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(901)527-5684 ebook@bellsouth.net 672 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38105
Just across the parking lot from St. Mary’s Cathedral
In Times like These, How we Pray by Malcolm Boyd and J. Jon Bruno,
Seabury Books,2005
Two well known religious figures have edited a beautiful book of concise, honest essays
by well-known and lesser known men and women about how they pray. Among the
contributors are Frederick Buechner, Harvey Cox, Nora Gallagher, Norman Mailer, Martin
Marty, Phyllis Tickle. Other essays are by a military chaplain, a Buddhist priest, a
composer, a hardened reporter, a filmmaker, a Lakota Indian, a hospice nurse, a
novelist, a Muslim physician, a musician, a cabaret performer, a jailed husband and his
wife, an actor, a photographer, a hospital chaplain, other clergy, and many more. Dean of
Grace Cathedral, Alan Jones describes the dramatic change in his prayer life after being
diagnosed with cancer. A sister in a religious community talks about the liturgical diet of
the daily office as she goes to church and prays five times a day. Phyllis Tickle also
follows the Benedictine rule and stops for prayer in the outside world five times a day.
She describes the daily offices as resting places on the day’s highway with side doors
opening onto new vistas of prayer. Buechner candidly writes that a great deal of his prayer
life is for his children and grandchildren, “rabbit foot” and “knock on wood” prayers.
Gallagher also talks about 911 prayers and reminds us that praying is not like taking
Advil. The results don’t happen right away. She describes her prayers at a Quaker
meeting as a “body waiting for truth.” Harvey Cox has a specific day of the week to pray for
each family member. Each writing is rich and frank with personal stories about each
author’s unique and often unconventional prayer life. There is no pretense for piety here.
The stories express the same struggles we all have to find and keep that connection to
God. The book could be read in so many ways, but especially just before one’s own
prayer time each day.
By the Reverend Joanna Seibert, M.D., first reviewed for "The Living Church" (August 5,
2006)
Seabury Books,2005
Two well known religious figures have edited a beautiful book of concise, honest essays
by well-known and lesser known men and women about how they pray. Among the
contributors are Frederick Buechner, Harvey Cox, Nora Gallagher, Norman Mailer, Martin
Marty, Phyllis Tickle. Other essays are by a military chaplain, a Buddhist priest, a
composer, a hardened reporter, a filmmaker, a Lakota Indian, a hospice nurse, a
novelist, a Muslim physician, a musician, a cabaret performer, a jailed husband and his
wife, an actor, a photographer, a hospital chaplain, other clergy, and many more. Dean of
Grace Cathedral, Alan Jones describes the dramatic change in his prayer life after being
diagnosed with cancer. A sister in a religious community talks about the liturgical diet of
the daily office as she goes to church and prays five times a day. Phyllis Tickle also
follows the Benedictine rule and stops for prayer in the outside world five times a day.
She describes the daily offices as resting places on the day’s highway with side doors
opening onto new vistas of prayer. Buechner candidly writes that a great deal of his prayer
life is for his children and grandchildren, “rabbit foot” and “knock on wood” prayers.
Gallagher also talks about 911 prayers and reminds us that praying is not like taking
Advil. The results don’t happen right away. She describes her prayers at a Quaker
meeting as a “body waiting for truth.” Harvey Cox has a specific day of the week to pray for
each family member. Each writing is rich and frank with personal stories about each
author’s unique and often unconventional prayer life. There is no pretense for piety here.
The stories express the same struggles we all have to find and keep that connection to
God. The book could be read in so many ways, but especially just before one’s own
prayer time each day.
By the Reverend Joanna Seibert, M.D., first reviewed for "The Living Church" (August 5,
2006)
Each year, we are asked to open ourselves to hearing the Easter story-- the
good news-- in new ways. We listen as the story of redemption and new life
unfolds again. But the very familiarity of the story can work against its perpetual
newness and power.
This year, we have in The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our
Lord, with Reflections by Phyllis Tickle, an invitation to enter the gospel afresh.
Ms. Tickle has taken all the words of Jesus out of the context of the gospel
narratives. The words are organized according to the audience to whom they
were spoken, rather than by the evangelist who wrote them down: Words of
Public Teaching; Words of Private Instruction; Words of Intimate Conversation;
Words of Healing Dialogue; and Words of Post-Resurrection Encounter.
Merged into these new groupings, the words prompt us to hear them as they
are: bold and stark, without interpretation or theological rubric.
A biblical scholar herself, Ms. Tickle in no way devalues the role of scholarship
and commentary. But she does suggest that 21st century readers may find it
hard to approach Jesus’ words directly, with confidence that these words can
speak to us as they did to those who heard Him during His time on earth. And
that was why she created this book.
In her reflections, Ms. Tickle describes her personal journey through the texts,
which was nothing less than transformational. Her account of the struggles,
surprises, and blessings of this encounter prepares us to enter our own
wilderness with Jesus, and to accept the inexhaustible power of His words to
us as we die and are reborn in Him.
For more information, do visit the website www.allthewordsofjesus.com.
You can download a free Reader’s Guide to the text, which will tell you the story
of our focus group here at the Episcopal Bookshop in Memphis, TN, and offer
guidance to others who wish to study it together.
Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion, by Sara Miles, is a must read for Christians
today who would like to renew their faith....a beautifully written memoir of a conversion
to Christianity by a restaurant cook and radical journalist raised an atheist. Sara Miles
experiences the Eucharist at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church in San Francisco and her
life is dramatically changed.
Before her conversion she thought most Christians spoke the same language and
that faith seemed to be about certainty. "What a surprise," she exclaims after her
conversion.
As she participates in the liturgy of the table she is moved to extend communion to the
world outside by operating a food pantry that serves more than 250 people each week,
using the sanctuary and the Eucharist altar as its center. She describes "A hunger
beyond food which is expressed in food," and "that is why feeding is always a miracle."
Miles describes in detail her journey to begin the food pantry the week she is baptized
as she answers Jesus' call to Peter to"feed my sheep." She sees the religious
imagery of the bread in the Eucharist. "We can be the Eucharist to others," she begins
to see. She describes the common lectionary as a common meal which people all
over the world are having for breakfast each Sunday as the preacher salts and spices
the scripture for each congregation. She speaks of the church being healed daily by
the Good Samaritan, the strangers and foreigners, the wrong people who come to
rescue us.
The book is sprinkled with thought provoking questions about Miles' struggle to
understand her own relationship to God and her ministry to which other Christians will
immediately relate. Miles describes conversion as a "process which keeps happening
with cycles of acceptance and resistance, epiphany and doubt, periods of spiritual jet
lag." as she is immersed in the Anglican tradition, she learns especially in war time
how the church can become perhaps the only place where ambiguity and
unsettledness can be tolerated, a safe place where we can learn how to be open to
people we would prefer to write off. Miles talks about a different way of learning
theology, "not a solitary reading or instruction through sermons, but working in a
kitchen, listening, sauteing, talking, tasting,feeding, and eating together: It is a stew of
words and acts and food." Hers is an action ministry and she struggles when the
pantry begins to interfere with those who want to keep St. Gregory's more
contemplative for Sunday worship when she wants to extend the pantry to Sunday
dinner. She reminds us that the Eucharist is not a private meal and that we can't be
Christians by ourselves. She reminds us that no matter what our ministry is, there will
always be more people who need our help. There is a moving story near the end of the
book which exemplifies how this food ministry reaches out to many forms of hunger;
an obviously abused child comes to the pantry, sees the baptismal font and asks, "Is
this the water the water that God puts on you to make you safe?" Miles' book calls each
of us to reach out of our own safety and promises us as we answer the call to our
baptismal ministry, we will experience the "sacrament of new birth" and especially be
healed by those different from ourselves. Her message is that church and communion
are about sharing food and praising God. She speaks to us from her restaurant
background: "Your table is ready."
today who would like to renew their faith....a beautifully written memoir of a conversion
to Christianity by a restaurant cook and radical journalist raised an atheist. Sara Miles
experiences the Eucharist at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church in San Francisco and her
life is dramatically changed.
Before her conversion she thought most Christians spoke the same language and
that faith seemed to be about certainty. "What a surprise," she exclaims after her
conversion.
As she participates in the liturgy of the table she is moved to extend communion to the
world outside by operating a food pantry that serves more than 250 people each week,
using the sanctuary and the Eucharist altar as its center. She describes "A hunger
beyond food which is expressed in food," and "that is why feeding is always a miracle."
Miles describes in detail her journey to begin the food pantry the week she is baptized
as she answers Jesus' call to Peter to"feed my sheep." She sees the religious
imagery of the bread in the Eucharist. "We can be the Eucharist to others," she begins
to see. She describes the common lectionary as a common meal which people all
over the world are having for breakfast each Sunday as the preacher salts and spices
the scripture for each congregation. She speaks of the church being healed daily by
the Good Samaritan, the strangers and foreigners, the wrong people who come to
rescue us.
The book is sprinkled with thought provoking questions about Miles' struggle to
understand her own relationship to God and her ministry to which other Christians will
immediately relate. Miles describes conversion as a "process which keeps happening
with cycles of acceptance and resistance, epiphany and doubt, periods of spiritual jet
lag." as she is immersed in the Anglican tradition, she learns especially in war time
how the church can become perhaps the only place where ambiguity and
unsettledness can be tolerated, a safe place where we can learn how to be open to
people we would prefer to write off. Miles talks about a different way of learning
theology, "not a solitary reading or instruction through sermons, but working in a
kitchen, listening, sauteing, talking, tasting,feeding, and eating together: It is a stew of
words and acts and food." Hers is an action ministry and she struggles when the
pantry begins to interfere with those who want to keep St. Gregory's more
contemplative for Sunday worship when she wants to extend the pantry to Sunday
dinner. She reminds us that the Eucharist is not a private meal and that we can't be
Christians by ourselves. She reminds us that no matter what our ministry is, there will
always be more people who need our help. There is a moving story near the end of the
book which exemplifies how this food ministry reaches out to many forms of hunger;
an obviously abused child comes to the pantry, sees the baptismal font and asks, "Is
this the water the water that God puts on you to make you safe?" Miles' book calls each
of us to reach out of our own safety and promises us as we answer the call to our
baptismal ministry, we will experience the "sacrament of new birth" and especially be
healed by those different from ourselves. Her message is that church and communion
are about sharing food and praising God. She speaks to us from her restaurant
background: "Your table is ready."
