Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness

This book is really one of a kind. It gives comfort when you most need it. This was one of the only books I read after my husband passed away that made me feel more hopeful. The author, Br. Steindl-Rast has a spiritual sense that you can feel and its almost as if he is speaking directly to you. I have purchased several copies of this book for friends and relatives over the years and would recommend it to anyone who really wants to locate their own spirtuality.

For some reason I am finding this a hard read, it is taking me a while to get through it. I am enjoying it though.

One of the things I first noticed about this book on being grateful is that it has sold many thousands of copies. Mine says, on the cover, "65,000 in print." That's a kind of best seller on a subject by a monk, a contemplative, and promises along the way by its subtitle the inviting phrase, "An Approach to Life in Fullness." There is a demand for living a good life, and one way is living a life of being grateful to God and having a heart of prayer, the book's main theme. There are probably many reasons for the numerous readers of this work, including the fact that Brother David Steindl-Rast is a kind of hero in the retreat and talking world, a feat not to be belittled, for I came to know him by a tape I found meaningful: "We Dare to Say Our Father." Brother David is a Benedictine, and I have a reading list and a source for Benedictine books from the monastery New Camaldoli, Big Sur, California which I follow religiously. So you can say, I am reading required material. This is a good thing, for this book is a required text for Christians interested in the ideas of blessing and giving thanks to God, and in coming to some understandings about prayer which Brother David says, as quoted on the back cover, "God's will be done" I agree with the back cover statement, we are dependent on God's mercy. That is a religious thing to say, and this is a book for people interested in religious topics and understandings. I think that you will find this a book on prayerfulness, too; that is one chapter title, "Prayers and Prayerfulness." I can think about this quote for a while, good advice from a man with a sense of proportion and humor: "Are my prayers a genuine expression of my prayerfulness? Do they make me more prayerful?" The danger with reviewing this book is one is taken with the author, and wants to know more. He is a monk, and that is a mysterious thing, somewhat special to many people. The reader does meet the monk and the man in this book, his personality. Though at times a seemingly surface book of suggestions, like this one, "Most of us need a good deal of encouragement for giving. The way we are built (or, rather, forced into a warped shape by our society) the taking takes care of itself. It might be a good test if you checked for half an hour how often you say 'I take' and how often 'I give.'" He writes this in the chapter "Contemplation and Leisure." But the message, by its context, becomes enlarged. One is to pay attention to living the Christian life in the ordinary, during the day and in doing so be grateful for the things of your day and the life that has been granted. He believes, convincingly, "Thanksgiving, blessing, praise, all three belong to gratefulness." Gratefulness is an acquired taste, so he says. "The banquet of life is the challenge to cultivate and broaden our taste." Because I have heard Brother David talk on the tape I suggest, his style and his "voice" come through all the more. This is a book written in a voice, a genu

I've only read this book once through so far, and I can tell it will be a book to read again and again. On a first read, the chapter on faith and beliefs spoke to me most - I've shared Brother David's ideas about what it REALLY means to "live by every word that comes from the mouth of God" with several friends already. Great book!

You can tell from reading this book that the author is gentle and sincere, and that his life reflects the values and insights he shares here. I first read this book around 1994, and it is the most dog-eared of my books. I have almost the whole thing underlined. By refusing to get bogged down in theoretical disputes or definitions, and instead focusing on the bone of the Christian experience (love, hope, and faith), Brother David has given us a book filled with the Holy Spirit. His exploration of the spiritual significance of being open to life's little surprises is a big surprise (I've never heard that mentioned as a Christian value before), and one which points to a spiritual life in alert response to God's constant lovingkindness. There is no doctrine or dogma here, which is why I think it will endure...and also why I keep coming back to it myself.