Browse This Book On Google
Browse This Book On iBookstore
Browse This Book On Kindle
Browse This Book On NookBooks
Media Kit
The anthology is divided into three parts. The first part includes excerpts from major classics of spirituality that introduce the foundations of the way of the invocation in various traditions. With these texts the reader is provided with an entry into some of the most celebrated sacred sources that have quenched the spiritual thirst of generations of faithful. A second part consists of doctrinal essays by contemporary scholars who have been expositors of the principles of the way of the invocation. It is hoped that this series of texts will help elucidate, in a contemporary conceptual idiom, all that may have remained obscure, elliptical or implicit in foundational classics. In conclusion, the final section of this volume is focused on contemporary testimonies by spiritual and literary figures from various traditions who have taught, advocated or simply illustrated the path of the invocation. In giving the final word to these voices of sages and saintly or literary figures the editor wishes to provide the reader with an opportunity to taste of the spiritual flavor and inspiration of the invocatory path while suggesting the relevance, actuality and accessibility of this way in the modern world.
About the Author(s)
Patrick Laude
Patrick Laude is a writer, editor, professor, and researcher in the fields of language, literature, symbolism, and mysticism. He is a professor at Georgetown University, currently at their School of Foreign Service in Qatar. Laude's writings have been published in the US and Europe in numerous journals.
Read More
Reviews
- Patrick Laude edits Pray Without Ceasing: The Way of Invocation in World Religions, an anthology covering invocatory prayer and its fundamentals across religions. Centering prayer has been a long traditional practice of invocatory prayer, but rarely has received the depth and insight it deserves. Scholars provide analysis of key texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, pairing these classic writings with contemporary texts and insights. From the symbolism in Christian communion to historical inconsistencies in analysis and interpretation of the texts, Pray Without Ceasing holds wisdom from Gandhi, Gao Xingjian, Ramakrishna and more.
California Bookwatch
- How does one travel from the abstract to the concrete in religion, assimilate spiritually that which is conceived mentally, render intimate and transformative that which appears to be remote and inaccessible? Pray Without Ceasing gives us a resounding answer, a veritable symphony of voices from a dazzling variety of religious traditions, proclaiming in harmonious unity: the perpetual invocation of the Name of the Absolute.
Reza Shah-Kazemi, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
- Patrick Laude has provided a rich resource that is at once spiritual and scholarly. Extraordinary foundational texts on the unceasing invocation of the divine name are complemented by illuminating analytical essays on the remembrance of God. Pray without Ceasing is a wonderful introduction to the experience of prayer; it also comprises an initiation into the world of prayer itself. Whether the reader is seeking silent inspiration or pursuing academic aspirations, this book is a powerful reminder that ‘praying is like breathing’ (Gregory Nazianzus) and that ‘the Spirit blows where it wills’ (John 3.8).
John Chryssavgis, author of In the Heart of the Desert
- Patrick Laude has given us here a superb anthology where prayer is the human condition’s focal point. Through a wide array of texts across traditions, prayer shines as a most desired and most innate act. Its transformative light restores dignity to human beings who glow in its dwellings. All religions seem to agree that to pray is to reside in the Divine Name that is none other than the Divine Presence itself.
Amira El-Zein, Director of the Arabic Program Tufts University
- Pray Without Ceasing by Patrick Laude is for anyone seeking inner union with the Divine. A name of God, Divinely revealed, legitimately bestowed by a proper spiritual authority and frequently invoked, reconsecrates the altar of the temple, or the heart of the believer, and functions in a direct way to reanimate the Holy Spirit or latent Divine breath within.When the finite and temporal human heart is rhythmically impressed with a Divine name, which by its very nature participates in the infinite and the eternal, the heart cannot resist and invariably recalls theomorphic essence.
Gray Henry, Fons Vitae
- The common ground of the spirit is more than a concept. It is realised through the experience of deep prayer and spiritual practice that radiates through every page of Patrick Laude’s immensely interesting and valuable book on a universal tradition of. important potential for creating unity in our divided world. Simplicity and depth. These qualities of the spiritual journey fill the pages of Patrick Laude’s rich and inspiring pilgrimage through the centuries and cultures of the human search for God. He shows us how our own practice connects us with this great living tradition.
Laurence Freeman OSB, Georgetown University
- Patrick Laude, a professor of religion at Georgetown University, collects twenty-four prayers from the world’s religions, and accompanying essays, in his splendid anthology, Pray Without Ceasing: The Way of Invocation in World’s Religions.
ForeWord Reviews
