Creative Prayer

Brigid E. Herman
165 pages
Paraclete Press, 1998
$12.95
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From the Publisher

 

This small, non-devotional book offers an analysis of step-by-step progressive praying.   It is an updated version of a previously published work, far more eloquent and luminous than most contemporary approaches to the topic of prayer in general.   In the preface, Herman states that the purpose of her book is to elucidate the meaning and value of prayer as a creative process.   Prayer is a noble activity, a completely human form of interaction between the human and the Divine.   What distinguishes this approach is the primacy of prayer as a way of "heart-communion" with the Creator and not necessarily in the need for personal empowerment for its own sake.   Herman's message touches us over the decades like a meteorite skimming the surface of the century.   Thoroughly analytical of the motivations that attend stages of development in prayer, Herman discusses silence, meditation, reading of the Gospels, and intercessory prayer in the context of love and humility as well as genuine doubt and human despair. Here is an intelligent and loving contact with the other reality, the reality of God.

About the Author

Brigid Herman was a journalist who married a Presbyterian minister and wrote mainly on theological and devotional themes under the names E. Herman and Hugh Sinclair.

Book Reviews

Review 1

Creative Prayer is not a book for the faint of heart. It's not a fuzzy, feel-good read. It doesn't explore the latest prayer techniques or postures or exercises. This book minces no works, makes no compromises, takes no prisoners.  Creative prayer rests on the bedrock of what prayer and the spiritual life is all about, and that is a life devoted to obedience to God.

Written in England after World War I, author Brigid Herman predates the spiritual fads of our times, yet she speaks with a voice so incisive and wise that her message addresses all times and people.

Do not read this book unless you want to be challenges, unless you want to illuminate the next few steps of your faith walk.   And if this is what you seek, do no fail to read this book.

Kate Convissor is a writer and mother who lives in northern Michigan.

Review 2

Prayer is so many things: conversation with God, a pilgrimage from self to the Divine, a simple, loving discourse between creature and Creator.   Brigid E. Herman (1876-1923) gives us her reflections on prayer as creative energy that transforms us and our world.

Originally published after World War I, this text was re-issued in 1998. And what a treasure it is.   Three themes stand our for me: one is Herman's continual challenge that we "refer" everything to God, even the smallest of actions (13).   We are to take what is at the circumference of our lives and bring it to the center for evaluation and consecration.   By so doing our whole life is one of prayerful attention.

A second theme is that of obedience and surrender.   Looking at prayer as a great adventure and pilgrimage from self to God, we must be willing to sacrifice and bring everything to the altar.   She pulls no punches.   Christianity demands discipline and radical abandonment of self-will to God.   It is a dying process: "Christian discipline means the uprooting of self-gratification and self-will" (108).

A third theme deals with the corporate nature of our lives.   We are social beings who are bound together by mutual interdependence and a pervasive solidarity.   We are responsible to and for one another.   Our vocation to a common priesthood means that we are to mediate God's love and forgiveness within the Body of Christ.   The call within our individual calls to marriage or religious life or a single life is to foster a priestly heart, a heart sensitive to the joys and sorrows of our fellow pilgrims as well as a heart open to God's vision and values.   It's all about the kingdom of God coming to fruition.   "The consecrated soul becomes a vehicle of grace" (147).

Creative Prayer is written from an evangelical perspective and though incorporating many insights from the Roman Catholic tradition, it does articulate certain Protestant themes.   A discerning reader can evaluate them appropriately. All in all, this text is a solid book on prayer, rich in insight, challenging in vision, demanding in its implications.   Brigid E. Herman is obviously a woman who expresses her faith well and has left a rich legacy.   Though written in the 1910's, it is relevant and addresses contemporary questions about prayer and life.

Bishop Robert Morneau

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