From the Stone Age to Thomas Merton: A Short History of Contemplative Prayer

This is a book about prayer, about Christian prayer, about Christian contemplative or meditative prayer as a way of simply being in the loving presence of God. It begins with prayer as that natural sense of the divine, what has been known for centuries as the sensus divinitatis, that consciousness of the mystery of God that is in each of us from the time of our birth. There are many ways of praying, and they all tend toward contemplation or "mysticism." That is, toward heightening our conscious connection to God, our awareness of the love of God, our wakefulness to the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in us, through us, and around us. By tracing the origins of contemplative prayer, its practice through the Old and New Testament Scriptures, then across the centuries of the Christian era to the contemporary world, it is hoped that the reader will develop a keener appreciation for the depth, beauty, and richness of the Christian spiritual tradition.