Synopsis
Sister Wendy Beckett, adored and renowned art historian, has spent years in silence and contemplation in her calling as a nun. Her celebrated television specials and books about art have led her many admirers to ask about her own faith and practices. For the first time, in this thoughtful examination of the nature of prayer, she reveals her deeply held beliefs about her religion and her intimate understanding of God.
What should I do during prayer? Can prayer really be as simple as a conversation? How do I let God enter my being? Do I need to belong to a religion in order to pray? Sister Wendy answers these and many other common questions, all the while imparting the importance of prayer in our daily lives. No book by Sister Wendy would be complete without art—accompanying her wisdom are thirteen beautiful reproductions of paintings that Sister Wendy has selected because of the spiritual connection she has with each.
Library Journal
It is one of the finer paradoxes of our time that Beckett, aka Sister Wendy, who professes constantly that she craves the Carmelite's solitude in meditation, has become one of the more familiar faces on television and book jackets. Beckett's idiosyncratic perceptions of art and art history, because they are so remote from the arcane language of the museum professional, amount to something like genius; the same is true of her current volume on prayer. She cannot tell you what a theologian ought to say; instead, she tells you what she knows. Beckett's new volume still engages art-it includes full-color reproductions of several canvases pertinent to her reflections. Highly recommended.