{"id":577,"date":"2018-03-13T21:11:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T01:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/practicalresourcesforchurches.wordpress.com\/?p=577"},"modified":"2023-10-07T19:14:39","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T23:14:39","slug":"a-devotional-for-hesitant-pray-ers-holy-ground-an-alphabet-of-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/2018\/03\/13\/a-devotional-for-hesitant-pray-ers-holy-ground-an-alphabet-of-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Ground: An Alphabet of Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s no shortage of devotionals available. Search for them on Amazon and you\u2019ll find ones for women, men, girls, boys, teens, and even animal lovers. Some of these encourage us to \u201cclaim\u201d the promises in the Bible and realize the power of prayer to get us what we\u2019re entitled to. Julie K. Aageson\u2019s book, Holy Ground: An Alphabet of Prayer<\/a>, <\/em>is nothing like those devotionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holy Ground <\/em>is for those of us who are still trying to figure out prayer but are pray-ers none the less. Aageson is someone who has spent her life in ministry but says this about how she felt when invited to write a monthly column for a denominational magazine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I was at once both honored and terrified. The column\u2019s title, Let Us Pray<\/em>, conveyed certain assumptions I was not at all sure about \u2013 did they think I had prayer all figured out? Did they assume I was a disciplined prayer-er, perhaps one of those \u201cprayer warriors\u201d I\u2019d heard about? Did they have any idea how much I struggle with praying, with knowing how to talk to God, listen to God? Did they know of my doubts and skepticism about much of Christian life?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Reading those words in the introduction to the book, I felt as though I\u2019d found a kindred spirit. That realization was reinforced when the author mentioned Richard Rohr and his admonition that \u201cprayer is not primarily words but a place, an attitude, a stance \u2013 and that for Jesus, prayer seems to be a matter of waiting in love, returning to love, and trusting that love is the unceasing stream of reality.\u201d Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reflections in Holy Ground<\/em> are based on words from A to Z and include topics such as beauty, enthusiasm, imagination, mindfulness, stillness, and wonder. As Aageson notes, the reflections are \u201cnot meant to be a theological or biblical description of prayer\u201d but rather her \u201cwrestling with a God who makes the ordinary holy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In writing about mindfulness, the author contrasts her Muslim friends\u2019 practice of set times of daily prayer with her own multi-tasking lifestyle. Yet, she is aware that \u201cto be present simply with silence is a sacred act of prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are questions after each reflection; these could be used by individuals during their devotional time, by a group studying the book, as a program opening activity, or for a retreat. If Holy Ground <\/em>speaks to you, be sure to check out Aageson\u2019s earlier book titled Benedictions: 26 Reflections<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no shortage of devotionals available. Search for them on Amazon and you\u2019ll find ones for women, men, girls, boys, teens, and even animal lovers. Some of these encourage us to \u201cclaim\u201d the promises in the Bible and realize the power of prayer to get us what we\u2019re entitled to. Julie K. Aageson\u2019s book, Holy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[452],"tags":[326,327,390],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review-blog","tag-holy-ground","tag-holy-ground-an-alphabet-of-prayer","tag-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10381,"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions\/10381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prcli.org\/staging\/3075\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}