How to Pray
This book was commissioned by the Carmelite publishing house in Prague as a pocket book sized introduction to prayer. In forty chapters of no more than four hundred words each, this incredible little work introduces the reader to the essential teaching on prayer as detailed in the Christian mystical tradition from the beginning, to the works of St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross and beyond. It is not just a theoretical work, but it teaches how to start praying – beginning now! In the words of Fr Brendon Thomas OSB- -‘This book is a little gem of sane and sound advice. No wonder it has already been translated into 12 different languages.
Reviews for How to Pray
This book would be helpful for beginners at personal prayer (and aren’t we all, really?), for those who find themselves in a spiritual rut, or for those with experience in seeking God’s Face who are ready to go deeper. The chapters are short, which lends itself to devotional reading, but there is enough meat in the content to inspire some hours of meditation. At the end, a short order of morning and evening prayer is included for those of us who need a jump-start into the presence of God. All in all, a magnificent book!
David Torkington has a great gift for telling a story. You are gripped by the tale and this makes you want to race ahead to learn how it all ends. But during the unfolding of the story he gives profound insights about prayer, explaining its mysteries in such a clear and succinct way. These passages makes one slow down, read again, ponder, sift and try to make them one’s own. This masterpiece has been compelling reading and I was fascinated by the human story. I was also enriched by the easy way deep truths were explained making the book, not just entertaining, but profoundly instructive.
It’s the best practical and mystical guide I have read in these many years as director of Spiritual Exercises, publisher, author and Christian who desires to learn how to pray.
I ws absolutely thrilled to read How to Pray and feel sure it will have a tremendous impact, not only in my country and in Europe, but in the rest of the world.
It is a happy surprise to find a book that coincides with your own wandering and even discovers new paths. |It should be essential reading for anyone who wants to know how to pray.
With remarkable ease Torkington convinces us that everyone can make prayer permeate our bloodstream and thus immerse us permanently in God at every moment of our existence.
This little book is a little gem of sane and sound advice. With his utterly practical teaching David Torkington gently encourages us back to spiritual health.
Torkington’s views on prayer and spirituality are based on the thoughts of the Desert Fathers, Dom John Chapman, Bernard Basset, SJ, St. Augustine, Martin Buber and others. Torkington is a master of prayer. His engrossing style masks the depth of his practical advice and specifics about many forms of prayer from the traditional to the new.