The Word Is Very Near You: A Guide to Praying with Scripture

An introduction to the practice of prayer with Scripture, this book includes a number of themes for prayer with suggested passages for meditation. Martin Smith believes that prayer is not an act we perform, but rather is a response to God’s reaching out to us. Through scriptural passages this book shows how the Bible can guide our prayer response and lead us from conversational prayer to meditative, receptive prayer with Scripture. This book is ideal for an ongoing Bible, prayer, or discernment group.

The Word Is Very Near You: A Guide to Praying with Scripture by Martin L. Smith, an Episcopal monk, is among the most useful and beautifully written books about prayer in print. Its title, taken from Deuteronomy 30:14 ("The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.") is a relief, a promise, and a challenge. Smith's straightforward, flowing prose sparkles with natural wit and insight as he describes how laypeople can participate in the ancient practice of lectio divina ("holy reading"), a very slow, meditative engagement with Scripture whose effects flow out into a person's whole inner and outer life. Smith explains, "Meditative prayer ... does not confine itself to the surface levels of reasoning and talking and thinking. It won't be a matter of the head, and tidy, controlled conversations with the Lord. This kind of praying will involve the inner world where the invisible springs of our actions lie, it will penetrate to levels of deep need, disturbance, feeling, levels where we are hurt and warped, and levels where we have wants not at all satisfied by conventional palliatives, and gifts waiting to come out of bud."

The first half of this book explains what meditative prayer is, and how it often works in the life of a believer. The second half contains suggested themes and biblical passages for prayer. Smith, who is widely known among Episcopalians as a spiritual director, has masterful knowledge of Christian tradition and of modern psychology, and his book wears this considerable learning very lightly. As a result, he can speak an ancient message in contemporary language with greater integrity than anyone writing about Christian spirituality today. If you are looking for one book about prayer that will honor your emotions, respect your mind, give you rest, shake you up, and change your life, this is it. The Word Is Very Near You has such good news: you really can do it. --Michael Joseph Gross