This is volume 4 of a new 8 volume set released for the Jubilee 2025, and the third I have read. All 8 volumes have the same preface from Pope Francis. Each volume is by a different author. The books were originally released in Italian, and have since been released in Europe by the CTS, and there are forthcoming edition by Our Sunday Visitor for North American Release. The original series and the CTS editions are marked as ‘Notes on Prayer’, the OSV editions the series is called ‘Exploring Prayer’. Some of the titles are different between the two editions and one even has an Americanized name for the author. My recommendation is to get the CTS editions, they are excellent. But back to this third read which is of the fourth volume.
The description of this volume states:
“Fr Paul Brendan Murray, OP writes of how four great saints learned to pray with the aim “to discover what help the great saints can offer those of us who desire to make progress in the life of prayer, but who find ourselves being constantly deflected from our purpose, our tentative efforts undermined perhaps most of all by human weakness.”
“Prayer is the breath of faith; it is its most proper expression. Like a silent cry that issues from the hearts of those who believe and entrust themselves to God.” – Pope Francis
In this fourth of eight booklets on prayer, Fr Paul Brendan Murray, OP gives an account of how four great saints of the Church learned to pray – St Augustine of Hippo, St Teresa of Avila, St Thomas Aquinas and St Thérèse of Lisieux – with the aim “to discover what help the great saints can offer those of us who desire to make progress in the life of prayer, but who find ourselves being constantly deflected from our purpose, our tentative efforts undermined perhaps most of all by human weakness.”
"The saints, it soon becomes clear, are human beings like us. That’s why they can offer people still struggling with weakness such great compassion and encouragement. However, the remarkable sanctity of their lives remains a stark, unignorable challenge to our mediocrity. In their daring, prayerful, dedicated surrender to God, they have allowed their lives to be transformed by grace, and allowed the radiance, strength, power, and beauty of Christ to shine through their human weakness."”
The chapters in this volume are:
Preface by the Pope Francis
Introduction
Augustine of Hippo at Prayer
Teresa of Avila at Prayer
Thomas Aquinas at Prayer
St Therese of Lisieux at Prayer
Conclusion
I highlighted several passages while reading this volume, many are longer passages, some of them are:
“The saints whose writings on prayer and meditation are explored in this book arc among the most celebrated in the great spiritual tradition. They know, in depth, of the light and fire of which they speak. Page after page of their writings attain to levels of vision and understanding which are remarkable. The principal focus of the present work is not, however, on the higher states and stages of contemplative prayer. The aim is something far more modest - namely, to discover what help the great saints can offer those of us who desire to make progress in the life of prayer, but who find ourselves being constantly deflected from our purpose, our tentative efforts undermined perhaps most of all by human weakness.”
“Lord, whether I want it or not, save me, because dust and ashes that I am, I love sin. But you are God almighty, so stop me yourself. If you have pity on the just, that's not much, or if you save the pure, because they are worthy of your mercy. Show the full splendour of your mercy in me. Reveal in me your love for men and women, because this poor man has no other refuge but you.”
“The four chapters of this small book focus on the work of four saints, two men and two women. Here, in the order in which the work is addressed, are the names and dates of the four saint~ : Augustine of Hippo, 354-430; Teresa of Avila, I 515-82; Thomas Aquinas,, 1225-74; Therese of Lisieux, 1873-1897. All four are highly revered within the tradition; all of them are named and acknowledged as Doctors of the Church. 'Their writings are remarkable for the revelation they contain of an achieved divine intimacy and friends hip with God.”
“In this brief chapter we have been ab le to touch on only one or two themes in Augustine's work. But the voice of the saint, although it comes to us from a world that is long gone, speaks with bold honesty and such weight of experience that it still, today, carries an illumined and eminently practical message for all those attempting to pray and follow the path of the Gospel.”
“Augustine of Hippo is not simply a great author, he is a living witness of what he teaches and preaches. That's why, with a force and eloquence unmatched in the tradition, he can alert both saints and sinners to what Pope Benedict calls the humble, necessary grace of "ongoing conversion".”
“By the force of her character, by the boldness of her activity as a foundress, and by her remarkable ability to speak and to write in depth on the subject of prayer, Teresa astonished her contemporaries.”
“Pope Paul VI included Teresa among the Doctors of the Church. He spoke of her as not only a remarkable teacher of "the secrets of prayer;' but also as a "writer of great genius, a mistress of spiritual life, an incomparable contemplative". If we ask ourselves how it was that Teresa acquired the "secrets" of prayer in such depth, Paul VI gives us the answer in one telling sentence: "She had the privilege and the merit to get to know these secrets through experience''.”
“But Teresa's work - her writings – also reveal another Teresa, a figure so humble, so human, so fallible at times in her early efforts to concentrate at the time of prayer, it is hard to credit they are one and the same person. Here the focus of our attention is on this earlier Teresa.”
“The method of prayer which, in time, Teresa developed to help her distracted mind focus on God involves two things. First, the recitation of a simple vocal prayer such as the Our Father, and, second, the practice of the presence of God. She writes: "This is the method of prayer I then used: since I could not reflect discursively with the intellect, I strove to represent Christ within me, and it did me greater good to represent him in those scenes where I saw him alone".”
“Teresa's journey to God is marked by a series of almost unimaginable wonders, swift flights of rapture, zones of stillness and quiet, visions of sublime beauty, wounds of ecstatic pain and joy.”
“But, here, our most immediate aim is on something more humble, more basic - namely, to discover the practical guidance which Teresa has to offer the disheartened individual who is finding the task of prayer difficult and unrewarding.”
“What made the task so difficult was not simply the challenge of maintaining concentration in prayer but her pained awareness of the persistence of certain sins in her life. How could she presume to appear in the presence of the One whom she felt she was constantly betraying?”
“When Teresa looks back at the many lost opportunities she was given and reflects on the years spent seeking to avoid the presence of the One who was seeking her, what strikes her most forcibly is the reality of God's patience:”
“Those who wish to grow in prayer and contemplation must, as best they can, in Teresa's understanding, convert their lives to the standards of the Gospel. Addressing her fellow contemplatives in The Interior Castle, she writes: "It is necessary that your foundation consist of more than prayer and contemplation. If you do not strive for the virtues and practice them, you will always be dwarfs!"”
“No one, she declares, who has begun to practice prayer should become discouraged, thinking, if I fall back in to sin, it will be better for me not to go on practising prayer. On the contrary, Teresa insists, things will become much worse should prayer be abandoned. If, however, people keep faith with the practice of prayer, they can be confident that, in time, prayer will lead them safely to "the harbour of life" (ch . 19, 4).”
“To you, 0 God, Fountain of Mercy,
I come as a sinner,
that you would deign to wash away my uncleanness.
0 Sun of justice,
give sight to a blind man.
0 Eternal Healer,
cure one who is wounded.
0 Ki ng of Kings,
clothe the destitute.
0 Mediator between God and Man,
restore the guilty.
0 Good Shepherd,
lead back the stray.
Give, 0 God,
mercy to the wretched,
reprieve to the criminal,
life to the dead,
justification to the sinful,
and, to the hard of heart,
the anointing of grace.”
“But what about the other forms of Christian prayer, such as the prayer of quiet, the prayer of praise, and the prayer of thanksgiving? These are all genuine forms of Christian prayer, but they are not so essentially a part of the life of longing and need as is the prayer of petition. All of them, we can say, are rooted and grounded in petition. Thus, even in the prayer of praise, for example, we find an implicit acknowledgement of need, a prayer of need. God, the divine Object of praise is, at the same time, the Subject, the divine Spirit praying within us, interceding for us when we don't know how to pray or how to praise.”
“So, Therese chose not to go in search of Mary at Lourdes - that hallowed place of vision - and instead she searched for Mary, we can say, at Nazareth, and found her there leading a life that was decidedly ordinary: "No raptures, miracles or ecstasies adorned your life . . .. You chose, 0 incomparable Mother, to tread the ordinary way and thus lead little ones to heaven" ("Pourquoi je t'aime, O Marie!" in Oeuvres Completes, 754).”
“Over the years, Therese prayed not only for her own immediate family and community, she prayed also for sinners. Rut her prayer for sinners would assume in time a form that no one could have foreseen.”
“Saints, if looked al only from a distance, can appear remote and intimidating, their journey into God following a path that's either too high and mystical or too fiercely ascetic for the ordinary believer. But, although their lives are indeed heroic and exemplary, the saints are the last people to be harshly judgemental of human struggle and human weakness.”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume. There were several things in this volume that caught my attention. And much that caused me to slow down and take note. It is a volume I will reread again and again. For a little volume it packs a great deal of excellent information. The deep exploration of prayer and the written prayers of the four saints was inspiring and challenging.
When I was in university, I was involved with
Campus Crusade for Christ, there was a series of booklets by the founder Bill Bright, called
Transferable Concepts, and by reading them many times you could almost memorize them and the message so that you could share it. This volume reminds me a lot of those books, but specifically geared for Catholics; and specifically on Prayer for the Jubilee year in 2025. I am planning on jumping around and not reading them in order my first time through, but already have plans to reread them again this year between Christmas and New Years and that time I will read them in order.
The description of the series on the CTS site states:
“The “Notes on Prayer” series is an inspiring collection of eight booklets from the Vatican, designed to deepen and enrich the prayer lives of Catholics as they journey through the Year of Jubilee 2025, themed “Pilgrims of Hope.”
Each booklet in this series is a powerful resource, offering spiritual guidance, reflections, and wisdom from Church teachings, Sacred Scripture, and the lives of the saints. Whether you’re seeking personal renewal or walking the path of forgiveness and reconciliation, this series will help you grow in intimacy with God during this special time of grace.”
The first three books in this series I have read are excellent, if the others are as good as those three; we have over 700 pages of instruction on prayer. It is an excellent collection; these books would be good for any school, home, or church library. I can easily recommend this book and series and encourage you to give them a read!
2. Praying with the Psalms - Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi
3. The Prayer of Jesus – Juan Lopez Vergara
5. The Parables of Prayer – Msgr Antonio Pitta
6. The Church in Prayer - Carthusian Monks
8. The Prayer Jesus Taught Us: Our Father - Fr Ugo Vanni
