)  If you are under stress, your metabolism dysfunctional due to the mismatch of needs and nutrients being supplied or your thyroid malfunctioning due to salt imbalances then you can have feelings which are not easily explained by the "real self",  This is a shortcoming of almost all our present day literature on this topic.  I myself had such a physiological condition and it has improved my prayer life tremendously to get it treated competently.  This is not talked about enough in literature of this type.
         I will add that development of the "four keys" for an effective prayer life: 1. Develop a positive image of God and self. 2. Be honest with God. 3. Connect prayer with daily life. 4. Listen to God.  Are fabulous and right on the mark.  This book would help a person of any faith and I easily would highly recommend it to anyone seeking to live better and fuller life.

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Quotes of Interest:

  "The importance of regular periods of exclusive times with the Lord can not be stressed too much."
                                                                                                                                   pg 49
 "The prayer of thanksgiving no only enhances our relationship with God, but it also helps our own general sense of well being.  The grateful person is usually a happy person...."
                                                                                                                                   pg 73
"The mass is a great prayer of thanksgiving..."
"We can use the five decades of the rosary to give thanks to God for five specific blessings..."
"We can give thanks by sharing our blessings with others..."             
                                                                                                                                   pg 75
  "The importance of regular periods of exclusive times with the Lord can not be stressed too much."

                                                                                                                                   pg 49
"God's timing differs from our timing.  God's timing may not be ours, so we may think that God is refusing our prayer.  Eventually, however, we have to admit that God knew best after all."
                                                                                                                                    pg 91
"Sin is a cancer that destroys peace and destroys our relationship with God...."
"Contrition is a gift that God places in our hearts to help us with the ugliness and destructiveness of sin and to turn away from it...."
                                                                                                                                  pg 103
"A spiritual journal is an excellent tool to help us slow down in a fast moving world and develop a reflective attitude toward life..."
"The church has always considered reflective or spiritual reading to be one of the most fundamental exercises of the spiritual life."
                                                                                                                                  pg 140
"A contemplative moment is the experience of suddenly an spontaneously finding oursleves caught up  in the presence of God."
                                                                                                                                  pg 161 
"Spiritual renewal involves among other things, taking old things out of our spiritual store room and using them  in new ways that speak to people living in a new age."
                                                                                                                                   pg 180                                       
"Spiritual reading is called formative.  Other types of reading is called informative."