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Beginner's Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life
Prayer is an ancient and simple way to prepare yourself for grace, or love, and to learn to recognize it when it comes. Even the briefest "grace" spoken before dinner offers its time-honored wisdom. Yet in spite of hundreds of traditions and teachings and books about prayer, millions of Americans have become ambivalent about it. They are unsure how, when, where, and even why they might pray, afraid they'll do it wrong, or worried that they won't be heard.
Writing in the beautiful, funny, honest narrative style that moved and inspired readers of her first book, Here If You Need Me, Kate Braestrup explains what prayer is and the many ways we can pray. With an approach that is both personal and inclusive, Beginner's Grace is a new kind of prayer book. Even if you don't pray and don't consider yourself religious, there's room in this book for you. In these pages, Braestrup explains how and why the practice of prayer can open a space in our busy lives for mindfulness, gratitude, contentment, and a wider compassion toward others. Inspired by her work as a chaplain, Braestrup includes many examples of prayers to draw from beginning with grace, a brief prayer of thanks. She provides clear models and practical suggestions for making your own and your family's prayers meaningful and satisfying and offers prayers for situations in which words might fail: times of anxiety, helplessness, or grief. And she invites you to explore forms of prayer that extend into the wider community, including prayer with and for people we don't like or with whom we disagree.
A welcoming modern guide to the simplest, most effective way to satisfy a universal spiritual hunger, Beginner's Grace is for the religious and nonreligious and even irreligious in its generous, good-humored approach to spirituality. With its insight and warmth, Beginner's Grace is sure to become a spiritual touchstone for people of all faiths
Writing in the beautiful, funny, honest narrative style that moved and inspired readers of her first book, Here If You Need Me, Kate Braestrup explains what prayer is and the many ways we can pray. With an approach that is both personal and inclusive, Beginner's Grace is a new kind of prayer book. Even if you don't pray and don't consider yourself religious, there's room in this book for you. In these pages, Braestrup explains how and why the practice of prayer can open a space in our busy lives for mindfulness, gratitude, contentment, and a wider compassion toward others. Inspired by her work as a chaplain, Braestrup includes many examples of prayers to draw from beginning with grace, a brief prayer of thanks. She provides clear models and practical suggestions for making your own and your family's prayers meaningful and satisfying and offers prayers for situations in which words might fail: times of anxiety, helplessness, or grief. And she invites you to explore forms of prayer that extend into the wider community, including prayer with and for people we don't like or with whom we disagree.
A welcoming modern guide to the simplest, most effective way to satisfy a universal spiritual hunger, Beginner's Grace is for the religious and nonreligious and even irreligious in its generous, good-humored approach to spirituality. With its insight and warmth, Beginner's Grace is sure to become a spiritual touchstone for people of all faiths
272 pages, Hardcover
First published November 2, 2009
37 people are currently reading
493 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
February 25, 2013
I started this book on the plane. It wasn't my first choice, but my Kindle had died and I needed something to occupy my time.
It's cliche to say I couldn't put the book down, so I'll say I finished it on my connecting flight. But the book is easy-to-read, down-to-earth, and funny. Makes me regret not reading Marriage and Other Acts of Charity before returning it to the library.
Being raised Catholic, spontaneous prayer doesn't come naturally. I expect some formality to it -- some prescribed ritual. But here, Rev. Kate offers simple prayers for simple situations, some even gleaned from my birth-faith (e.g. a moment of silence and prayer for passing sirens).
As I started to write this, I saw a Wounded Warrior, wheeling himself out of the elevator, lower limbs gone, just reunited with his community to raucous applause.
It prompted this prayer:
Thank you, God, for allowing me to witness moments like these, for my intact body, and these few, sweet hours to hold my daughter.
It's cliche to say I couldn't put the book down, so I'll say I finished it on my connecting flight. But the book is easy-to-read, down-to-earth, and funny. Makes me regret not reading Marriage and Other Acts of Charity before returning it to the library.
Being raised Catholic, spontaneous prayer doesn't come naturally. I expect some formality to it -- some prescribed ritual. But here, Rev. Kate offers simple prayers for simple situations, some even gleaned from my birth-faith (e.g. a moment of silence and prayer for passing sirens).
As I started to write this, I saw a Wounded Warrior, wheeling himself out of the elevator, lower limbs gone, just reunited with his community to raucous applause.
It prompted this prayer:
Thank you, God, for allowing me to witness moments like these, for my intact body, and these few, sweet hours to hold my daughter.
December 18, 2011
I love Kate Braestrup. She's so funny, compassionate, open minded and humble. I read this because I loved her two memoirs. I loved reading this book although I don't know what to say about what it means for me as a non-believer and therefore non-prayerful person. She even has a chapter of prayer for athiests substituting "love" for "God". I found Beginner's Grace such a restful and hopeful book. It really spoke to me in a way that I don't quite understand or know what to do with.
July 13, 2024
I read this because I enjoyed the last book by this author that I had read. Having mixed feelings about prayer, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I would say that this author has a somewhat unconventional approach to prayer and to religion in general. As she is a Unitarian pastor I would expect a certain flexibility in her beliefs and that is what I got. The book is (mostly) organized by circumstances under which a prayer might be offered: Prayers for help, for the fearful, before offering service, pausing on the threshold etc. There are also chapters on "In Praise of a Little Hypocrisy", "Find the Right Words", "Singing Your Prayers".
Her background is clearly Christian and many of the payers she uses as examples come from that tradition. However, she also draws on the other Abrahamic faiths and on many Eastern religions. Her emphasis with all the prayers (and the paraphrasing of them) is the idea of expressing love to those with, to or about whom one prays. She uses the word love and God interchangeably in many cases.
She if often irreverent. For example, she explains that Sarah's reaction to being told that she is to bear a child at 90 was laughter at the idea that she could "have pleasure, my lord being old also". i.e. Could she enjoy sex with her 100 year old husband? In another chapter she speaks about how the metaphor of God as Parent breaks down. "Can you imagine? All God wants is to take a shower by Herself, maybe enjoy an uninterrupted conversation with Her friend Mother Teresa"
She even has a chapter on prayers for Atheists and Agnostics. One prayer used seems inspired by the poem "Anyway", possibly by Mother Teresa. This one spoke to my stated mixed feelings about prayer:
Pray Anyway
Who listens to our words when we prayer? Perhaps no one.
Will our prayers be answers? Probably not.
What then shall we do?
Pray.
Alleluia!
Amen
I found the book interesting, entertaining and is some cases enlightening. Recommended to those who pray and to those who don't
Her background is clearly Christian and many of the payers she uses as examples come from that tradition. However, she also draws on the other Abrahamic faiths and on many Eastern religions. Her emphasis with all the prayers (and the paraphrasing of them) is the idea of expressing love to those with, to or about whom one prays. She uses the word love and God interchangeably in many cases.
She if often irreverent. For example, she explains that Sarah's reaction to being told that she is to bear a child at 90 was laughter at the idea that she could "have pleasure, my lord being old also". i.e. Could she enjoy sex with her 100 year old husband? In another chapter she speaks about how the metaphor of God as Parent breaks down. "Can you imagine? All God wants is to take a shower by Herself, maybe enjoy an uninterrupted conversation with Her friend Mother Teresa"
She even has a chapter on prayers for Atheists and Agnostics. One prayer used seems inspired by the poem "Anyway", possibly by Mother Teresa. This one spoke to my stated mixed feelings about prayer:
Pray Anyway
Who listens to our words when we prayer? Perhaps no one.
Will our prayers be answers? Probably not.
What then shall we do?
Pray.
Alleluia!
Amen
I found the book interesting, entertaining and is some cases enlightening. Recommended to those who pray and to those who don't
June 6, 2011
Kate Braestrup’s third non-fiction book, Beginner’s Grace follows up her earlier works that detail her experiences as a chaplain to the Maine Warden Service. If you liked her earlier books, then I would bet you will enjoy this one also.
What sets Beginner’s Grace apart from her previous books is its focus on prayer. Organized into broad sections (like “Ask” and Celebrate”) which are broken into chapters (such as “Prayers for the Fearful,” “Prayers in for Help,” and “Speechless Prayers”) the book is sprinkled throughout with prayers for these and many other purposes. An appendix collects all of the prayers of the book into one section (which is really useful—it is one of the reasons I bought the book instead of just borrowing it from the library). Throughout, Braestrup maintains the ecumenical focus that I much admire in her work (there are chapters for “Prayers in Mixed Company” and “Prayers for Atheists and Agnostics”).
It would be wrong, though, to call Beginner’s Grace a handbook of prayers. The book is full (mainly) of stories about her life, both in the field working with the Maine Wardens and at home with her husband and children, but those stories serve as examples for when prayer was needed, how it was used, or how it created or fostered relationships. For Braestrup, prayer is always both about one’s relationship with God and one’s relationships with other people—that focus makes this (for me, anyway) quite a practical book of prayers.
I have enjoyed all of Braestrup’s books, but this one is my favorite. It has a much stronger organization than her second effort, and of all her books, this one made me think the most. If nothing else, Beginner’s Grace is useful for its forceful reminder that often, the best prayer throughout life is “Yes. Thank you.”
What sets Beginner’s Grace apart from her previous books is its focus on prayer. Organized into broad sections (like “Ask” and Celebrate”) which are broken into chapters (such as “Prayers for the Fearful,” “Prayers in for Help,” and “Speechless Prayers”) the book is sprinkled throughout with prayers for these and many other purposes. An appendix collects all of the prayers of the book into one section (which is really useful—it is one of the reasons I bought the book instead of just borrowing it from the library). Throughout, Braestrup maintains the ecumenical focus that I much admire in her work (there are chapters for “Prayers in Mixed Company” and “Prayers for Atheists and Agnostics”).
It would be wrong, though, to call Beginner’s Grace a handbook of prayers. The book is full (mainly) of stories about her life, both in the field working with the Maine Wardens and at home with her husband and children, but those stories serve as examples for when prayer was needed, how it was used, or how it created or fostered relationships. For Braestrup, prayer is always both about one’s relationship with God and one’s relationships with other people—that focus makes this (for me, anyway) quite a practical book of prayers.
I have enjoyed all of Braestrup’s books, but this one is my favorite. It has a much stronger organization than her second effort, and of all her books, this one made me think the most. If nothing else, Beginner’s Grace is useful for its forceful reminder that often, the best prayer throughout life is “Yes. Thank you.”
November 13, 2010
There are large parts of this book that are up-and-up Christian, and that sat uncomfortably with my own spiritual beliefs. By the end of the book I had absorbed some wonderful ideas about contemplation - whether prayer or meditation or some other form of expressing gratitude toward our existence and changing our perspective on life - but I kept tripping over the intensely Christian examples and scripture. I much preferred Braestrup's earlier two books, which focused on love as the place where divinity exists / manifests - I love the idea that God, however we understand it/him/her is in 'the people who show up' (bringing casseroles and funny DVDs and books and letters and all kinds of things at moments of intense crisis, grief, or change.) Unsurprisingly, then, I found the most powerful part of this book to be her suggestion that if the mention of God gives you the heebie jeebies, you replace God in all prayers with Love. I'm definitely going to do that the next time I'm in a situation where someone suggests we say the Lord's Prayer.
May 22, 2013
This was lovely. This is a TRUE entry level guide to prayer for anyone at any stage of spiritual practice, even those who are not altogether sure there is anyone there to pray to. For the theologically committed, this is a wonderful conversation partner to understanding how your own tradition might intersect with other world religions, or different stages of belief. There were a few chapters or passages that made me say, "That's not the way I see it." But nothing that would have disrupted my fellowship with my conversation partner had we been sitting at a table with a cup of coffee between us. For professional pray-ers this book some great insight to guide spiritual direction as well as public prayers. A great read.
December 1, 2013
Braestrup's offerings are always accessible, warm, loving, and practical. Recommended especially for those seeking to see how prayer might be part of every day life, and for Unitarian Universalist small group study.
November 29, 2013
Although the author presents the book as a general approach to prayer, independent of any particular religious belief or faith, the guidance, and many of the specific prayers, she offers is (perhaps, understandably), heavily influenced by her own Protestant faith. Throughout the book, she does, however, incorporate discussion of mindfulness and prayer from many other traditions. She has some very insightful personal reflections to offer regarding a life of prayer. I found this to be a good introduction regarding how to incorporate mindfulness and prayer into daily life—particularly for someone who is having difficulty knowing how to approach prayer or has become disconnected from prayer. To paraphrase the author: calmness, quit, mindfulness, or whatever other “perfect” conditions a person may be waiting on before beginning prayer are the outcome of prayer—not its prerequisites.
Quotes
"I was of two minds about prayer--correction: I was of more than two minds. I had a whole crowd inside my skull, all jabbering away and no one listening...This is an example of what the Buddha called 'the monkey mind': the running stream-of-consciousness commentary that is the opposite of the clear, calm, contemplative mindfulness a person is supposed to have when she is praying. Right? I always thought so. And because my mind was never empty, never clear...I couldn't conjure even a moment's meditative mood, which made me feel inadequate...The major obstacle for me was ignorance: I really didn't understand what prayer was. I had thought that conquering the monkey mind and bringing myself into a conscious attentiveness were pre-requisites for prayer, but they are not: They are prayer’s result..." p7
"I won't claim prayer can get you a new car or find the lover of your dreams. It won't help you gain status, assert your dominance, or otherwise please your ego. It won't even make life easier. What it can do--what prayer, at its best and at our best, has always done-- is help us live consciously, honorably, and compassionately...Because I am not stronger, more self-sufficient, smarter, braved, or any less mortal than my forebears or my neighbors, I need help. As long as prayer helps me to be more loving, then I need prayer..." p8-9
"I wasn't looking to become catholic, Methodist, or Jewish...I didn't want someone to tell me what to be...I needed someone to tell me what to do..." p10
"...What remains the most surprising fact about prayer for me is that it consistently exceeds my expectations. It works." p12
"I have read and studied prayer. I've developed various theories and opinions about it. But I learned what I needed to know about prayer by doing it. So this book begins not with beliefs but with practice..." p16
"'To the hungry, God's love can only reveal itself in the form of bread,' Gandhi said." p27
"Sacred foods and ritual meals are so common a feature of religious life that it hardly seems worth explaining that food serves as a deep, abiding source of sacred metaphor because it, like air, water, and sleep, is immediately necessary to life. My family (and probably yours) is in the extraordinary position of being part of the first society in history in which our most pressing widespread health problems are caused by consuming too many calories rather than too few..." p27
"I'm more interested in the foods Jesus chose to either symbolize or literally become himself when he was no longer visibly present. If we accept that the meal in question was the Passover Feast...a variety of foods would have been on the table...Bread and wine were inexpensive and ordinary. Couldn't Jesus...declare himself to be spices, pomegranates, meat, or figs, some rarer, more delicious thing more easily recognized as a sacred food than the foods we tend to gobble down untasted? Ask the poor, the hungry, the stranger in our midst: why would Jesus choose to infuse his sacred self into the cheapest, most ordinary and easy-to-find food...While you're at it, ask the misfit, the prisoner, or even the naughty child to explain why Judas-- already identified as the betrayer of Christ-- was also given the bread and wine, the body and blood, the nourishment and the promise?" p28-29
"Any passenger spends a minimum of an hour awaiting the departure of her flight, and this would seem an excellent time for unimpeded, prayerful contemplation...she will be flung into absurdly overcrowded skies thirty thousand feet above the earth...Faced squarely, this is the sort of thing that can promote serious and earnest (even frantic) conversations with God. But maybe that's exactly what all the music and blathering screens are intended to forestall...I stayed in a hotel recently that had little movie screens mounted in the elevators, as though a compassionate hospitality professional wished to spare me seventeen seconds of excruciating boredom...For those who dwell in the modern, industrialized West, the time we spend either asleep or dead is the only time in which we are expected to entertain ourselves; the bedroom, the one place-- other than the grace-- in which we can reasonably anticipate a diminution in an otherwise relentless barrage of sight and sound." p36-37
"An empathetic creature can 'feel into' the experience of another-- that's what the word literally means. According to Professors Salk and Humphrey, we are conscious so that we may be empathetic, and the more fully conscious we become, the more we will be able to empathize with those around us." p42
"Because we don't know what the night will bring, because we will not necessarily remember what the night has held, bedtime is, as it has always been, a time that lends itself to prayer." p43
"Our ancestors did not divide the secular and the sacred with quite the same firmness that we do." p50
"...with God, all things are possible. If we learn to see as if with the eyes of God, and to give as if from the heart of God, then we might be able to get a glimpse of who the Beloved truly is. In such a glimpse, the merely human is transfigured before our eyes, face shining like the sun." p52
"...a lamentably inattentive person like me needs some sort of external reminder when it comes to spiritual practice, and my community doesn't offer the traditional ones. No muezzin ascends his tower to send a call to prayer...No great bells peal...Thich Nhat Hanh talks about finding 'bells of mindfulness' in daily life-- phenomena that you are likely to encounter that can trigger a moment of conscious attention, such as a ringing telephone or the brake lights of the car in front of you...As bells of mindfulness go, meals and bedtime work well, and other ordinary elements of our modern loves are similarly useful in their regularity, predictability, and intrinsic significance." p54
"You can say a threshold blessing with, to, or about any member of the household as he or she departs from home...Such a pause recognizes that crossing of a boundary between interior and exterior, known and unknown...[My friend, Tom Ballard's family initiated a threshold ritual]: From that time on, no one left the Ballards' house without getting a hug and a kiss...it wasn't a long, clingy, neurotic farewell...Just a quick hug and smooch..." p55
"Prayers are not recipes or formulae, they are love poems. They need not be factual, but they must be true." p63
"Petitionary prayer is the form of prayer that most obviously assumes a two-way communication between the supplicant and God, but all prayers traditionally derives its value and meaning from that assumption...William James-- the nineteenth-century American pioneer in psychology and the psychology of religion, specifically-- argued that petitionary prayer would be a problematic practice for Christianity in the modern age. He was the most articulate, if not the first, American to predict that as petitionary prayer was brought forward into a science-based world, it would be seen increasingly as inelegant and intellectually embarrassing, especially when placed alongside the marvels of science and scientific medicine...Dr. Michael Shermer has explained that even clever human beings are absurdly gullible when it comes to figuring out cause and effect. Petitionary prayer served well enough during the long period in our history during which solutions born of magical thinking...were pretty much the only ones on tap anyway..." p134
"The words 'memorial', 'memorize', and 'membership' are all etymologically linked..." p151
The simplest prayers are "Yes" and "Thank You" p167
"Pray without ceasing, Saint Francis of Assisi advised. ‘If necessary, use words.' " p169
" 'Suppose we were to take a compass and insert the point and draw the outline of a circle,' a sixth-century Christian monk named Dorotheos of Gaza suggested. 'The center point is the same distance from any point on the circumference... Let us suppose that this circle is the world, and that God himself is the center. The straight lines drawn from the circumference to the center are the loves of human beings...Let us assume for the sake of the analogy that to move toward God, then, human beings move from the circumference along the various radii of the circle to the center. But at the same time, the closer they are to God, the closer they become to one another; and the closer they are to one another, the closer they become to God.' And, of course, 'the opposite is also true,' writes the scholar Roberta C. Bondi...'As we move toward God, we move toward other people, and as we move away from people, we also move away from God.' " p172-173
Quotes
"I was of two minds about prayer--correction: I was of more than two minds. I had a whole crowd inside my skull, all jabbering away and no one listening...This is an example of what the Buddha called 'the monkey mind': the running stream-of-consciousness commentary that is the opposite of the clear, calm, contemplative mindfulness a person is supposed to have when she is praying. Right? I always thought so. And because my mind was never empty, never clear...I couldn't conjure even a moment's meditative mood, which made me feel inadequate...The major obstacle for me was ignorance: I really didn't understand what prayer was. I had thought that conquering the monkey mind and bringing myself into a conscious attentiveness were pre-requisites for prayer, but they are not: They are prayer’s result..." p7
"I won't claim prayer can get you a new car or find the lover of your dreams. It won't help you gain status, assert your dominance, or otherwise please your ego. It won't even make life easier. What it can do--what prayer, at its best and at our best, has always done-- is help us live consciously, honorably, and compassionately...Because I am not stronger, more self-sufficient, smarter, braved, or any less mortal than my forebears or my neighbors, I need help. As long as prayer helps me to be more loving, then I need prayer..." p8-9
"I wasn't looking to become catholic, Methodist, or Jewish...I didn't want someone to tell me what to be...I needed someone to tell me what to do..." p10
"...What remains the most surprising fact about prayer for me is that it consistently exceeds my expectations. It works." p12
"I have read and studied prayer. I've developed various theories and opinions about it. But I learned what I needed to know about prayer by doing it. So this book begins not with beliefs but with practice..." p16
"'To the hungry, God's love can only reveal itself in the form of bread,' Gandhi said." p27
"Sacred foods and ritual meals are so common a feature of religious life that it hardly seems worth explaining that food serves as a deep, abiding source of sacred metaphor because it, like air, water, and sleep, is immediately necessary to life. My family (and probably yours) is in the extraordinary position of being part of the first society in history in which our most pressing widespread health problems are caused by consuming too many calories rather than too few..." p27
"I'm more interested in the foods Jesus chose to either symbolize or literally become himself when he was no longer visibly present. If we accept that the meal in question was the Passover Feast...a variety of foods would have been on the table...Bread and wine were inexpensive and ordinary. Couldn't Jesus...declare himself to be spices, pomegranates, meat, or figs, some rarer, more delicious thing more easily recognized as a sacred food than the foods we tend to gobble down untasted? Ask the poor, the hungry, the stranger in our midst: why would Jesus choose to infuse his sacred self into the cheapest, most ordinary and easy-to-find food...While you're at it, ask the misfit, the prisoner, or even the naughty child to explain why Judas-- already identified as the betrayer of Christ-- was also given the bread and wine, the body and blood, the nourishment and the promise?" p28-29
"Any passenger spends a minimum of an hour awaiting the departure of her flight, and this would seem an excellent time for unimpeded, prayerful contemplation...she will be flung into absurdly overcrowded skies thirty thousand feet above the earth...Faced squarely, this is the sort of thing that can promote serious and earnest (even frantic) conversations with God. But maybe that's exactly what all the music and blathering screens are intended to forestall...I stayed in a hotel recently that had little movie screens mounted in the elevators, as though a compassionate hospitality professional wished to spare me seventeen seconds of excruciating boredom...For those who dwell in the modern, industrialized West, the time we spend either asleep or dead is the only time in which we are expected to entertain ourselves; the bedroom, the one place-- other than the grace-- in which we can reasonably anticipate a diminution in an otherwise relentless barrage of sight and sound." p36-37
"An empathetic creature can 'feel into' the experience of another-- that's what the word literally means. According to Professors Salk and Humphrey, we are conscious so that we may be empathetic, and the more fully conscious we become, the more we will be able to empathize with those around us." p42
"Because we don't know what the night will bring, because we will not necessarily remember what the night has held, bedtime is, as it has always been, a time that lends itself to prayer." p43
"Our ancestors did not divide the secular and the sacred with quite the same firmness that we do." p50
"...with God, all things are possible. If we learn to see as if with the eyes of God, and to give as if from the heart of God, then we might be able to get a glimpse of who the Beloved truly is. In such a glimpse, the merely human is transfigured before our eyes, face shining like the sun." p52
"...a lamentably inattentive person like me needs some sort of external reminder when it comes to spiritual practice, and my community doesn't offer the traditional ones. No muezzin ascends his tower to send a call to prayer...No great bells peal...Thich Nhat Hanh talks about finding 'bells of mindfulness' in daily life-- phenomena that you are likely to encounter that can trigger a moment of conscious attention, such as a ringing telephone or the brake lights of the car in front of you...As bells of mindfulness go, meals and bedtime work well, and other ordinary elements of our modern loves are similarly useful in their regularity, predictability, and intrinsic significance." p54
"You can say a threshold blessing with, to, or about any member of the household as he or she departs from home...Such a pause recognizes that crossing of a boundary between interior and exterior, known and unknown...[My friend, Tom Ballard's family initiated a threshold ritual]: From that time on, no one left the Ballards' house without getting a hug and a kiss...it wasn't a long, clingy, neurotic farewell...Just a quick hug and smooch..." p55
"Prayers are not recipes or formulae, they are love poems. They need not be factual, but they must be true." p63
"Petitionary prayer is the form of prayer that most obviously assumes a two-way communication between the supplicant and God, but all prayers traditionally derives its value and meaning from that assumption...William James-- the nineteenth-century American pioneer in psychology and the psychology of religion, specifically-- argued that petitionary prayer would be a problematic practice for Christianity in the modern age. He was the most articulate, if not the first, American to predict that as petitionary prayer was brought forward into a science-based world, it would be seen increasingly as inelegant and intellectually embarrassing, especially when placed alongside the marvels of science and scientific medicine...Dr. Michael Shermer has explained that even clever human beings are absurdly gullible when it comes to figuring out cause and effect. Petitionary prayer served well enough during the long period in our history during which solutions born of magical thinking...were pretty much the only ones on tap anyway..." p134
"The words 'memorial', 'memorize', and 'membership' are all etymologically linked..." p151
The simplest prayers are "Yes" and "Thank You" p167
"Pray without ceasing, Saint Francis of Assisi advised. ‘If necessary, use words.' " p169
" 'Suppose we were to take a compass and insert the point and draw the outline of a circle,' a sixth-century Christian monk named Dorotheos of Gaza suggested. 'The center point is the same distance from any point on the circumference... Let us suppose that this circle is the world, and that God himself is the center. The straight lines drawn from the circumference to the center are the loves of human beings...Let us assume for the sake of the analogy that to move toward God, then, human beings move from the circumference along the various radii of the circle to the center. But at the same time, the closer they are to God, the closer they become to one another; and the closer they are to one another, the closer they become to God.' And, of course, 'the opposite is also true,' writes the scholar Roberta C. Bondi...'As we move toward God, we move toward other people, and as we move away from people, we also move away from God.' " p172-173
May 24, 2017
In Beginner's Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life, author Kate Braestrup shares stories about parenting, her faith and her experiences, all in terms of prayer. Braestrup is a Unitarian Universalist minister, serving the Maine Wardens and her community. She is a warm woman who practices her care for others. Her stories are humorous and often insouciant, thus creating a light book, rather than a serious tome on praying constantly. She wants us to feel comfortable about praying at meal time, bed time and in times of need, for ourselves and for others. She shares many examples of common prayers and those she has written.
Braestrup is a favorite of many members of my book group, so I've read several of her books. All of them are similar, except that this one has an emphasis on prayer.
Braestrup is a favorite of many members of my book group, so I've read several of her books. All of them are similar, except that this one has an emphasis on prayer.
January 4, 2023
Another find at the Skidompha Library Used Book Store! I've read some of Braestrup's other work and enjoyed it and this seemed to fit with both the Christmas season and my vague sense of rootlessness. She makes prayer accessible for those of us without divinity degrees and demystifies what we try to do when we pray--all the while sounding like Anne Lamott with a more theological background. While much of her approach is Judeo-Christian, she also references Muslim prayers and the elemental "Help!" prayer that we've all turned to. And what other book has an appendix of useful prayers?
March 9, 2020
Beginner's Grace invites you to pray even if you never did before and no matter your spiritual orientation. The openness of the author about her former atheistic life is refreshing. Overall, the book goes over various life experiences Kate Braestrup had and thoughts associated with them along with ideas for prayers to get you inspired. Some references to bible scripture also pop up here and there.
July 6, 2020
I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as her memoir “Here if you Need Me” which I was so taken by and handed off to sever friends in ministry. I appreciated adding this to my group of books I’m reading on prayer in 2020, but found myself less engaged in her theological musing then I was in her personal storytelling.
December 28, 2023
A nicely written book, about finding time for prayer in everyday life and keeping faith in the modern age. I mostly enjoyed Kate's brief scenes from her day job as a chaplain to the state's Warden service (locating missing hikers + bodies), though I note the conversational style doesn't shy away from the fact we, and Jesus, are human. An interesting read.
November 26, 2017
Wonderful stories of prayer and faith from a Christian UU chaplain, rooted in reality, science, and a very liberal view of the bible. Humorous and human, and very honest. Recommended for liberal Christians, UUs, spiritual atheists and agnostics.
December 17, 2018
I really loved listening to this book, and hearing the prayers read aloud, with just the right inflection. I need a paper copy of this book. Thank you, Kate Braestrup, for tour ministry and willingness to take your readers on your journey.
March 4, 2019
Well worth the time
Living prayer, practical prayer, loving prayer for those who pray now and those who want to but are uncertain how. Even just reading this book is prayer. Give it a try.
Living prayer, practical prayer, loving prayer for those who pray now and those who want to but are uncertain how. Even just reading this book is prayer. Give it a try.
November 10, 2022
Really odd book. I feel like the Bible wasn’t the center point but just a compliment to what was being discussed. There are formal prayers shared but I wish there was more emphasis on just talking with God.
May 6, 2018
Not as easy a read as some of her other books but still thought provoking, funny and tender. I love Kate.
July 4, 2018
I do so love this author. This book encouraged me to think different about prayer, to be open to change, and to live with a humble spirit that is fully reliant on God who hears my prayers. Loved it.
April 4, 2019
Think I might like this better reading it slowly myself instead of the audio.
May 2, 2019
I LOVED Here If You Need Me so I was deeply disappointed not to like this book at all. I read the first two chapters, found them not at all interesting and pretty badly written, and gave up.
January 31, 2020
Love this author!
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April 18, 2020Not my favourite Kate Braestrup, I love the stories she tells in her other books. But I like her voice enough to read it through.
May 20, 2021
4.5* I love Kate Braestrup. This book is for those who need an entry to prayer, even if they come from a background not rooted in belief. She has a beautiful and unique perspective.
January 8, 2023
This is a clear-minded and common sense guide to a topic that can intimidate some and perplex others. I put this book down feeling more at ease and ready to integrate prayer more into my life.
February 22, 2024
Round up to 3.5.
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February 20, 2025my religious mother made me read this. was better than i was expecting. maybe i’ll even start to incorporate more prayer into my life. we’ll see.
November 5, 2016
An excellent book on how to pray. I have read several books by Braestrup and enjoyed each one.
March 6, 2017
Refreshing look at prayer and the different varieties of its use, especially for the times when praying with or for another.
February 21, 2014
This book on bringing prayer into everyday life is written in an engaging, sincere, and entertaining style. I very much enjoyed it. Braestrup is a Unitarian, which explains why I found her approach so accessible. There is no evangelical push here toward a Christian viewpoint though that tradition certainly is the basis of the theology presented by the author. If you are someone who grew up in a Christian context, but have become distanced from it, this book could serve as a beginning of reconnecting to your spiritual life without the restrictions presented by your original religion.
Other Notes: The author is chaplain to the Maine Warden Service and there are quite a few references to September 11th - it's quite an American book, an American take on things. Also, there is an Appendix of Prayers at the back that are presented in the book, some traditional Christian, some from other religions, some written by the author.
Other Notes: The author is chaplain to the Maine Warden Service and there are quite a few references to September 11th - it's quite an American book, an American take on things. Also, there is an Appendix of Prayers at the back that are presented in the book, some traditional Christian, some from other religions, some written by the author.
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