In many ways the Lord's Prayer is the most fundamental of all Christian prayers. It was given by Jesus in response to his disciples' explicit request that he teach them to pray, and throughout the period of the early church, along with the creed, it was regarded as a basic catchetical text. For a large number of people in our own period, however, trying to pray this prayer in any meaningful way is fraught with difficulties. Roberta Bondi contends that christians are called to love God and our neighbors as ourselves, and that the Lord's Prayer, prayed honestly from the places we really are, is a basic tool to help us do it. A Place to Pray: Reflections on the Lord's Prayer is not an exegetical book; rather the reflections in it, which draw from the author's own experiences, teaching, and study of the early church, are presented in a series of letters to a fictional friend. In these letters Bondi addresses many of the issues that make praying the Lord's Prayer difficult. At the same time, she helps readers use the prayer as a means of helping them love God, neighbor, and self. An excellent resource for personal spiritual growh and development, this volume is also well suited for adult study groups and is an ideal text for courses in Christian Spirituality, Theology, Worship, and Pastoral Care.
