How to Pray Always

By Raoul Plus

Book Overview

"The Catholic answer to Harry Potter": that's what Catholic Exchange called Darby O'Gill and the Good People . . . and it's no wonder!Written a century ago, these charmingly illustrated Irish tales recount scampish Darby's O'Gill's wild and improbable adventures with fairies, leprechauns, ghosts, a banshee, a headless coachman, and his friend, Brian Connors, the King of the Fairies himself!What's Catholic about that?Well, Darby is Catholic, for one thing, as is his shrewish wife Bridget along with their six children. And then there's brave Fr. Cassidy, their parish priest, who is wary of Darby's friendship with the King of the Fairies.Father claims the king is a friend of Satan, so he resolves to read prayers over the king to banish him into the sea. Before the prayers begin, the king and Fr. Cassidy debate, with noise and much wit, ultimately finding, as do all good Irishmen, that more unites than divides them: "I came yer inemy, " says Fr. Cassidy as he leaves, "but I'm convarted. I'll go back,yer friend."You'll also learn the rest of the story about the war in heaven between the good and bad angels! When the fairies refused to choose sides, St. Michael cast them out of heaven. Down, down they fell until they landed on the Emerald Isle, where they still live in mischief today, never really having chosen good or evil.Darby O'Gill and the Good People: charming Irish Catholic tales to delight children and grownups alike!

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1929291167
• ISBN13: 9781929291168
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Roman Catholic Books
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.

Customer Reviews

How to Pray Always

This is an excellent book for one who is trying to learn to pray in the "worldly" existence we live in.

Refreshing

If you want to reenergize your prayer life, this is an excellent book to read and meditate on. It will certainly breath life into personal devotions if read seriously.

Just what the title says

Fr. Plus's goal is to provide guidance and inspiration for lay people who which to take seriously the biblical admonition to "pray without ceasing" (I Thess 5:17). The message of this book can be summarized in three principles: 1. It is psychologically impossible to focus on God (or any other idea) continually, without interruption, throughout our day. 2. It is more important that our will be aligned with God's, that we do all we can do for His glory, than it is to think directly about God. 3. It is very beneficial to think of God as often as possible throughout the day. The rest of the book unpacks these principles and attempts to provide guidance in their application. The book starts with the very encouraging observation that, except for cases of direct supernatural intervention by God (as seen in the life of St. Theresa of Avila), no one case "pray without ceasing" if the only meaning of "prayer" is to consciously be directing thoughts to God. Our human nature is not made up in such a way that we can concentrate on a single topic without break. Additionally, even if we could, we would not be able to function in life in such a state. The many demands of our duties could not be performed. Fr. Plus then observes that it is much better to have our will in alignment with God's will then to have our thoughts consciously directed to God. If we are doing whatever we are doing with the goal to please God, we are offering it up as a prayer even if we can not think directly of God while we are acting. We are consciously doing what He wishes us to do, and that is prayer. My first thought in this was relief: Hey, if we can't focus directly on God 100% of the time, then we don't need to worry that much about prayer. But Fr. Plus makes it very clear that doing everything we do in life to please God is no small task. It calls for a complete renunciation of our own will. There is much more to write but, ironically, duty calls. I strongly recommend this book.

The Secret of the Rosary

This is a wonderful book about the power of the rosary, and many stories about conversions that have happened because of it. This book should be read by anyone who wants to know more about the rosary, and how to use it properly. I strongly recommend this book to anyone, you will not be sorry you bought it!