Customer Reviews

How to Pray Always

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Fr. Plus's goal is to provide guidance and inspiration for lay people who which to take seriously the biblical admonition to "pray without ceasing" (I Thess 5:17).

The message of this book can be summarized in three principles:

1. It is psychologically impossible to focus on God (or any other idea) continually, without interruption, throughout our day.
2. It is more important that our will be aligned with God's, that we do all we can do for His glory, than it is to think directly about God.
3. It is very beneficial to think of God as often as possible throughout the day.

The rest of the book unpacks these principles and attempts to provide guidance in their application.

The book starts with the very encouraging observation that, except for cases of direct supernatural intervention by God (as seen in the life of St. Theresa of Avila), no one case "pray without ceasing" if the only meaning of "prayer" is to consciously be directing thoughts to God. Our human nature is not made up in such a way that we can concentrate on a single topic without break. Additionally, even if we could, we would not be able to function in life in such a state. The many demands of our duties could not be performed.

Fr. Plus then observes that it is much better to have our will in alignment with God's will then to have our thoughts consciously directed to God. If we are doing whatever we are doing with the goal to please God, we are offering it up as a prayer even if we can not think directly of God while we are acting. We are consciously doing what He wishes us to do, and that is prayer.

My first thought in this was relief: Hey, if we can't focus directly on God 100% of the time, then we don't need to worry that much about prayer. But Fr. Plus makes it very clear that doing everything we do in life to please God is no small task. It calls for a complete renunciation of our own will.

There is much more to write but, ironically, duty calls. I strongly recommend this book.

If you want to reenergize your prayer life, this is an excellent book to read and meditate on. It will certainly breath life into personal devotions if read seriously.

This is an excellent book for one who is trying to learn to pray in the "worldly" existence we live in.

I ordered this book, hoping to help elevate my prayer life. I am a candidate in RCIA through the Catholic Church and very much like a sponge trying to soak up information.

This book arrived in my mailbox at the same time as another Catholic prayer book. This book was a little difficult to capture my attention. A little tedious to read through - and since I had received another book about the same time which totally fit the bill, this one was placed on the shelf.
Maybe I need to give it another read, but for now, I would say there might be others out there for the novice or learning candidate.

This is a wonderful book about the power of the rosary, and many stories about conversions that have happened because of it. This book should be read by anyone who wants to know more about the rosary, and how to use it properly. I strongly recommend this book to anyone, you will not be sorry you bought it!