“Awakening to prayer is to notice the intimacy between all aspects of your life and God. Awakening to prayer is to become increasingly conscious of the most holy Mystery to whom we are invited and encouraged to relate.”—From the Prologue

The word "prayer' is almost as generic as food or book, says Clare Wagner in Awakening to Prayer: A Woman’s Perspective, and the varieties of prayer forms are countless. In this best and worst of times, Wagner writes, it is intriguing to ponder how women of the twenty-first century pray and enter into a relationship with Holy Presence. At this moment of enormous change, rapid technological advancement and a new relationship between faith and science, Wagner says we are called to see prayer in new, creative ways.

To help us see anew, she draws on the wisdom of the Scriptures, the insights of the mystics and the experience of ordinary, vibrant women and men living in our midst. She offers suggestions of words to use and rituals to experience to help us awaken to prayer—to see that separation from Divine Mystery is an illusion and that the spiritual life is a journey that lasts a lifetime. That journey itself is home, and prayer is foundational as we travel.