The "Thursday night group" is reading along in the book by James C. Howell - The Beautiful Work of Learning to Pray (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2003). This book is written as 31 short chapters - each a brief essay on learning to pray.

The group gives the book a "thumbs-up" ... and especially appreciates how normal it makes them feel: that learning to pray is not easy, but we can learn to do it; that it's never too late to learn; that it takes practice, practice, practice; that we begin by praying as we can, not as we can't. But as one group member noted, it also reminds us that learning to pray is also taking a risk ... that in developing our relationship with God through prayer we might indeed be called and invited to change.

This past Thursday night from our reading of the first few chapters, Howell encouraged us to think about when in our lives have we been doing something that becomes a prayer?

We also considered what it is we do that renews our spirits ... would we be willing to call those things prayer? What is it that we know nurtures our spirit but have not done in a long time?

Great conversations ... great group! For those reading along in the book ... chapters 6 through 12 for next Thursday.

I'm learning about this blog thing and the group has told me that unless they have a special email account for gmail or yahoo or some other such things that they can't comment on the blog. My apologies for all of you who might want to do that and can't - so feel free to write to me via email or Facebook!

Sara