bickleyhouse's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book as part of the Renovare Book Club for 2019-2020.
I had previously read Griffin's book, Clinging: The Experience of Prayer, and was thrilled to see that we would be reading another of her books during this book club season.
Doors Into Prayer is a small book, only 119 pages in paperback form. But this was intentional, as the author says she was trying to come up with a sort of pocketbook, one that could be carried around without being inconvenient.
The "chapters" are very brief. In fact, that probably shouldn't even be called chapters. They are, in fact, considered to be "invitations," and each one is less than three pages, many of them being only a single page.
There are two sections of the book. The first, and larger, section is called "Invitations," and consists of 91 invitations or "doors" to help us pray. Carolyn Arends, one of the directors of Renovare, even said that she likens this book to a large Advent calendar. You know the ones . . . they have all these little doors on them, and behind each one is a surprise (the best ones are chocolate!), and you open one each day during the Advent season. I believe Carolyn makes a good point, as this book doesn't need to be read sequentially. One could easily pick up the book and turn to a random invitation and launch a prayer time with it.
The invitations have titles like "Emergencies," "Wonder," "Longing," "Structure," and so on. I really like something she said in the "Emergencies" invitation. " "If we pray in emergencies, and only then, we can hardly say we have a relationship to God. But the prayer of emergencies tells us, without question, that such a relationship is possible."
There are many, many nuggets of wisdom throughout this little book, all inspiring us to pray, not necessarily more, but certainly better.
The second, shorter, section consists of five exercises to be used to help us along our way. These range in length from twenty minutes to an hour or more. They are very helpful, as well.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is seeking a better path in their prayer life.
I had previously read Griffin's book, Clinging: The Experience of Prayer, and was thrilled to see that we would be reading another of her books during this book club season.
Doors Into Prayer is a small book, only 119 pages in paperback form. But this was intentional, as the author says she was trying to come up with a sort of pocketbook, one that could be carried around without being inconvenient.
The "chapters" are very brief. In fact, that probably shouldn't even be called chapters. They are, in fact, considered to be "invitations," and each one is less than three pages, many of them being only a single page.
There are two sections of the book. The first, and larger, section is called "Invitations," and consists of 91 invitations or "doors" to help us pray. Carolyn Arends, one of the directors of Renovare, even said that she likens this book to a large Advent calendar. You know the ones . . . they have all these little doors on them, and behind each one is a surprise (the best ones are chocolate!), and you open one each day during the Advent season. I believe Carolyn makes a good point, as this book doesn't need to be read sequentially. One could easily pick up the book and turn to a random invitation and launch a prayer time with it.
The invitations have titles like "Emergencies," "Wonder," "Longing," "Structure," and so on. I really like something she said in the "Emergencies" invitation. " "If we pray in emergencies, and only then, we can hardly say we have a relationship to God. But the prayer of emergencies tells us, without question, that such a relationship is possible."
There are many, many nuggets of wisdom throughout this little book, all inspiring us to pray, not necessarily more, but certainly better.
The second, shorter, section consists of five exercises to be used to help us along our way. These range in length from twenty minutes to an hour or more. They are very helpful, as well.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is seeking a better path in their prayer life.
rockinrev's review
3.0
Griffin has put together a quick primer on prayer for those who wish to discover a wider variety of prayer. I did not find a lot of new or unique takes on practices of praying. For someone well-versed in spiritual practices there is not a lot to recommend. The book includes five prayer experiences at the conclusion that were the most helpful to me. I will likely use them in the future.
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