Customer Reviews

Time for God

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This is the second book by Father Jacques Philippe that I have read. It is just as good as the first and I must state that it is a must read for growth in the spiritual life.

Father Philippe writes a wonderful little book about the life of prayer and how to pray, and he goes through a number of the Saints of the church and their writings on prayer. He gives some amazing advice. First and foremost, he states that all forms and types of prayers in the Christian life should not become so ritualistic that they lose their spiritual benefits. He tells us that most spiritual practices in our lives are for a season, and what is fruitful and amazing now, may need to be changed in the future.

Philippe tells us that we are responsible for 5 attitudes in our approach to prayer. We must have faith, fidelity, purity of intention, humility and perseverance. If we are persistent in pursuing these 5 things, we will grow in the spiritual life.

Fr. Jacques also gives us 4 principles to remember in our practice of prayer: the primacy of God's action, the primacy of God's love, the humanity of Jesus, and God's indwelling in our heart.

Fr. Philippe is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors for spiritual reading. He touches upon that practice in this book as a tool for prayer. Spiritual reading is different from other forms of reading; rather than reading for the purpose of reviewing, or academic reading, spiritual reading is slowly digesting a book, stopping to pray when inspired, or stopping to meditate - reading something again and again if it really catches your attention. Its main purpose is to grow deeper.

Some samples of the gems in this book are:

"Prayer, no matter how brief, is very pleasing to God. Far from causing us to lose courage in perilous situations, prayer strengthens us." P.125

"The truth is everyone who sets off on the spiritual journey seeks God, but also in part, herself or himself." P.22

"It follows that all we have to do in prayer is to seek love and to strengthen it. This is the only criterion for judging whether we are doing badly or well in prayer." P.61

"There is no doubt that if we give God our time, we will be able to find time for others, too. By paying attention to God, we learn to pay attention to others." P.30

"Therefore, we do not pray because of the pleasure or benefits drawn from it - even if these are immense - but primarily because we want to please God, who asks us to pray. We pray not for our own delight, but for God's." P.21

"Moreover, the Mass in itself is more important than personal prayer. This may be true, but without a prayer life, the sacraments would have a limited effect." P.27

"Nevertheless, in this life, those who pray become increasingly capable of loving and spontaneously doing good, which initially required great effort. Thanks to the action of the holy spirit, it becomes easier and more natural to practice virtue." P.27

Those are just a few of the passages I underlined in this book. I randomly flipped through and picked out a few passages to share with you. I hope they will intrigue you enough to pick up the book and give it a try.

Other Books By Fr. Jacques Philippe

Searching for and Maintaining Peace

Time For God

Interior Freedom

In the School of the Holy Spirit

Choose to be Free: the Power of Faith Hope & Charity (a different edition of Interior Freedom)

(These are all his books I have been able to find in English; if you know of any others or how to get them, let me know please.)

[It needs to be noted that there are three different versions of this book in English based on two different translations, the version by SinagTala was the original English translation and published under the name Jack Philip, Then Pauline Books and Media republished that edition in North America under Jacques Philippe and there is now a new translation by Scepter Press just released based upon a new translation, the meaning is the same, but the translations are significantly different.]

It is a shame that today, The classics on prayer by St. John of the Cross, and St. Theresa of Avila, have become so difficult to understand. Largely because the kind of language they used to describe the spiritual experience has been so commonly abused by pseudo spiritualists trying to legitimize their own novel ideas, that now when we read these classics it is hard to know what experience they are referring to, when they describe the spiritual journey. It tends to sound remote and obscure and rare to find. But this Book brings the same spiritual life that the mystics talked about within the grasp of the average person of good will.It has helped me to get past some obstacles in my prayer life. I feel after reading this book that the prayer life of the saints is within reach, and I feel more confident about my approach to prayer.I highly recommend this book.

Mental prayer is the most important type of prayer and is a hidden jewel of graces for those who want to share in the fullness of faith in God and the Catholic Church. I had extreme difficulty in figuring out what mental prayer actually was and how to start praying it until a priest at confession suggested "Time for God" to my wife. We both learned about mental prayer thanks to Father Phillippe and we have tried to persevere in it ever since. This is a short, 100 page book that is a must for EVERY CHRISTIAN, if you really want to pray effectively to God and allow yourself to come closer to God like never before. In fact order two copies, because you will always want to keep an extra copy to pass on to friends, as you will want to share the gift of mental prayer with your family and friends.

I absolutely LOVED this book.... it was recomended to me by a priest from my local parish. I had been having trouble "finding time" for God. Through reading this book, I came to deeply realize the importance of daily prayer.

The book is fairly short and very easy to read. The book gives amazing guidlines to beginning a serious prayerful relationship with God and I would recomend it for anyone who is serious about deepening their relationship their saviour.

It is because I want to excel in my prayer life that I got this book to read. However, the author has a surprise for me. It is not about a "method" of prayer or your techniques of meditation, Ibrahim. The first fundamental truth we must understand, and without which we cannot make progress, is that the life of prayer, or so-called contemplative , is not the result of a technique; it is a gift we receive.(p. 11). On p. 13 the author goes on to show that it is dangerous to confuse Christian prayers with New Age techniques. Not all roads lead to Rome here! New Age spirituality rejects the mystery of Incarnation: God has in Christ revealed Himself. At the bottom of New Age is the promise of illusory self-fulfillment that denies the need for grace. New Age fosters egoism while Christianity teaches us to die to the self and be self-less in taking up the Christ of Christ and following after Him as a beloved disciple of His. What matters in New Age spirituality is self-fulfillment where the "other" does not come to the equation as far as communion with the Divine, Our Lord, is concerned. While the goal of New Age is to attain the absolute "I" or union with the great "All,", the ultimate end of Christian prayer is to transform the self in me into God, who stands before me as His supplicant, knocking the door of my heart daily, in fact every moment. In Christianity, this is meant to achieve union that would distinguish me as an involved being with the Lord, and the result is mutual self-giving in love.

On P. 19 Fr. Philippe touches on an important point. What if I don't experience moments in prayer that are not beautiful or satisfying? No profound thoughts or sentiments to make me feel like I am "in the spirit" like some who use a spiritual thermometer to test their spiritual temperature. Fr Philippe says, I is not as important to experience moments of prayer that are beautiful and satisfying, rich in profound thoughts or sentiments, as it is to be faithful and persevering in prayer. In other words, we must not focus so much on the "quality" but on our fidelity to prayer. Quality will be the fruit of fidelity. Times of arid, impoverished, distracted, or relatively brief prayer, if practiced faithfully every day, are more meritorious and bear more fruit than long,ardent prayers offered inconsistently when we feel the circumstances conducive. After seriously committing ourselves to the life of prayer, the first battle we must win is fidelity at all costs, according to the rhythm we have established for ourselves. This is not an easy victory. The devil knows the dangers for us and so tries to dissuade us the best he can. He knows that a person who is faithful to prayer can easily slip through fingers or, at least, will slip through one day. For this reason, the devil will everything and anything to hinder us from fidelity prayer.

As I got out my prayer journal and started to make notes from the book I checked out of the library, inter-library loan, I noticed something; I like almost every paragraph that I would have to end up copying down the whole book in my handwriting. Every line is written by the author with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It speaks to a very real situation in my spiritual life needs.

On p. 32, the author answers those of us who claim that they don't need a time set apart for prayer and after all they are praying in whatever they are doing. He tells us that we should be realistic as it is not easy to remain united with God as we go about our workday concerns. Our natural tendency is to become completely caught up in what we are doing. Moreover, if we don't know how to take an occasional pause in order to engage ourselves solely with God, then it will be hard to keep God's presence in mind while working. We must re-educate the heart, says Fr Philippe, and the surest means for this fidelity is prayer. The author reminds us of how it is an illusion for a man to think that he loves his wife and children if is engrossed in his work that he can't dedicate a few minutes to, or to be there for them 100 per cent. Fr Philippe says that love breathes in gratuitous freedom. We should learn how to "waste time" for the sake of others. In this sense we gain more than we lose. This is one way of understanding the Gospel passage about losing one's life to find it. Fr Philippe warns us against of allowing our fickle mood tell us whether to pray or not since "what charmed me yesterday may become intolerable tomorrow because of a change in mood or weather. We can be shallow and fickle." Then Fr Philippe teaches me a very beautiful Christian truth which is: Freedom is the capacity to be guided by what is true and not by external reality. He is right since what is external in my world of reality is fickle but the Lord, our Rock, is, indeed, immutable. So, am I, Ibrahim, guided by external reality or what is true? On page 35, Fr Philippe reminds me that I should ground my relationship with God not on unsteady impressions or shifts in my mood, but on the cornerstone of Faith. I should not allow my unsteady emotions give expression to what the Lord meant for it to be a secure, rock solid foundation. Fr Philippe sheds light on the verse in 2 Cor. 3: 17 says "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there lies freedom". To me this meant if I bring the Lord to what I am doing, have his companionship in this or that deed, then there is freedom within, and this means operating on a large level, doing things in the abundance of God, God's presence by His Spirit releases me, Ibrahim, from the inner shackles to be free, to do good to all people for the sake of good itself, not for the sake of reward to milk out of God from the other side, or this would be cheap! Because I invite God to be the center of what I am doing, I get rewarded with "freedom", freedom on the divine level, and that means transparency, purity,beauty, cleanness, chastity. On pages 58 and 69 Fr Philippe reminds us that Love is king, regardless of circumstances, and everything always flows from it. Love profits from everything, good as well as bad. Love profits from feelings as well as dryness, from inspiration as well as aridity, from virtue as well as sin. This reminds me of what the apostle Paul says that all things work together for good.

But still how do I pray? Ho do I have time for God? On page 71 Fr Philippe says:

[ when we do not know how to pray, it is very simple to proceed this way: Let us recollect ourselves. Let us be silent and enter our hearts, descend into our interior selves, reunite ourselves with that presence of Jesus who lives in us and remain peacefully with him. Let us not leave him alone, let us keep him company in the best way we can. If we persevere in this exercise, then we shall not delay in discovering the reality of what the Eastern Christians call "the place of the heart" or the "inner cell".]

What if I feel spiritually arid and not even able to reflect? Do I just sit around doing nothing? Or do I pray up a storm and work up some ferventness in prayer and give myself guilt trips?

On p. 78 Fr Jacuqes answers our questions, not like a know it all man who speaks from theory but as a man who has gone through these times himself and can sympathize:

[In the case of meditation, this new stage frequently

begins with a knd of spiritual aridity, the inability to

reflect, and the inclination to remain inactive before

God. Nevertheless, this "doing nothing" is not inertia

or spiritual laziness, but a loving attitude of abandonment.

This transformation is a great grace even for those

long accustomed to saying many things to the Lord or

fincbng joy in meditation. Such persons may feel &sillusioned

because it seems they are regressing,

becoming impoverished in if not incapable of prayer.

They are no longer able to pray as they used to, that

is, with the help of the intellect and basing their interior

discourse on thoughts, images, and feelings.

In his works, St. John of the Cross insists (even

criticizes spiritual directors who do not understand this

on convincing those who receive this grace

that this poverty is in fact true wealth, and that they

must not try to return to meditation. Instead, they

ought to content themselves to remain before God

in an attitude of self-forgetfulness and with simple,

loving, and serene attention.]

I often read about "poverty in the spirit" but really didn't understand what it really meant until I read this book and saw what he had to say about St. John of the Cross.

What about my being weighed down by too many faults? I am not doing what I should be doing...What kind of a Christian is that?! On p. 84, he beautifully writes:

[Sometimes, God wounds us more efficaciously by

leaving us in our poverty than by healing our misery!

Indeed, God seeks less to make us perfect than to

unite us to himself. Perfection, or our own idea

or definition of perfection, would make us self-

sufficient. Instead, to be wounded makes us poor, yet

it places us in communion with God. This is what

counts: not to acquire an ideal state of perfection but

to be unable to live without God, to be so tightly

bound to God, in our misery as well as our virtues,

that God may unceasingly pour out his love on us

and that we may feel the need to give ourselves completely

to him because there is no other way! This

bond makes us holy and leads us to perfection. This

truth explains many things about our spiritual life. It

helps us to understand why Jesus did not free St. Paul

from his thorn in the flesh, rather, God said to him,

"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made

perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9).

Now, this book should speak to the heart of anybody searching for God in their life.I was making notes of the book in my prayer journal and I found that I was almost copying the whole book down with my pen. Some books you just eat up and this one is on top of them.

Easy to read, but don't let that fool you. The book is a deeply inspirational guide to drawing closer to Christ.

Books on prayer -- even just the term "mental prayer" -- have always cowed me. I tend to be easily distracted, and I have hesitated trying to advance in prayer out of a desire, perhaps, to avoid disappointing God and myself. This book was recommended to me by a friend with a deep prayer life who told me if that she were able to write this simply and clearly, this is the book she would have written.

She was right. It is simple, clear, inspiring and accessible. It uses practical, everyday language to explain how to make oneself available for God to do what's his job to do, which is draw us into his presence in the way that pleases him. It has had a profound effect on my prayer life, my relationship with God, and the counsel I offer to others.

Perhaps other readers will have the reaction I did: "Is that all? This is great!"

Simple yet fruitful. I would recommend this to anyone who is having a hard time in including prayer in their daily life.

This is the best book on prayer that is a quick read but with so much depth. A sentence that spoke to me is found on page 72," God must touch us at such a deep level that we cannot do without him anymore". This book will draw you to seek a more deeper prayer life and create a longing to express that love for Him through prayer and as the author states' "you will be wounded by thirst for the Beloved".

Lorie