MaryKate Morse is professor of leadership and spiritual formation at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and serves as a consultant to churches and organizations in transition or with leadership challenges. In addition, she is a Quaker minister, a trained spiritual director, and does conference and retreat ministries. In this handy and well-organized paperback, Morse presents 24 different ways to pray organized under three sections: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
As evidenced throughout the paperback, the author has a gift for finding quotations that enhance the text. Here are two which grace the start of her Introduction:
"The root of all prayer, and indeed all life itself, is desire for God. All things are made to desire God.:
— Roberta Bondi
"The difference between talking about prayer and praying is the same as the difference between blowing a kiss and kissing."
— G. K. Chesterton
This guidebook is set up to be used by groups, partners, or individuals. It also contains responses to the prayer practices by Morse's former students. We were especially taken with Blessing Prayer: God as Loving-Kindness; Prayer in Play: Jesus as Love; Conversational Prayer: The Holy Spirit as Companion; Watch Prayer: The Holy Spirit as Power; and Rejoice Prayer: The Holy Spirit as Joy.
Morse demonstrates the human instinct for prayer and the multiple ways people can reach out to the Divine. Try some of these devotional practices for yourself and see how they feel.
