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June 13, 2019“The Prayer List: and Other True Stories of How Families Pray” by Jane Knuth is a book of stories that examines how people of all faiths use prayer in a family setting.
Jane Knuth explores anecdotally how families use a variety of forms of prayer to communicate with God. She intersperses her and her extended family’s prayer experiences with stories she has gathered from friends, sometimes even from strangers. Using this format allows her to consider the examples she has found, and each segment ends with a suggestion for an entry into a prayer journal or to the reader’s prayer list.
Knuth’s cousin had bequeathed the author’s aunt’s prayer list and Rosary to keep alive their family tradition of praying for those in need. This is the book’s intent: introduce the reader to experiences, ideas, suggestions that will enhance the spirituality of families searching for the most effective ways to communicate with God, Allah, the universe’s cosmic force, etc.
Whereas much of the book scrutinizes how prayer works in families, even ones in which prayer has long been a forgotten or neglected practice, the author focuses little on private prayer, communication with God that many of us use more.
Experience tells me that genuinely effective writing results from an individual's need to think through an idea; to think “out loud” on paper; to answer the question ”How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” Those are a secondary effect of “The Prayer List.”
I found myself thinking about various forms that praying people use in the search to communicate with God. Formulaic prayers such as Holy Mass or the Rosary provide a community with words specifically chosen to set the tone for the efficacy of the ritual. The recitation or chanting of Canonical Hours is meant to allow the participants to share the psalmist’s efforts to speak to God personally through poetry. Spontaneous prayer often is guided by the Holy Spirit. The person praying is not always or ever sure what words will result, whether spoken aloud or “viewed” across the mind’s eye.
Merged with her suggestions, Knuth also examines “What is prayer, really?” “How does prayer work?” At one point an interviewee offers an intriguing insight: “God wants us to want him.” Is that the reason we pray?
Some people would argue that prayer is concrete inasmuch as we see the prayers written or we speak and hear the prayers we choose. Beyond those sensory experiences, prayer invites the participant to transcend words and to experience spiritual connections with the prayer’s addressee, God. The author hints at in the latter part of the book: sometimes listening is the more important part of our prayer efforts.
Knuth occasionally realizes and affirms that one-way prayer is useful, but quiet prayer might be more effective. If we only petition God with our wants and needs and don’t take any time to listen, we may miss out on some very important spiritual connections with God.
For some, this book confirms the power of prayer in the relations families form with the Creator. For families whose faith is developing, Knuth offers insights into other people’s experiences with prayer, adventures that could and might help advance to deeper faith nourished by prayer.
Richard Rouillard is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
