Guarding the Heart: A Guidebook of Contemplative Prayer Practices

Guarding the Heart: A Guidebook of Contemplative Prayer Practices is designed for people who are on the faith journey and who want to experience more from their prayer life. For many on that journey there is a strong sense of being drawn by the Spirit towards a deeper way to enrich one’s contact with one’s source and to strengthen that relationship. This guidebook will provide some simple and powerful prayer practices to experiment with to continue that deeper descent into the Divine. Each of the prayer practices is designed to be a general starting point for the user to experiment with. If, after trying some of the practices, one resonates with you, I have provided an extensive list of resources where you will find many wonderful books by the experts in the world of prayer and contemplative practices.

This guidebook can be used as a personal guide for your prayer life. It can also be used with contemplative prayer groups in a congregation or in prayer gatherings in peoples’ homes. It is also designed to be a resource for spiritual directors in their work with those they are guiding on the faith journey or for students in spiritual direction training.

Guarding the Heart is a wonderfully accessible guide for anyone seeking to deepen a life of contemplative prayer. Michael has gathered wisdom from spiritual giants across several faith traditions, and offers the reader hands-on experiences with just enough guidance. Excellent for individual or group study settings, here is a gentle coaching on ways to pray more deeply for self and others. —Chris Lane, Pastor, Central United Methodist Church, Traverse City, MI

Guarding the Heart is a fine guide to beginning contemplative prayer. The author offers excellent suggestions for getting started, exploring, and establishing a meaningful prayer practice of one’s own. Drawing upon a vast array of resources, wisdom teachers, and the author’s own personal experience, readers will feel well equipped and unconditionally supported as they embark on the journey of deepening their relationship with the Sacred. —Janice L. Lundy, DMin, Co-Founder, Spiritual Guidance Training Institute

MICHAEL CONNELL has been practicing Spiritual Direction for nine years and has been leading Contemplative Prayer groups over the last several years. He was certified in spiritual direction after completing a three-year Spiritual Formation program at the Dominican Center at Marywood in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is currently participating in a spiritual formation program with the Shalem Institute in Washington, D. C., working towards a certification in contemplative prayer group leadership and retreat leadership.