Millions of Christians feel a profound gap between what they believe about God — that He is present, personal, and deeply engaged in their lives — and what they actually experience in their prayer lives. They pray faithfully, read their Bibles, attend services, and still feel a persistent hunger for something deeper, more intimate, more alive. What they are missing is not more information about God. It is a direct, sustained, transformative encounter with the living God Himself — and the ancient Christian tradition has been offering exactly that, through specific and learnable practices, for over two thousand years.
Be Still and Know is the comprehensive, practical guide to Christian contemplative prayer that serious seekers have been waiting for. Drawing on the full breadth of the Christian tradition — from the Desert Fathers and the hesychast tradition of the Jesus Prayer to the medieval mystics and the Carmelite masters, from the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises to the Quaker practice of silent waiting, from Brother Lawrence's kitchen to the great cathedrals of Europe — this book brings two millennia of Christian wisdom about the interior life into a single accessible guide that any Christian can pick up and immediately begin using.
Key topics include: The full historical context of the Christian contemplative tradition from the Desert Fathers to Thomas Merton; Step-by-step practical instruction in Lectio Divina (sacred reading); Complete guidance for Centering Prayer following Thomas Keating's method; The five movements of Ignatius's Prayer of Examen; The Jesus Prayer and the hesychast tradition; Praying the Psalms and the Divine Office; The apophatic tradition including The Cloud of Unknowing and John of the Cross; Practicing the Presence of God following Brother Lawrence; Embodied practices including labyrinth walking and breath prayer; How to build a sustainable daily contemplative practice; Working with spiritual dryness and the dark night; Finding and working with a spiritual director.
Whether you are Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, or simply a Christian seeking more than you currently have in your prayer life, Be Still and Know provides the authentic, practical, and intellectually honest guide to the contemplative tradition that will open the interior life you have been created for.
