Letters of Prayer: An Exchange on Prayer and Faith

(Paperback)

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An exchange of letters on prayer between British diplomat Mark Allen and Carmelite nun Ruth Burrows.

'I had to read some books, looking for help. Some set out to teach how to pray. I was very interested in these because they appeared to offer to take the problem head on. But somehow they didn't. They offered techniques about how to sit quietly and about some people finding it helpful to create a "praying corner" in the home.

All this seemed like other people's Christmases - nice, of course, but happening at arm's length. At a deeper level, I had a horse sense that concentrating on creating a state which I might enjoy and be able to say I had mastered, I could not accept that there wasn't something more than this to prayer.'

Thus Mark Allen, on his own view of the problem of prayer at the time when he first met Ruth Burrows. The friendship that followed led to a correspondence and, in due course, led to this book - to these Letters on Prayer, in which cant and technique and simple nostrums are eschewed, but prayer and faith are discussed both in depth and in a language we can all understand.

Author Bio

Mark Allen studied Arabic at Oxford and worked in the Foreign Service 1973-2004. He served in the UAE, Egypt and Jordan and his work took him all over the Arab world. He is a special advisor to BP plc and a senior associate member of St Antony's College, Oxford. He was made CMG in 2002 and knighted in 2005.

Ruth Burrows is a Carmelite Nun from Quidenham in Norfolk, UK. She is the author of a number of bestselling books including Guidelines for Mystical Prayer and Essence of Prayer.