Beginner's Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life

The story in the first few pages about a mother in the hospital told to pray for her baby with no idea how to pray captured my attention and prompted me to buy this book. I was struck by Kate's story of immediately going to the hospital to provide comfort and join in prayer. I also had hope that this book would find a middle ground in offering prayers without the mystical assumption that if you did it "right" you could cure your own cancer, etc.I was hoping for a book which: 1) provided new (nondenominational) prayers and 2) gave some inspired ideas about how to develop one's own in a powerful and connected way. I think I had envisioned a more modern Marianne Williams' Illuminata, filled with prayers but perhaps with inclusive language.Unfortunately, the hospital story was the only part of the book that really spoke to me, and in the end, I was disappointed. I found relatively few new prayers in the book, many of which were repetitions of Bible verses. If my prayer needs were satisfied with Psalm 23 and "Now I lay me down to sleep", I wouldn't need this book. There were many more references to Biblical prayers than I'd hoped for from a Unitarian Minister, and the flow was uneven...as if there were a series of blogs thrown together. Knowing what I know now, I would not purchase this book.

This book is not just for beginners, but for all of us. I have read many books about prayer that seem to claim that if we pray as the author suggests, God will listen to our prayers and we will get our desired response. This book is not one of them: Thanks be to God. Instead we can join with Ms Braestrup in our belief and doubts, our joys and sorrow, our certainty and confusion as we seek to become all that God has made us to be."There is the grand, beautiful, unconditional, limitless love we want to give to one another, the love that bears all things, endures all things, believeth all things, the love that sees. And then there is the stingy, shabby, nearsighted human love we find ourselves giving. The aching, immeasurable distance between one and the other can be filled only by grace. "

I am a big fan of her previous 2 memoir books ('Here if You Need Me', and 'Marriage and Other Acts of Charity'). All 3 are written with good humor. Although a lot of this is instructional, I very much enjoyed hearing about her continuing adventures with her job, the Maine wardens, her family, and friends. I also decided to go ahead and buy the hardback version of the book in order to more easily reference the prayers and graces it contained. Especially important to me are the prayers that are said when groups of people of multiple faiths are present.

Beginner's Grace is the best book on prayer I've read. It's a subject I'm interested in, and I'm always on the lookout for a good book of prayers. This book is so engaging and so reader friendly that I couldn't put it down. The prayers she includes are invaluable and I've used many of them. After reading this book, I feel like Kate Baestrup is my friend, and now that I see her featured in several publications, it seems I'm not the only one who feels that way. No matter where you are on your faith journey, this book is a treasure.

Beginner's Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life was another fascinating, informative and inspiring journey guided by the pen of Maine's Kate Braestrup. It's candor and humility and refreshing readability made it hard to put down. Whether you're already a believer in the power of prayer or something of a skeptic, Kate's many examples and approaches...both scholastic and personal...made this the kind of book that has lasting impact. Plenty of food for thought and for the soul to digest, it's well worth owning and then sharing! Beginner's Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life

I LOVED this book. I feel as though I know the author quite well after reading it.I will re-read it many times as within these pages are tools for changing lives, for gaining peace, for true worship. While dealing with the very deepest subjects, Kate Braestrup is laugh-out-loud funny! It just doesn't GET any better!!I have also read Braestrup's "Marriage and Other Acts of Charity." I just ordered "Here If You Need Me."My adult children will be getting these books for Christmas this year!

Living prayer, practical prayer, loving prayer for those who pray now and those who want to but are uncertain how. Even just reading this book is prayer. Give it a try.

It's hard to describe Rev. Kate Braestrup's writing style. It's full of self-reflective, playful humor. Here she shares with us the role prayer can play in our lives even if we don't fit neatly into anyone else's idea of a religion.

A very enjoyable, easy to read title filled with inspirational material and beautiful prayers. It outlines many different ways to pray and be prayerful and has fundamentally changed the way in which I speak with God and has allowed me to loosen up in our relationship!

Struggling with my own spiritually Beginner's Grace gave me permission to believe in myself. Prayer and meditation have helped to calm and center me.