Twenty-Third Publications
The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer
The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer
This simple little book from a great spiritual giant attends to what we human beings are most inclined to forget, preparing for and engaging in prayer. It is an examination of what we ourselves must bring to the discipline of prayer–whatever form it takes–in order to make prayer authentic and real, a deep and profound part of our lives. None of the brief reflections in this book is ever finished, ever closed, ever fully resolved. They are all steps along the way, steps we retrace over and over again as we do all the other parts of life, until they become the very breath we breathe, the vision and energy of our souls. This is great spiritual reading for every person who longs for prayer to be the very breath of his or her soul.
What Readers Say...
“For people like me, in search of intelligent, sensitive, and subtle guides on the road to a deeper prayer life, this book is an extraordinary gift.”
-Mary Gordon, best-selling novelist
Reader Resources
Read an Excerpt
Prayer forms are a good thing to cultivate in the spiritual life. They give structure to our prayer life. A prayer form tells us how to sit when we pray. It tells us what to say and how to say it—or better yet, perhaps, what not to say and how not to sit.
Prayer forms are designed to calm us down when we’re too agitated to concentrate. They center us in the midst of the natural distractions and noise of life. In many cases, they even provide the content that a soul that is dry or weary or perturbed simply cannot always provide for itself. They fill the emptiness that sets in when prayer becomes just one more effort I have too little energy to make.
No doubt about it: prayer forms are part of the superstructure of a serious prayer life. But they are not everything. Prayer is a great deal more than simply the way we pray or even the prayers we pray.
The everything of a deep and demanding prayer life is awareness and acceptance of the self. No rosary, no icon, no prayer corner can supply for the raw material of prayer, which is the self-knowledge that cements the relationship between the self and God.
To grow spiritually I cannot hide—even from myself. I must pray for self-knowledge, for the searing honesty that, with the grace of God, can bring me to the heart of God.
Self-knowledge saves us from ourselves.
Discussion Questions
Engage in meaningful discussions, think critically, and explore deeper insights with these thought-provoking questions.