Close to the Heart
A Guide to Personal Prayer

Margaret Silf
248 pages
Loyola Press, 1999
Retail Price $21.95
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Close to the Heart is for anyone looking for a relationship with God in the Christian tradition without the constraints of formulas or strict disciplines. Silf offers a real-life approach to prayer. Her stories and recommendations, drawn from contemporary life, are solid and practical. Silf invites us to embark on our own adventure in prayer and promises that we will not be disappointed.

Close to the Heart opens up a world of imaginative yet simple ways to approach individual prayer. Breaking through boundaries and stereotypes, Silf shows prayer as a journey into reflective living.

The 26 chapters are grouped into four parts:

Part 1, “Entering Prayer,” looks at some guiding principles for a personal prayer.

Part 2, “Learning to Focus,” gives a number of particular and specific suggestions for personal prayer.

Part 3, “Using the Word as Our Guide,” explores ways of praying with Scripture

Part 4, “Stumbling Blocks and Stepping Stones,” offers a few thoughts on overcoming some of difficulties and making use of some of the opportunities in the journey into prayer.

Margaret Silf has for many years been helping people discover prayer. Trained by the Jesuits to accompany and guide others in prayer, she leads retreats, experiential workshops, and weeks of guided prayer. She recently published Inner Compass: An Invitation to Ignatian Spirituality. Silf lives with her husband and their daughter in the West Midlands of England.

“The spirit zone in daily life” by Margaret Silf appeared in the 12 June, 1999 of the Tablet. It is reprinted here with permission.

From the Publisher
Margaret Silf offers her readers a basic guide to contemplative prayer. Utilizing techniques acquired during her own spiritual formation, Silf maintains that contemplative prayer is an aid to locating the calm below the emotional and mental turbulence that characterizes much of modern life. She urges her readers toward a creative reappropriation of the biblical Gospels by imagining themselves as participants in many key Gospel narratives. The application of such techniques results in encounters with God that are consistently affirming. Organizationally, the book is designed to guide the beginner from the basic elements of contemplative prayer to praying with "the Word" as discovered through creation and Scripture. Each chapter ventures a bit further in prayer techniques, as Silf encourages readers to discover the joys of experimenting with conversational prayer.

Review
Margaret Silf's Close to the Heart gives a handful of ideas on how to revitalize one's prayer life into one more creative and meaningful. From the beginning, Silf quells any anxiety the reader might feel about trying out yet another regimented prayer schedule by assuring the reader that she is providing a book of suggestions to enhance one's prayer life, some of which will apply to some readers, but that not all will apply to everyone. The reader is given the freedom to choose what methods would work best for her or his prayer needs. Silf facilitates that process by telling many personal experiences and how she has reacted to various methods of finding God.

Close to the Heart's beauty emerges from Silf's encouragement to readers to incorporate one's prayer life not only during specific prayer times, but always. She urges you to set aside a specific time to be still with God, and then to take that stillness into the rest of the day. I enjoyed Silf's creativity and could easily relate to her vignettes and examples because of my familiarity with Christianity, although I did feel constrained throughout the book because of the limited imagery used in referring to God. What I most enjoyed about this book was the link Silf encourages people to have between one's prayer life and being a living example of Christ. She gives concrete ways on how to use inner devotion to facilitate good relationship with the world around us, thus participate fully in creation.

Close to the Heart is an excellent choice for anyone searching for a deeper relationship with God within the Christian tradition. Silf maintains that a strong prayer life will result in having a good perspective of one's interactions with others and with creation. She suggests that by working at having a good relationship with God, self, and others through inner reflection that all of those relationships will be revitalized, creating balance and stillness during prayer and throughout the day.

—Sara Ryan is a graduate of Notre Dame in theology and sociology. Presently, she is working at an agency in San Francisco that serves the recently arrived immigrants from Latin Countries.

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