A new translation of Father Rahner's book on prayer. Karl Rahner stands in a long line of great Christian theologians who were likewise great teachers of prayer. He has been called the voice of Vatican II, and is acknowledged as the rare theologian whose writings speak to the ordinary" Christian. In The Need and the Blessing of Prayer , Father Rahner views the human person as essentially one called to prayer. He also highlights prayer as the act of human existence, the great religious act. By encouraging people to "pray in the everyday" - to pray regardless of the desire or mood of the moment - Rahner's theology of the prayer of everyday life challenges us to surrender ourselves to God so that God dwells at the very center of our lives. The eight chapters of The Need and the Blessing of Prayer were originally sermons that Rahner gave during Lent 1946 at St. Michal's Church in Munich, Germany. This work has been reprinted often throughout its thirty-year history, testifying to its enduring message. For as Father Rahner wrote in the first edition, "If we are not supposed to cease praying, then perhaps one shouldn't cease speaking about prayer." Chapters are "Opening Our Hearts," "The Helper-Spirit," "The Prayer of Love," "Prayer in the Everyday," "The Prayer of Need," "Prayers of Consecration, "The Prayer of Guilt," and "Prayers of Decision." "
Reviews with the most likes.
I read this for class. Most of it I read twice. I am not going to do a full post on it. I am mixed. There are some good things here. Contextually, these were sermons given at the end of WWII in Germany before the real relief effort at the end of the war started and so the discussion of prayer in that context adds to the interest of the book.
That being said, this is mystical, and frankly, mystical books that are trying to speak of divine things with human language. And that is often difficult to process. Many individual phrases or sections are helpful. Many other things that are difficult to understand what he is getting at.
Part of the reality of prayer is that we can spend a lot of time talking about it and not much time doing it. And he ends the books with this line, “In the final analysis, talking about prayer doesn't matter, rather, only the worlds that we ourselves say to God.”
I am glad I read it. I need to write a short paper about it. I am mixed about whether I recommend it or not. In some ways, I might recommend this paper by Egan about Rahner instead https://www.theway.org.uk/back/522egan.pdf
