Encountering the Depths: Prayer, Solitude, and Contemplation (Paperback)

by Mother Mary Clare (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Mother Mary Clare... gifts her readers with common sense, maturity, and traditional wisdom..." -- Book Shelf, Review for Religious, November/December 1995

Product Description
Mother Mary Clare explores the art of spiritual living through a natural and open--though traditional--approach, unlocking the largely forgotten secrets of emptiness, listening, silence, surrender, joy and service.

Product Details

• Paperback: 84 pages
• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing (May 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819216399
• ISBN-13: 978-0819216397
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #557,690 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book true to its title, June 17, 2000

By	matt (the reading room) - See all my reviews

"Prayer is the gateway to the vision of God for which we were created. It is the means for free and conscious intercourse between the creature and his creator, and it expresses the union between the two. It is the art of spiritual living, and it will be incomplete if it includes only the presence of God without the presence of man."

This is a book about the nature and practice of prayer for the serious Christian, lay and clerical, in which the problems of the spiritual life in the modern world are presented as a challenge. Mother Mary Clare, who was one of the Anglican Church's leading spiritual directors, takes the major contemplative themes and brings to them her unique belnd of spiritual realism, vision and authority. Prayer begins and ends in the inescapable necessity of a relationship with God; the dimension of silence reveals that prayer is not only an action but a still contemplation; the path of spiritual progress is to discern in the union of action and contemplation a deeper listening which leads to an apostolate of prayer renewing the action of contemplation. It is all God's work.

Bishop Ramsey writes in his Foreward: "I hope this little book will have many readers, as I am sure it will help them as it has helped me...Christian lives which know contemplation will be lives nearer the love of God in its outflowing stream."

Mother Mary Clare, S.L.G., was Mother General of the Anglican enclosed order of Sisters of the Love of Godfrom 1954 to 1973, having entered the religious life in 1930. Until her death in 1988, she was in much demand as a spiritual advisor and counsellor. Other books of interest may include Bishop Kallistos Ware's "The Orthodox Way"; Thomas Merton's works on prayer, all of which are helpful; the Psalms, found in any Bible; Henri Nouwen's "Compassion"; C.S. Lewis' "Letters to Malcom"; and "Beginning to Pray" by Anthony Bloom. The prayers of the Roman, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox traditions, found in their liturgical texts, are also trustworthy guides to "encountering the depths".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A solid foundation by which to make the leap of faith, May 16, 2007

By	Shawn T. Sullivan "celtic monk" (Tulsa, OK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a relative newcomer to the discpline of Christian Contemplative practice, I choose this work my Mother Mary Clare as a starting point in my journey towards a deep relationship with God. Let me say that the mere 80 some odd pages in this little book contain more depth and levels of thought than many tomes 5 times its size. Mother Mary reminds the reader of the ultimate goal of any Christian contemplative should be and must be a fuller, meaningful encounter with the God of love. Needless to say this is not a task that is to be completed overnight, not after reading one "little" book and not necessarily after years of study. However, persistance and the cultivation of what Mother calls the "true self," bowing humbly before God and not caught up in the whirlwind of externals, is a path to true essence of humanity; to touch the very face of He who created you. Action necessarily follows, as action informed by God is one of the hearts of contemplation. To be in the world but not a slave to it, that is a noble goal, and this work of the spirit will set you on a path to a higher purpose, indeed the one we were made for.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Encountering the Depths, April 11, 2004

By	matt (the reading room) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

"Prayer is the gateway to the vision of God for which we were created. It is the means for free and conscious intercourse between the creature and his creator, and it expresses the union between the two. It is the art of spiritual living, and it will be incomplete if it includes only the presence of God without the presence of man."

This is a book about the nature and practice of prayer for the serious Christian, lay and clerical, in which the problems of the spiritual life in the modern world are presented as a challenge. Mother Mary Clare, who was one of the Anglican Church's leading spiritual directors, takes the major contemplative themes and brings to them her unique belnd of spiritual realism, vision and authority. Prayer begins and ends in the inescapable necessity of a relationship with God; the dimension of silence reveals that prayer is not only an action but a still contemplation; the path of spiritual progress is to discern in the union of action and contemplation a deeper listening which leads to an apostolate of prayer renewing the action of contemplation. It is all God's work.

Bishop Ramsey writes in his Foreward: "I hope this little book will have many readers, as I am sure it will help them as it has helped me...Christian lives which know contemplation will be lives nearer the love of God in its outflowing stream."

Mother Mary Clare, S.L.G., was Mother General of the Anglican enclosed order of Sisters of the Love of Godfrom 1954 to 1973, having entered the religious life in 1930. Until her death in 1988, she was in much demand as a spiritual advisor and counsellor. Other books of interest may include Bishop Kallistos Ware's "The Orthodox Way"; Thomas Merton's works on prayer, all of which are helpful; the Psalms, found in any Bible; Henri Nouwen's "Compassion"; C.S. Lewis' "Letters to Malcom"; and "Beginning to Pray" by Anthony Bloom. The prayers of the Roman, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox traditions, found in their liturgical texts, are also trustworthy guides to "encountering the depths".