Courage to Pray

Publication Data: Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 123
Dimensions (l × w × h): 21.6 cm × 14.1 cm × 0.9 cm
ISBN 13: 978‒0‒88141‒031‒0
ISBN: 0‒88141‒031‒4

   
Metropolitan Anthony Bloom & Georges LeFebvre OSB
translated by Dinah Livingstone

“Prayer is the search for God, encounter with God, and going beyond this encounter in communion. Thus it is an activity, a state and also a situation; a situation both with respect to God and to the created world. It arises from the awareness that the world in which we live is not simply two dimensional, imprisoned in the categories of time and space, a flat world in which we meet only the surface of things, an opaque surface covering emptiness. Prayer is born of the discovery that the world has depths; that we are not only surrounded by visible things but that we are also immersed in and penetrated by invisible things. And this invisible world is both the presence of God, the supreme, sublime reality, and our own deepest truth.”
—“A DISCOVERY”

CONTENTS

Part I: Courage to Pray by Metropolitan Anthony
   A discovery
   A triple relationship
   Encounter
   As through a glass darkly
   The nature of this encounter
   Seeing
   Hearing
   Humility and obedience
   Obedience and love
   An eye purified to judge
   The experience of a staretz
   It is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God
   Let me know myself
   Let me know you
   The absence of God
   Bartimaeus
   Prayer in tumult
   The stilling of the storm
   Constant prayer
   The role of ascesis
   The consolation of the scriptures
   Bearing with ourselves
   God’s silence and man’s silence
   The search for silence
   Prayer and our neighbour
   Intercession
   Nathalie in Christ
   The Intercession of Christ
   The image of the mother of Jesus
   The church is a mystery of encounter
   The living and the dead
   The saints
   Liturgical prayer
Part II: Lord Stay With Us by Georges LeFebvre OSB
   INTRODUCTION
   1. NEVER ALONE
   Losing oneself
   A communion
   In our humble condition
   2. HUMBLE LOVE
   In faith
   Be humble ‘with’ God
   Needing another
   3. LEARNING TO BELIEVE
   He who loves us
   The humility of faith
   With Christ
   4. KNOWING WE ARE LOVED
   An amazing love
   Loving is belonging
   The simplicity of faith
   Love which unites us
   Love which satisfies us
   Love which sets us free
   5. SIMPLICITY AND FREEDOM
   Boundless love
   United by God’s love
   In the light of faith
   6. LORD I HAVE NO ONE BUT YOU
   A guiding love
   A merciful love
   An infinite love
   He who is everything to us
   Humble confidence
   Be obedient
   The silence of faith
   Knowing we are loved
   7. THE GIFT OF GOD’S PRESENCE
   In God’s presence
   Respect for the mystery
   God looks on us with love
   Total acceptance
   He in whom we believe
   Total trust
   He who speaks to our heart
   8. A MYSTERY OF GRACE
   God’s close presence
   The secret language of our heart
   A listening heart
   A communion of faith and love
   9. THE EYES OF FAITH
   Our inmost self
   A mystery of grace
   A close presence
   The freedom of love
   Alive with Christ
   CONCLUSION