The Phenomenology of Prayer pages 1-29

From reading these 29 pages the author goes into detail on how to pray and how prayer has a deeper meaning than just the action of doing so. Prayer is private and is an act of an inner I. I have also learned that silence is an important part of prayer. "Even though God speaks in silence, there is a voice we hear" (Benson and Wirzba, 20). When I pray I tend to talk a lot, and instead I need to be silent for a moment. The author also mentions how prayer is a task of a lifetime, meaning that you have to work at it and that it needs to be a consistent act everyday and even multiple times a day. Prayer also tends to help develop ourselves. I learned that in prayer its not only about the connection to the Divine, but prayer is also about us. We often pray about our struggles in life and from that prayer we hope to find meaning. The authors also go into detail about the difference between knowledge and wisdom as well.

Benson, Bruce Ellis, and Norman Wirzba. The Phenomenology of Prayer. Fordham University Press, 200

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