Be Still and Know: A Study in the Life of Prayer

Michael Ramsey, the 100 Archbishop of Canterbury, has given us an important contemporary guide to the understanding and the practice of prayer. Based primarily upon his concept of "converse," Ramsey leads us into a deeper understanding of prayer. I have found Know and Be Still important in my own prayer life and I am using it as the base for a series of sermons on prayer during this season of Pentecost. Highly recommended. The Rev'd Dr. Bob Seney

Who needs to learn how to pray? Is it not the most natural thing in the world? Yet still I would recommend Ramsey's book, because of its deep insights into the nature of prayer.

This volume is one of several shorter works among Archbishop Ramsey's many writings. Michael Ramsey was archbishop of Canterbury from 1961 to 1974. Ramsey wrote about F.D. Maurice, he wrote a biblical study of the Holy Spirit, an illuminating history of Anglican Christian spirituality entitled The Anglican Spirit, and provided a remarkable articulation of Anglican ecclesiology in The Gospel and The Catholic Church. The latter, 72 years later in 2008, remains acutely wise as a "spirituality of Church" for the contemporary Anglican communion. It is clear in many of his writings that he was influenced by Evelyn Underhill's teachings on the Christian spiritual tradition, as it is also clear in Rowan Williams' writings how he has been influenced by Ramsey. Those who knew him write frequently of Ramsey as a holy person. (see Douglas Dales, ed. Glory Descending: Michael Ramsey and His Writings.) Be Still and Know can certainly serve as an introduction to the life of prayer by a humble and dedicated authority who was a church leader in our own lifetimes. For those who find themselves yearning for genuine spiritual leadership, he is a teacher to listen to and learn from. He nearly always ends up writing pastorally, which also says something vital about his theology and ecclesiology. This book may be compared with Merton's defining work on the same themes, Contemplative Prayer written in 1967. Like any books about this subject, the value of their wisdom is best known through the reader's own practice of prayer. Ramsey divides the book into two sections; the first a study of prayer as taught by Jesus, Paul, and John. He also looks at prayer from the frame of transfiguration and through the perspective of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Of this letter he writes: "The imagery of holding to a reality which is unseen can mean much amidst the meaningless chaos of the world which we do see." His writing about transfiguration can often be seen repeated in the writing and ministry of Desmond Tutu. In the second section he introduces the path of Christian prayer which moves toward contemplative prayer. He writes of the English mystics (The Cloud of Unknowing, Rolle, Hilton and Julian), and offers reviews of the works of Theresa of Avila and John of the Cross. He focuses chapters on penitence and the communion of the saints. He offers the concise comments and summaries of one who has a lifetime of pondering these classics and their practices. He says "a world frightening in its speed and noise is a world where silence alone may enable humanity's true freedom to be found. . . It matters greatly for the renewal of the Christian Church that the contemplative vocation be more known and recovered." When you read Underhill, Temple, Ramsey and Williams, you have entered the long and deep main stream of Christian spirituality, flowing from both the Western tradition and, most especially in Ramsey, the spirituality of Eastern Orthodoxy. If you haven't yet, soak yourself