Prayer Primer: Igniting a Fire Within

by Thomas Dubay

Book Overview

Fr. Thomas Dubay, a renowned teacher and writer on prayer and the spiritual life, presents a simple, profound and practical book on the most important of all human activities, communion with God.

Prayer Primer is written for intelligent adults (and teenagers) who want God and a serious prayer life, but it does not presuppose that they need or have a theological background. It does take up many questions rarely answered adequately in the classroom...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898708400
• ISBN13: 9780898708400
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Length: 185 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

People who quote the Bible as flowing from them with power

This book reminds me of buying a whole big tray of baklava and it is all sweet around. You can't say, I would rather choose this over that. It is all sweet. The author has a sweet spirit about him. He is so knowledgeable in the Bible. He is by no means a "Bible thumper", Lord have mercy on them! This author, Thomas Dubay, is saturated in the Bible and you taste the Bible with him in a fresh way and can't help but feel a fire indeed within you, that yearning for the Lord, intimacy with the Almighty that fills our void of heart. There are passages that Dubay quotes and it feels like I am reading them for the first time when they sounded before as mere preaching at my poor soul and I don't like to be preached to or talked at when it comes to spirituality. I enjoyed what he had to say on Isaiah 55: 1-3, Isaiah 26: 9, Psalms 42: 2-3 Psalm 63: 1 and 62: 1. You can quote the Bible all day long but unless it is flowing from you and it manifests the power of the living, it can be mere vain repetition, blah blah blah, yawn! Fr Dubay makes a beautiful statement on these verses of the Word of God and says, "The inspired writer knows thta God must be our consuming concern, for pursuing him, adoring him, loving him, being immersed in him can alone profoundly delight and fill us. Fr Dubay has taught me a verse from the Bible I never read before and it is in Ezekiel 16: 13 and 14: {14 The fame of your beauty spread through the nations, since it was perfect, because I had clothed you with my own splendour -- declares the Lord Yahweh.} We all want to be beautiful. His will for us us to be "perfect in beauty". That beauty is not from us. Psalm 149:4 For Yahweh loves his people, he will crown (or beautify) the humble with salvation. Fr Dubay answers the question we often ask about reaching the fulness of our manhood by quoting Henri du Lubac as saying that man is truly man only when the light of God is reflected in a face upturned in prayer. As long as the Lord is shining upon us with His face as we gaze on Him, we are certainly going to shine beautifully and His beauty will be seen by everybody who comes in contact with us. Atheists and Agnostics will not be persuaded by our arguments or human reasoning but they will look on us and see our faces and how much beauty of Christ they radiate. This is what it will take to attract people to the Christian message, never our supposed ability to persuade. Without the Lord we are empty, the self is all we have. We come to the Lord and give up our self-centredness, we, thus, attain the Lord of the universe and all else with Him. We get everything. The Lord fills the hungry with good things as the Mother of our Lord says. We are hungry, empty and He fils us up. He alone satisfies the heart, like no other. To be filled by Him we have to be empty of ourselves, empty of the self. On page 33, Fr Dubay says, God is (not simply, has) pures, unending love (1John 4:8). People in Islam may try to convince me that love is there in t

Father Dubay has a gift for writing

Father Dubay has a gift for writing - it keeps you awake, without the use of any gimmicks. This book is inspiring, authoritative, and gentle. Interesting from beginning to end.

Prayer Made easy

This is a superb book. It is easy to understand but is also deep. The explanations of our need for communicating with God through prayer are logical and inspiring. If you want to improve and deepen your prayer life--Buy it ,you'll like it!

Excellent Book

This book is intended for the intelligent person who considers him/herself a beginner in prayer. It introduces the various types of prayer in a very understandable manner. Those who are familiar with Thomas DuBay already know that he is a wholehearted Christian who does not let society set the bar for his teachings. Those who are interested in persuing the Christian life with vigor should pick up this book or "Happy Are You Poor," another very thought provoking book.

Great Book on Prayer

What is prayer? Why do we pray? Is all prayer the same? These are questions that many people do not know, or maybe do not even wonder about, yet it is so important. All Christians pray, or ought to, and this book explains the basics of it. Whether you feel a need to enhance your prayer life, or whether you are just curious about what you never were taught on the subject, this book makes an excellent read. I believe this book would be greatly beneficial for any Christian. It is filled with scriptural references throughout, as well as references to other sources such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and others by Dubay. It reads very fast, and one may feel inclined to read more on the subject, but the book gives you all you need to get going in the right direction, which is the most important thing. Very orthodox, by an expert on prayer, this book is a great read for Catholics. It would undoubtedly be of great use to protestants as well.