The Word Is Very Near You: A Guide to Praying With Scripture

Rating:
Summary: a helpful guide to meditative prayer
Review: Our adult Christian formation (Christian education in some churches)class has been using this book for a series of discussions and practice in meditative prayer. All participants seem to like the author's style of writing and to find something useful in the text. We also keep hearing that it is worth re-reading and keeping on hand to refer to again and again.

The author, Martin Smith, SSJE, is an Episcopalian and superior of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. He explains in a clear and personal manner different approaches to prayer using scripture as the basis. Some in our group are used to putting Old Testament lessons into story form for the child-friendly service at our church and like the chapter on putting one's self into a Bible story (a participant at the Last Supper, a witness to the Crucifixion, the woman at the well, Martha or Mary preparing dinner for the Lord or sitting at his feet to hear him speak,etc.) Others benefit from trying to focus on a word or phrase or short sentence from the Bible as the center of a meditative prayer session. Still others tried focusing on a symbol or image which has importance in scripture (water, tongues of fire, staff, shepherd, oil for lighting lamps, etc.) We are next going to try a group meditation. For individuals or groups seeking an enriched prayer experience, this book is recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Uniquely helpful
Review: This book was recommended (and loaned)to me by my pastor, and I rapidly decided that I needed my own copy. It provides instruction on a number of different kinds of prayer that can be done using scripture that is clear, succinct and helpful, but it also provides a lot more than that. The introduction has a good discussion on the hows and whys of scriptural prayer, and the back of the book has extensive lists of scripture readings broken into topical sections so that those who are fairly new to studying the bible, can nonetheless find appropriate passages for in depth prayer on a variety of topics. Highly recommended for anyone interested in increasing the depth of their prayer life.