The Heart of Catholic Prayer

It's no coincidence that the Our Father and the Flail Mary are closely intertwined in the heart of the Church. At once meditative and catechetical, The Heart of Catholic Prayer dissects these two anchors of our faith, line by line, in a journey into the Church's rich tradition of prayer, drawing us more deeply into the heart of the mystery of God's love. Mark Shea expertly weaves the contemporary with the historical, and the theological with the practical, as he opens up these most common of prayers with a fresh and penetrating perspective for all to see. Mere rote recitation of the Our Father and the Hail Mary, without knowing what they mean and why we pray them, threatens to characterize God as "a kind of cosmic vending machine demanding correct change." Experience the ordinary truths of the Faith that the Church has always taught, but in ways which will generate a spark of recognition in they contemporary mind. Upon completion of this book, you will never recite either of these prayers in the same way again. Book jacket.