Prayer for Beginners

by Peter Kreeft

Peter Kreeft brings his unique insights to this most important area of our spiritual lives. He claims he himself is still a beginner in prayer, and this book is for all those, like him, who feel that they are not good at praying but desire to become much better at it. Thus, Kreeft offers simple, but profound advice and practical steps for developing a prayer life based on the time-tested wisdom of the saints and great spiritual writers, especially the principles found in Brother Lawrence's classic, The Practice of the Presence of God. In short, straight-forward and unsentimental chapters, Kreeft covers all the key areas for understanding and developing that intimate form of communication with our Creator that we call prayer. He covers such areas as the necessity of prayer, various motives and methods, steps, patience, suffering, sin, faith, and grace.

Genres: Catholic, Religion, Theology, Prayer, Nonfiction, Christian, Spirituality

125 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Peter Kreeft is an American philosopher and prolific author of over eighty books on Christian theology, philosophy, and apologetics. A convert from Protestantism to Catholicism, his journey was shaped by his study of Church history, Gothic architecture, and Thomistic thought. He earned his BA from Calvin College, an MA and PhD from Fordham University, and pursued further studies at Yale. Since 1965, he has taught philosophy at Boston College and also at The King’s College. Kreeft is known for formulating “Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God” with Ronald K. Tacelli, featured in their Handbook of Christian Apologetics. A strong advocate for unity among Christians, he emphasizes shared belief in Christ over denominational differences.

Reviews

[Grete · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have to respect a writer who tells you to put down his book on prayer and pray because that is more important.

[Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, by Catholic scholar, Peter Kreef, was better than I expected. It is just one of the best books on prayer I have read, because:
it's readable, easy to understand, short chapters, not superficial; it is like a crash course on praying for new Christians or a really thoughtful refresher course for older Christians.

For instance, the chapters cover:
1. Necessity: Why Praying is More Important Than Eating
2. Motives: 10 Compelling Reasons to Pray
3. Methods: Why We Need None
4. Words: Vocal Prayer as Conversation with God
5. Steps: Stop, Look, and Listen (my favorite chapter!)
6. Thoughts: Where the Action Is
7. Faith: The One Prerequisite for Prayer
8. Themes: What Should I Pray When I Pray
9. "Jesus": The Shortest, Simplest, and Most Powerful Prayer in the World
10: Work: Praying Always
11: Distractions: Mental Obstacles to Prayer
12: Sins: Moral Obstacles to Prayer
13: Simplicity: Prayer to Saint-Making
14: Renunciation: The Necessity for the Negative
15: Suffering: How to Transform Bitterness into Sweetness
16: Patience: Forgiving Ourselves for Failure (another favorite!)
17: Grace: What Everything Is (spurring my thinking)
18: Perseverance: Realistic Fanaticism

Kreef made me think practically about the presence of God as he intertwined his thoughts with Biblical principles and themes from the devotional, Practicing the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence.

In his chapter, "Stop, Look, Listen" he teaches us how to pause (STOP) in the middle of busy and activity, each hour and ask, What are you doing, God, in the situation at hand and in my life right now?" (LOOK). and then wait a couple of minutes, anticipating God to speak to my heart. (LISTEN)

This principle alone is transforming my day(s).

As a Protestant, I am not repelled by his alluding to the Catholic concept of penance or references to Mary. I can get over those to the truth and practicality of what he is saying about prayer.

5 thumbs up.

[David Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little book, more on the proper mindset one should have while praying than on any sort of "method" to prayer, which Kreeft rejects. In my current state of mind, I most appreciated his distinction between faith and feelings.

"Many people today want 'experiences'. Their prayer is really, 'Lord, I believe; help my bad feelings' instead of 'Lord, I believe; help my unbelief' (see Mk 9:24)"

"Faith is a knowing; faith's object is divine fact. Faith is not a feeling, and faith's object is not feelings. According to an ancient Chinese parable, Fact, Faith, and Feeling were walking along a wall. As long as Faith kept his eyes ahead of him on Fact, all three made progress. But when Faith took his eyes off Fact and turned around to see how Feeling was doing, Faith fell off the wall, and Feeling fell with him, while Fact went on."

And then, toward the end of the book, in a chapter on perseverance,

"We can make progress in the daily and hourly paddle out to God's depths only if we make efforts during our spiritual troughs. The reason is that only the will, or the heart, can accept dryness and emptiness and suffering; the feelings simply cannot do this... The only way God can strengthen his presence in our will is to weaken his presence in our feelings. Otherwise we would become spiritual cripples, unable to walk without emotional crutches. This is why he gives us dryness, sufferings, and failures."

Still trying to decide how much I agree with that last paragraph.

[Tom LA · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small book on prayer that goes very deep. It’s not concerned as much with techniques or methods of prayer, as it focuses on the nature, the purpose and the importance of prayer. Kreeft has the unique gift of writing about very weighty matters with the apparent light touch of a feather — but he is never vague or repetitive. He always gives you something hard to chew on.

Kreeft quotes Brother Lawrence’s “The practice of the presence of God” many times — and for good reasons, as it’s one of the most inspired and powerful books on prayer in the christian tradition.

[Damos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gold nugget, a diamond in the rough. I would recommend this book to all. Dense with no nonsense, to the core insight on the reality of Faith. No grey area, beautiful analogies, based on a clear understanding of one true God & the importance of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is short and direct, but it really made me think. It's written in a simple style, but with a lot of economy of prose–practically every sentence packs a wallop. I thought this book was very good, although I sometimes though that Kreeft's tone works better in his lectures. I do recommend it, although just be prepared to be challenged in your thinking, life, and priorities (in a good way!). It probably deserves more than 3 stars.

Here are a few quotes:

"It is tempting to remain in the comfortable theater of our imagination instead of the real world, to fall in love with the idea of becoming a saint and loving God and neighbor instead of doing the actual work, because the idea makes no demands on you. It is like a book on a shelf."

“One common cause of this mistake of preferring to imagine and admire a great ideal instead of beginning to do little deeds is our impatience with little baby steps, our lack of humility.”

“To invoke Jesus' name is to place yourself in his presence, to open yourself to his power, his energy. The prayer of Jesus' name actually brings God closer, making him more present. He is always present in some way, since he knows and loves each one of us at every moment; but he is not present to those who do not pray as intimately as he is present to those who do.”

“Prayer is essentially the practice of the presence of God, and that is the road to Heaven. There is no alternative. God is the only game in town. All other roads are dead ends. Since we must give our all to the one true God, we must not give any part to idols, to the many false gods that now bite away at our lives.”

“Trusting God's grace means trusting God's love for us rather than our love for God. […] Therefore our prayers should consist mainly of rousing our awareness of God's love for us rather than trying to rouse God's awareness of our love for him.”

“One moment of prayer, of weak worship, confused contrition, tepid thanksgiving, or pitiful petition will bring us closer to God than all the books of theology in the world.”

[Aimee]

This is a simple, practical, and thoughtful book on the meaning and practice of prayer. I think it'd be great for people who are just starting out or getting back into prayer. However, it's also full of helpful (and sometimes blunt) reminders for people at all stages of the spiritual life - and from an eternal perspective, aren't we all beginners?

I've heard most of the points in this book before, but was still struck by some new thoughts. For example:

"[God] hides his presence from us so that we can practice his prescence by faith. This hiding is one of his most precious gifts, and one for which he is hardly ever thanked."

"Insofar as sufferings are part of that oneness [with your beloved], they are embraced too, and even loved - not for themselves, of course, but for the context they are in, like the villains in a great play or the dark shadows in a great painting, or the cacophonies in a great symphony."

Finally, even though I know it, sometimes it's great to hear (paraphrased), "Hey, listen - forget your failings and distractions, and stop trying to run ahead of grace. Rely completely on God; keep turning to him no matter what, keep seeking him first, and he'll work everything out in the end. Now stop reading about prayer and go pray!"

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sort of a modern continuation of 'Practice of the Presence of God'...more about a lifestyle, e.g. living continually in the presence of God, than about a specific mental prayer. A very excellent and very short, yet very dense, treatise on prayer and the great importance of it. Gives a more broad definition of prayer than a lot of overly technical 'manuals' today. Prayer is simply a communion of love between God and creature.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid little book. I'm not sure that I learned anything new but I'm not sure that there's a lot to learn about prayer. That's really the point of the book. We over complicate prayer. This book was very encouraging. It highlighted the most important aspects of prayer and reminded me to focus on what really matters most.

Very good little resource that I'm happy to have read, happy to own an even more happy to loan.

[Gigi · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book about prayer with the main point of: do it. Simple, with a deep look at scripture and other writers.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Straightforward, practical and useful--cuts through all the pretense and filigree that prayer can have. Borrows heavily from C.S. Lewis and Brother Lawrence. Quick read.

[Liam Cler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I comfortably place this book at the same level as Time for God. While different in tone (more casual and comfortable) it has a similarly fantastic way of cutting the through the baloney (thoughts, habits, etc) in life that keeps me from praying. I hope everyone gets the chance to read this.

This is my favorite section (and one I think of often). It gets right to the heart of the sneaky temptation to know God (or just know about God) and not to love Him.

“Can you stop reading this [book] right now and pray for one minute? If you cannot, you are in serious trouble; you are addicted to work and action as to a drug. You are a slave. If you can, but you will not, then you are in more serious trouble; for that means that you do not love God as much as whatever else you are doing. Perhaps what you are doing is reading about loving God! So you have no time to love God because you are reading about loving God? This is insane…. Stop reading me and read God. Stop listening to me and listen to God.

Are you finished? Do not read another word until you are. Now ask God to help you do that again and again for the rest of your life.”

Chapter 4, page 17

[George Maher · Rating 5 out of 5]

من اجمل وابسط الكتب عن الصلاة واكثرها عملية
لو حاسس ان وقتك ضيق ويومك كله مشغول ومعندكش وقت للصلاة فالكتاب دا ليك

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Kreeft is a well-respected Philosophy professor and has written dozens of spiritual/Catholic books. I picked this book to review, because even at my age, I feel I am not as advanced in my prayer life as I would like to be or should be. So I figured, I should start at the most logical place, the beginning. Also, I picked this book up at a retreat I went on for catechists, for under $2! It was definitely a steal for the price.

In these 125 pages, you will find lots of good advice on why to pray, where to pray, how to pray, what to say, etc. Kreeft wisely encourages you to read this book slowly to get a lot of it. But I tried and just couldn't the book down for more than 5 minutes at a time. There are 18 chapters with almost all of them under 10 pages long, hence my problem reading it slowly.

I think my favorite part of this book is Chapter 9 "Jesus: The Shortest, Simplest, and Most Powerful Prayer in the World." In this chapter Kreeft, addresses a prayer that all Orthodox Christians know and every other Christian should know, and that is the Jesus Prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. This short, formulaic prayer has had many thick, and deep books written about it, but it is a beautiful and simple prayer we could all afford to take to heart and use whenever we have trouble expressing any needs that aren't expressible.

Overall, I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars. At times, Kreeft's sentence structure leaves a bit to be desired and can be distracting to me. But maybe that's just a flaw in my reading. I would definitely recommend this book to people no matter what point of the path they are on in their prayer life. Check out my other reviews at stuartsstudy.blogspot.com

[LuAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very powerful, focused, understandable book, and not just for beginners but for all who want to pray. The last third on single-mindedness, patience & perseverance, etc. is especially good.

On second reading:
On my second reading, this did not have the wow factor it did on the first, likely because I’m at a place of seeing more of the breadth of God and less of the certainty about Him that many humans claim. That said, I think this is what it says, a good book for beginners (as Thomas Merton said, we are all beginners in prayer.) He makes prayer approaches, deals with reasons we avoid it and emphasizes that ultimately, it’s about love—that our focus in prayer should be about basking in God’s love for us rather than trying to stir up our love for God. Last third is still the best.
While prayer is simple, as Kreeft says, he seems to dismiss prayer methods as unnecessary failing to recognize that for some of us, methods or techniques, such as lectio divina, praying with images, etc., are means of helping us to be more open and present in prayer.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess it lives up to its name, in that it seems directed toward a blandly self-centered person who has just begun to realize that the pinch of conscience and reality is directing him to actually take this God business seriously. I wouldn't recommend it to someone in agony, lost in self-hatred, an addict or a chronically depressed person. That being me, I have to stop and remind myself frequently that it's not about me being terrible, it's about God being great, and very fortunately wanting to help me get better.

In that vein, the penult and ante-penult chapters 16 and 17, on patience and grace, were the most inspiring in the book. Kreeft starts chapter 16 with the comment, "this will sound too easy / good to be true." Good God, man, you mean it will sound possible. You mean I can make mistakes and face the fact that I have sinned because God loves me and wants to help me? A lot of us need entire books centered on that, with the horsewhipping oneself into compliance put firmly into a supporting role.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The real strength of this book is twofold: It's reliance on the work of 17th century Catholic Brother Lawrence, as well as the simple, straightforward, and pithy quality of Kreeft's writing.

Kreeft cites Lawrence in virtually every chapter of the book, almost as if he were using some of his favorite Brother Lawrence quotations as a springboard to writing about prayer. The insights on prayer are indeed helpful, focusing on practicing the presence of God in each moment of life, even if in the midst of trials or on the verge of renouncing some previously held ideal.

Kreeft's writing is certainly one of the most accessible and profound of contemporary religious writers. He has a way of putting old truths that make them sound fresh, as if one had never heard them before. Kreeft's Catholic faith certainly informs his thoughts here, though it's also clear that he has attempted to write a book from which people of all Christian stripes can appreciate and benefit.

[Harry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kreeft is good author, and I've read books by him before. I read this because I thought it might be a potential title to buy for an adult religious education class I teach. It is very well written in an accessible style. On the other hand, I think it might be a bit too deep for most people, especially for those just starting out working on their prayer lives. Kreeft speaks from what seems to me to be a mystic perspective that is perhaps a bit deep at times. It may be an indictment of myself that I had difficulty relating to some of the concepts he mentions; or it may be that he's writing on a higher level; or it may be that it's not quite as much for beginners as the title implies.

Bottom line: It's a good, well-written book; but it's more about the theology and experience of prayer, and not so much of a how-to. It may benefit some, but it may be above the level of others.

[Tom Kopff · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Prayer is the hospital for souls where we meet Doctor God." This simple little book is a good, no-nonsense primer about how to pray and why we need to pray. It dos not dwell on technique, nor is it deep in the sense of being theologically exhaustive, but it can be profound. Try this on: "The whole universe is a saint-making machine", or "God infinitely prefers a heart without words to words without a heart when we pray", or even "Seek only him. do not use him as a meas to seek any other end. He is not your Santa, he is our Savior".

So, if you are looking for encouragement in , or just need a boost, why not give this book a try?

[Lauren Revers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far too many metaphors throughout this book. It also lightly touched on many different aspects of theology rather than focusing on digging into a few relevant theologies in relation to prayer. I was hoping for more concrete discussion of prayer rather than what I found to be scattered and incomplete explanations of why we should want to pray.

[ltcomdata · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite an encouraging book for beginners to prayer. The most useful part, in my opinion, is his chapter on suffering (one of his last ones). It is surprising how many Christians do not get the ultimate meaning and purpose of suffering in one's life.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book because I wanted to give a good prayer book for my daughter. This book is a pleasant surprise as it is thought provoking. I found many good suggestions for myself and would recommend it to anyone who wants to grow closer to God through prayer.

[Riley Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend this book to everyone who wants to deepen their prayer life. Short and sweet. It often quoted Brother Lawrence's Practice the Presence of God.

Thank you, Dr. Kreeft, for this beautiful manual.

[Vhealey]

A good, honest discussion of how to make prayer a part of your life.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book on prayer. Simple and challenging.

[Jd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, great simple prayer book

[Kirk Newland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear and concise treatise for beginners on the power and method of prayer.

[Terezita Overduin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredible book. It should more accurately be titled 'A Very Very brief introduction to how to live life'

[Vanessa Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is full of abstract thoughts and cliches with no through-line. It's so hard to find the main idea for each chapter or paragraph. The only good part in my opinion was teaching the disposition we ought to have toward prayer. I also liked how it explained different aspects of prayer like contemplation, meditation, etc.

It gave no practical tips to start a personal prayer time, it just urged you to start; which makes this a terrible book for beginners because it doesn't teach you how to pray??? I get that there's no correct method, but it could have least shared a few to get people started.

[Hannah V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I’ve ever read on prayer, because it gets to the heart of it. Kreeft’s book on prayer exemplifies what prayer should be: honest, simple, relational, and anti-method. His writing contains every virtue it teaches. This is a refreshing, devotional, and instructive anti-manual-manual for prayer.