A Place to Pray: Reflections on the Lord's Prayer

In many ways the Lord's Prayer is the most fundamental of all Christian prayers. It was given by Jesus in response to his disciples' explicit request that he teach them to pray, and throughout the period of the early church (along with the Apostles' Creed) it was regarded as a basic catechistic text. For a large number of people in our own period, however, trying to pray this prayer in any meaningful way is fraught with difficulties.

Roberta Bondi contends that Christians are called to love God and our neighbors as ourselves, and that the Lord's Prayer--prayed honestly from the places we really are--is a basic tool to help us do it. A Place to Pray: Reflections on the Lord's Prayer is not an exegetical book; rather the reflections in it, which draw from the author's own experiences, teaching, and study of the early church, are presented in a series of letters to a fictional friend. In these letters Bondi addresses many of the issues that make praying the Lord's Prayer difficult. At the same time, she helps readers use the prayer as a means of helping them love God, neighbor, and self.

An excellent resource for personal spiritual growth and development, this volume is also well suited for adult study groups and is an ideal text for courses in Christian Spirituality, Theology, Worship, and Pastoral Care.

Roberta C. Bondi is Professor of Church History at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. She is the author of Night on the Flint River, In Ordinary Time, Memories of God, A Place to Pray, and Nick the Cat (forthcoming), all published by Abingdon Press.