Customer Reviews

The Way We Pray: Celebrating Spirit from Around the World

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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.

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.

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.

There are lots of books on ways to become "spiritual," but few so practical as this one. Just reading it makes me relax into a deep comfortable place where time seems to stop.

You can do any one of these practices in the moment. Oman Shannon makes all of them appealing by explaining each one with beautiful simplicity. "Abundance can be had simply by consciously receiving what already has been given," a Sufi proverb notes. What is given here is blessedly rewarding and full.

If you're looking to enrich the way you pray--no matter what your practice--this beautiful book is golden. "The Way We Pray" has become my constant companion.

I first started reading this book before Christmas and it jump started me into the New Year by leading me to set some goals and think about the way I conducted myself in my life. This book is about more than prayer; it's about ways of living. When I read the book(I am still reading it), I feel like I am in a circle of friends and we are sharing our core values. I have read and reread some chapters. I sent a copy to my sister and she called and thanked me and is sending it to some of her friends. If you want to recharge your spiritual practices or start somewhere, this book is a good tool. Kathy K. San Francisco CA

Maggie Oman Shannon brings us a wonderful collection of practices by which we might deepen our faith and strengthen our connection to the sacred. The Way We Pray is an excellent resource for those looking to begin a practice, or those seeking options for inspiring an ongoing wisdom practice.

The way we pray is a personal reflection of who we are. I love how this book honors and explains diverse methods of prayer. There is no one correct way to pray. It would be dreadfully boring if there were only one correct way to do it. It makes sense to me that we could even use different methods of praying for different circumstances in our lives. This book gives lots of examples of how to connect with our God and our spirituality. I think it comes down to recognizing what resonates deeply within us. Our creativity is a blessing, a gift given to us by God. -Shouldn't we use our gifts to give honor and glory and thanks back to God?

I loved reading this book. It stirred me, reading about the different ways that people connect to God. In the chapter 'Ceremonial Costumes' it asks why some are drawn to costume or ceremonial clothing as a form of worship, and I loved the answer: 'Perhaps because it is a means of tangibly breaking out of everyday routine to mark, through texture and color, an entrance into sacred space.'

At the beginning of the 'Centering Prayer' chapter, there is a quote by Thomas Keating that says: 'We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words, but this is only one expression. Deep prayer is the laying aside of thoughts. It is the opening of mind and heart and body and feelings-our whole being-to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond word, thoughts and emotions.'

There are many prayer practices presented in the book and I loved reading about them and thinking about them. At the end of each chapter, there is a small section of suggestions for beginning the exploration, which gives you some things to think on or activities to try.

~Namaste~

Fifty prayer practices are explored in The Way We Pray, revealing the many different forms and types of prayers which cross cultures and the ceremonies which range from food and tea ceremonies to costumed festivals. From icons to prayer symbols and devices, The Way We Pray will prove interesting to a wide audience.

I apoligize in advance for giving this book three stars, but in my collection it's a three, this is only because I prefer books with a little more meat. However, as a resource tool, and an introductory book, this is a great book. Oman Shannon covers over 50 different prayer practices, and covers them in a way that make them easy to understand and she offers suggestions at the end of each chapter on how to incorporate them into your daily life. This allows a person to start thinking about how prayer can be adapted into your own life.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a great introduction to prayer practices, or a great personal reference tool for thier academic or personal conquests.

Maggie Oman Shannon makes the path of devotion seem so desirable, rewarding and even fun. I enjoyed reading about all the different prayer practices that I have heard of but know little about like prayer bowls, tea ceromonies, and prayer dancing.

Maggie demystifies all the different ways to pray and makes them more accessible while also educating the reader to the origins or traditional ways of using these prayer practices while also sharing how you can modify certain practices and make them your own. I found this book both interesting and informative while at the same time very uplifting.