The Need and the Blessing of Prayer

by Karl Rahner, Sean McEvenue, Bruce W. Gillette (Translator)

A new translation of Father Rahner's book on prayer. In The Need and the Blessing of Prayer , Father Rahner views the human person as essentially one called to prayer. He also highlights prayer as the act of human existence, the great religious act. By encouraging people to "pray in the everyday"—to pray regardless of the desire or mood of the moment—Rahner's theology of the prayer of everyday life challenges us to surrender ourselves to God so that God dwells at the very center of our lives. The eight chapters of The Need and the Blessing of Prayer were originally sermons that Rahner gave during Lent 1946 at St. Michael's Church in Munich, Germany. This work has been reprinted often throughout its publishing history, testifying to its enduring message. For as Father Rahner wrote in the first edition, "If we are not supposed to cease praying, then perhaps one shouldn't cease speaking about prayer."

Genres: Theology, Christianity, Spirituality, Religion, Prayer

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1968

About the author

Karl Rahner, SJ (March 5, 1904 — March 30, 1984) was a German Jesuit and theologian who, alongside Bernard Lonergan and Hans Urs von Balthasar, is considered one of the most influential Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century.

He was born in Freiburg, Germany, and died in Innsbruck, Austria.

Before the Second Vatican Council, Rahner had worked alongside Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac and Marie-Dominique Chenu, theologians associated with an emerging school of thought called the Nouvelle Théologie, elements of which had been criticized in the encyclical Humani Generis of Pope Pius XII.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this book for one of my undergrad Theology classes and it left me speechless, particularly his sermon on the prayer of need. I felt as if he knew my exact thoughts and feelings, finally being able to define them. Absolutely loved it. Brilliant language and ability to put human fallibility into words.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for class. Most of it I read twice. I am not going to do a full post on it. I am mixed. There are some good things here. Contextually, these were sermons given at the end of WWII in Germany before the real relief effort at the end of the war started and so the discussion of prayer in that context adds to the interest of the book.

That being said, this is mystical, and frankly, mystical books that are trying to speak of divine things with human language. And that is often difficult to process. Many individual phrases or sections are helpful. Many other things that are difficult to understand what he is getting at.

Part of the reality of prayer is that we can spend a lot of time talking about it and not much time doing it. And he ends the books with this line, "In the final analysis, talking about prayer doesn't matter, rather, only the worlds that we ourselves say to God."

I am glad I read it. I need to write a short paper about it. I am mixed about whether I recommend it or not. In some ways, I might recommend this paper by Egan about Rahner instead https://www.theway.org.uk/back/522ega...

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Up until now, I've shied away from the writings of Father Rahner because of his discredited fundamental option theory. This book, recommended to me by my son, is an amazing book with many insightful comments. It was written in 1946 amidst the rubble of Germany, and Rahner effectively uses words like "rubbled over heart" to evoke vivid images of prayer or our avoidance of it. To understand what I mean, these are a few excerpts that "spoke" to me:
Hearts change quietly, and their collapse doesn't make any noise p.6
Whatever can be taken from you is never God p.8
man who justified himself in himself has broken into the immeasurable abysses of his soul p.17
For we don't want to examine the rope from which we hang over the abyss of the nothing, but to cling to it so that we don't fall into the abyss of despair. p.52
Highly recommended!

[Etta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book literally fell into my hands one day when I really needed encouragement. Quite a remarkable book. Not always easy reading but with moments of such clarity and insight that sear right into that space of between the conscious and unconscious especially chapters 1, 2,4 and 8.
1: Opening the Heart
2. The Helper Spirit
4. Prayer in the Everyday
8. Prayers of Decision (so timely for this age, for this time in history…. Yet it was written in 1946, in Germany, in a bombed out devastated Munich.

His structure of sentences and language can be trying at times but it is really worth the struggle to read this book slowly… take days or weeks to read a chapter and then reflect upon prayer or lack of prayer… so much I could relate to in Rahner’s writing and not all of it comfortable.

[Gab Nug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rahner kinda just gets the spiritual life in its trying, mysterious, and glorious depth.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written to a world that had just come out of the Holocaust. With this in mind Rahner expresses the reason and purpose for prayer in a deeply cynical and dark world.

[Claudio Laferla · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 'must have' for every christian.