The Way We Pray: Celebrating Spirit from Around the World [Paperback]

Maggie Oman Shannon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

The word prayer often conjures images of bowed head and folded hands, but this important ritual of being in the presence of the divine has a much wider variety of expression. Labyrinth walking, speaking affirmations, writing in a journal, dressing in ceremonial costume, drawing mandalas, and writing haiku are just a few modern techniques for connecting with a higher power. The Way We Pray explores 50 prayer practices and provides historic details, interpretations, and stories pertaining to each one.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

By studying prayer practices from around the world, author Maggie Oman Shannon discovered that prayer is more than a conversation with God, it is a "communion with the divine." In The Way We Pray, readers will indeed find compelling new ways to pray. Oman Shannon's brief chapters (4 to 6 pages) cover over 50 traditions from around the globe, including fasting, haiku, tea ceremonies, prayer flags, sweat lodges, and tantric sex. Each chapter is an eloquent essay in which Oman Shannon describes the prayer and its historical origins. In Mexico, prayer can take the form of milagros, which often look like small silver charms. "When a prayer or request was made to a saint, so was a vow--to carry out a particular action in return," she explains. "To seal the spiritual deal, a token is provided, offered to the petitioned saint." All the chapters close with a list of "Suggestions for Exploration," helping readers understand how each prayer can be respectfully incorporated into a spiritual practice. In the chapter on milagros, Oman Shannon suggests, "When you receive a blessing, try honoring it with a material image of thanks. For instance, you might buy a living plant to place in your prayer space." --Gail Hudson

From Publishers Weekly

In The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices from Around the World, Maggie Oman Shannon asks readers to imagine a world in which "everything we do has the potential to be prayerful." She explores not the content of prayers what is said but the experiential practice of prayer in the world's religious traditions. Tibetan Buddhists pray with beads; what does that mean? Sufis dance when they pray; what can that teach us? It's an imaginative approach. As readers learn more about the religious practices of the world painting icons, feasting, hoisting prayer flags, making milagros or wearing amulets they will be challenged to think about prayer in fresh ways.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573245712
• ISBN-13: 978-1573245715
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Prayerbooks

More About the Author

Rev. Maggie Oman Shannon, M.A., is an interfaith minister, spiritual director, workshop and retreat facilitator, and author of five books: Prayers for Healing (Conari Press, 1997); The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices from Around the World (Conari Press, 2001); A String and a Prayer: How to Make and Use Prayer Beads (co-author; Red Wheel/Weiser, 2002); One God, Shared Hope (Red Wheel/Weiser, 2003); and her latest, Prayers for Hope and Comfort (Conari Press, 2008). In 2000, Oman Shannon founded The New Story, a coaching and consulting business focused on helping people create deeper meaning in their lives.

The former editor of three national magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, Oman Shannon also served as Director of Marketing for the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Her writing has appeared in publications including Utne Reader and Beliefnet.com; and her work has been featured in publications ranging from the Miami Herald to Spirituality and Health magazine. She has taught workshops at venues including California Pacific Medical Center's Institute for Health and Healing and Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.

In addition to being a certified life coach, Oman Shannon completed the three-year training program of the Spiritual Directors Institute at Mercy Center in Burlingame, California. A graduate of Smith College, Oman Shannon also holds an M.A. degree in Culture and Spirituality from Holy Names University. She graduated from Manhattan's One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in June 2010.

Oman Shannon lives in San Francisco with her husband and 7-year-old daughter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices From Around the World, June 13, 2003

By 

Cassandra Barnes "Cassandra" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Way We Pray: Celebrating Spirit from Around the World (Paperback)

Prayer may take many forms and be for an infinite variety of reasons. In The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices From Around the World, Maggie Oman Shannon provides a "compendium of prayer practices with enough context to acknowledge the cultural traditions behind them, while offering an invitation for further exploration."

Oman Shannon is a spiritual director, and founder of The New Story, an organization that helps people discover the deeper purpose to their lives. She's also a writer and editor, with a previous anthology of healing prayers to her credit.

Although many of us think of being on our knees with hands folded in front of us as the way to pray, practices as diverse as fasting, haiku, meditation, storytelling, and visual arts can all be a way of prayer. Oman Shannon quotes Catherine of Siena with the thought that "everything you do can be a prayer." What you physically do is of less importance than your sacred intentions. She says that prayer can become the "enfolding fabric in which we live our lives, and everything we do has the potential to be prayerful."

She describes over fifty ways of offering prayer. Each description details how that practice developed and how it has been used throughout time. Then Oman Shannon provides suggestions of how each method can be used in contemporary times, for contemporary difficulties. Each description is finished with a section containing several suggestions as to how individuals can explore that particular means of prayer to determine if it's something they can use.

An extensive resource section is provided to assist readers who want to investigate a particular practice in more depth.

Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, has this to say in the Foreword: "The Way We Pray offers us a treasury of integrating spiritual practices [and] they all have the power to open us up to a deeper and more generous reality." Readers will find the Oman Shannon has provided an invaluable resource for discovering the power of prayer in the way best suited to meet their needs.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical and Powerful Ways to Pray, May 31, 2002

By 

Caterina Rando (San Francisco, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Way We Pray: Celebrating Spirit from Around the World (Paperback)

Maggie Oman Shannon does such a great job of making devotion through prayer seen alluring, rewarding and even fun. I enjoyed learning about all the differnt methods of praying that I have heard about before but knew little about. Finding out about prayer bowls, tea ceromonies and prayer dancing was very interesting. Maggie shares many ways that whatever way of prayer we are interested in can become accessible to use immediately.

I enjoyed as the quotes from different traditions included and
learning about different cultures. The Way We Pray does a great job of giving the reader so many different ways to be spiritual that they can never get bored and always have more paths to explore. What an inspirational book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful Techniques for Sacred Living: Prayer as a Way of Life, October 19, 2003

By 

Julie Jordan Scott "Writer, Life Coach - Owne... (Bakersfield, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Way We Pray: Celebrating Spirit from Around the World (Paperback)

Yes, this book is about prayer. It is a guidebook for the spiritual person to integrate methods from many different traditions and beliefs into their spiritual development.

Several aspects of this book that really makes it especially rich include the large variety of cross cultural practices including activities and ritual which you might not have necessarily thought of before as "prayer".

Oman Shannon reminds the reader that prayer practice is best moved beyond the realm of our "juice draining" early religious training and into the world of sacred intention so that we can truly encounter the divine.

Each chapter outlines another prayer practice and includes a feature called "Suggestions for beginning the exploration." This tool is especially helpful as it continues the integration process.... I mean learning about these practices is interesting AND actually using them takes them to the next level.

I found the sections on "Chants", "Milagros", "Mastermind Groups" and "Forgiveness Practices" to be among the most beneficial... although I am sure as different scenarios appear in my life, different chapters will be applied and utilized.