Customer Reviews

Christ in His Saints

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If you are a Christian and have a prayer life that is lacking,THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO PRAYER is a first-rate place to start understanding, get organized, and move forward in your prayer life.

The Orthodox way is a different approach from either Porotestants or Catholics, the two Christian traditions we are most familiar with in the west. As Archpriest Father George Sondergaard once told a class of Catechumens, "You Protestants and Catholics think everying is either-or; sometimes it's both!"

Thus it is with prayer-- the Orthodox way espoused herein by Father Michael introduces the reader to the concept and importance of having both formalized and personal prayer, that we may include ACTS--Adoration, Contrition, Thanks, AND Supplication in our prayer lives, rather than just asking favors of the all-holy Trinity.

Since the last great Church father, St. Symeon the New Theologian stressed the importance of a personal prayer life in addition to ritual prayer, it has been a vital component of Orthodoxy.

Protestants may balk at some of what Orthodox pray, for they pray for the dead, pray to Saints, and ask the Blessed Mary for intercessions. Yet, did not Mary intercede (successfully) to get her Son to change His mind at Canae? Do you not believe that virtuous men and women who have gone on before are alive in Christ and just as capable of praying for you as the car mechanic or office clerk you wouldn't hesitate to ask to pray for you? Don't you think that the Godhead exists in an eternal NOW where all is always unfolding and that thus you can pray effectively for those who have departed mortal life because their lives are yet unfolding before God?

This is the Orthodox way. And this book is a great place to start learning all about it. Not the sort of reading a monastic or cleric would benefit from, but certainly a great book for cradle Orthodox, Catechumens, converts and the curious.

If you thought you knew how to truly pray you were wrong. This is a step by step way to spend time time with Jesus, God, the Most Holy Spirit, and Our Blessed Mother. This is how you life can be a prayer without words.

What a wonderful resource!!!! One reading was not enough, I'm going to re-read and probably re-read it several times. Even if one is NOT Orthodox(I happen to be), he/she would find this a very useful tool indeed.

Fr. Michael presents much more than simply a beginner's guide in this jewel of a little book. It is practical, realistic, and humorous and contains great advice on developing a wholistic life around prayer rather than a compartmentalized one in which one simply includes prayer. The idea is to do more than pray. The idea is to become prayer.

Highly recommended

(This is NOT a review of Beginner's Guide to Prayer, and somehow this review is mixed by amazon to be there as well. But for a great book on prayer, plase see Beginning to Pray). I apologize for amazon's glitch.

I believe that next to the scriptures themselves, the next best thing to read as a Christian is the lives of the saints. From the beginning Jews and Jews who became "Christians" have looked to their forefathers and mothers in the faith as examples, heroes and guides. A skim of Hebrews 10 and 11 confirms this, along with many other examples. But they did not gloss over the foibles and follies of the saints, but saw them examples of the grace of God working itself out in their lives. Fr Patrick's book on the saints is something of a primer for all Christians to help introduce us, or just to remind us, that we are part of a great cloud of witnesses that are not only fine examples of repentance, faithfulness and perseverance, but also of one Body with us in Christ our Lord. As the early Christians would say, "One Christian, no Christian." We are saved together as a body, while the only thing we can do alone is go to hell.

There are 14 main sections that focus upon various types of personalities from the bible, both Old and New Testaments. Each section contains about 10 or 11 devotionals that are each about 3 pages long. Topics include repentant saints, loyal saints, saints in need of improvement, saints in worship, suffering saints, clever saints, interceding saints, saints under pressure, gentle saints, zealous saints, visionaries, questioners, and persevering saints.

For Protestant readers who may feel uncomfortable with the idea of talking about "saints" in a way that sounds too "Catholic", they may ease into the idea by knowing that it is more like a hall of fame that is held up as an ideal, just as St. Paul says, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." There is no competition between the honor we give to the saints and the worship we give to the Holy Trinity. Besides, "God is glorified in his saints," the Apostle declares in 2nd Thessalonians 1:10. Moreover, this book is only concerned with saints from the bible, so that is safe enough if you are hesitant. Who knows, maybe you will find yourself wanting to know what the disciples of the Apostles thought about the faith and how they lived and died for it.

While I highly recommend Butler's Lives of the Saints (4 Volume Matched Set) , they can be rather bulky and intimidating, and expensive. On the other hand, this slim volume is sure to become a standard as it is both educational and devotional, aimed at nourishing the soul without breaking the bank.

Readers may find the following books useful as well: Any Friend of God's Is a Friend of Mine, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi: With Introductions by Ralph McInerny and Joseph Pearce, Father Arseny, 1893-1973: Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father : Being the Narratives Compiled by the Servant of God Alexander Concerning His Spiritual Father.