Book Review - The Words We Pray, Welborn

Amy takes a fresh look into traditional Catholic prayers & arrives at some surprising conclusions about how these ancient words can & should resonate with Catholics today.

From the Sign of the Cross, though the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Credo, Salve Regina, the Jesus Prayer, Anima Christi, Memorare, Suscipe, Benedictus, Gloria Patri, & others, ending with Amen: all were forged in the crucible of the Faithful’s desire to call upon God & the struggle to live up to the calling. Every one of us experiences the same hopes, joys, & needs expressed by these prayers; & just as important, we don’t offer them alone, but in unison with countless saints through the ages who prayed them, too. They ground us in something bigger than our own subjective & necessarily limited experience of faith.

Amy provides some really interesting historical background on the origins & development of these prayers, but also some great examples from her own experience. This is a wonderfully edifying book in a day when the patrimony of so great a cloud of witnesses who have gone before us is so readily discarded in favor of the liturgical & spiritual novelty de jour. There are a lot of prayer books, but not too many approachable & engaging books about prayers & praying, especially from a point of view deeply rooted in the two-millenia old - & on-going - tradition of the Church.

H.E. Rating:

4 aspergillum shakes