Prayer In Practice

by Romano Guardini

Monsignor Guardini’s book is first and foremost an introduction to prayer, but an introduction produced by a master. He anticipates the problems that will arise at every stage in the spiritual life, and encourages the beginner by showing him what promise is held out in the first steps of prayer, how to persevere and to develop in prayer life. Into this book, Monsignor Guardini has put his most mature thought and the reflections arising from a lifetime’s study of the implications of faith. Yet it is all expressed in a manner intelligible to the uninitiated but attractive also to the more advanced thinkers. The author brings out the role of Jesus Christ as the essential link in prayer, through whom alone we may know the Father, and he draws copiously on Scripture, throwing us back on what God Himself has said of our approach to Him. Prayer is seen, too, as a response to facts, meaning a grappling with the real world, which is a world created, sustained, and ordered by God. There are chapters on mysticism, on popular prayers, on the liturgy, all of which subjects are treated with new insight and a real understanding of the needs of all levels of spirituality.

Genres: Prayer, Spirituality

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Romano Guardini was a Catholic priest, author, and academic. He was one of the most important figures in Catholic intellectual life in the 20th century.

Guardini was born in Verona, Italy in 1885. His family moved to Mainz when he was one year old and he lived in Germany for the rest of his life. After studying chemistry in Tübingen for two semesters, and economics in Munich and Berlin for three, he decided to become a priest. After studying Theology in Freiburg im Breisgau and Tübingen, he was ordained in Mainz in 1910. He briefly worked in a pastoral position before returning to Freiburg to work on his doctorate in Theology under Engelbert Krebs. He received his doctorate in 1915 for a dissertation on Bonaventure. He completed his “Habilitation” in Dogmatic Theology at the University of Bonn in 1922, again with a dissertation on Bonaventure. Throughout this period he also worked as a chaplain to the Catholic youth movement.

In 1923 he was appointed to a chair in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Berlin. In the 1935 essay “Der Heiland” (The Saviour) he criticized Nazi mythologizing of the person of Jesus and emphasized the Jewishness of Jesus. The Nazis forced him to resign from his Berlin position in 1939. From 1943 to 1945 he retired to Mooshausen, where his friend Josef Weiger had been parish priest since 1917.

In 1945 Guardini was appointed professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen and resumed lecturing on the Philosophy of Religion. In 1948, he became professor at the University of Munich, where he remained until retiring for health reasons in 1962.

Guardini died in Munich on 1 October 1968. He was buried in the priests’ cemetery of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Munich. His estate was left to the Catholic Academy in Bavaria that he had co-founded.

Reviews

[Анатолій Бабинський · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on prayer I've ever read

[Doni]

Didn't get much out of this