The Book of Not So Common Prayer: A New Way to Pray, A New Way to Live Paperback – Illustrated, June 3, 2014

Keep this book by your prayer place because it--along with the Holy Scriptures--will feed and nourish your soul, as well as encouraging you to enter into that sacred conversation we can have with God.

When I wrote Linda McCullough Moore a fan email after reading her story "On My Way Now" in the April, 2014 issue of The Sun Magazine she described herself as "deeply Christian". I asked her in a follow-up email what she meant by this. Now having read her book, The Book Of Not So Common Prayer, I understand much more clearly what she meant.Linda McCullough Moore is not a "cultural Christian". She is a real one and lives the life bringing herself to prayer 4 times per day for 20 minutes, a practice she spends a 160 page book explaining. She explains her prayer life and what she wants it to be in every day language with wit, humbleness, and clarity that made me admire her and maybe want to emulate her practice. I see prayer a little differently than she does, her approach being more traditionally Christian, and I, a former Roman Catholic and now a Unitarian Universalist, more eclectic perhaps, and based on Aldous Huxley's Perennial Philosophy, the writings of the Stoics, the meditative practices of Osho, and the prayer practices recommended in the workbook of A Course In Miracles.I don't imagine God as an "other person" who I talk to like an imaginary friend, but rather as an experience of Love's presence getting into a flow state of becoming one with everything as the state of bliss pursued by meditation. I told Linda in an email, I think of God as a verb, the ultimate force of the universe, the unified Godhead, and taking 20 minutes 4 times a day to connect to this wellspring does change one's sense of oneself and the world, no question about it.I have great respect and gratitude of Linda's sincerity, genuineness, and candor in discussing what for most people is a very intimate and rarely described experience: praying. With the encouragement of Linda's book, I am going to work at my prayer life more seriously, regularly, and enthusiastically. For that, The Book Of Not So Common Prayer, is a great blessing.

In The Book of Not So Common Prayer: A New Way to Pray, A New Way to Live, the Author shares with the reader her discoveries about prayer and the practice of praying that has transformed her life. In the beginning I could feel the excitement and wonder as the Author begins explaining her new way of praying. After a few chapters what I discovered is that very little in this book is new to me now.I'm sure many will find this book very helpful, especially new believers. It is inspirational and encouraging. It is also a lot to absorb and digest at one time and should be read and studied slowly and carefully. I would've loved to have had this book when I committed my life to Christ at the age of 11. I had no idea how to pray or what to pray about. I just prayed. I'm much older now and find that I practice "praying without ceasing" daily. It's a habit now.I agree with much of what the Author teaches in this book. However, I also found instances when I strongly disagreed with the Author. When talking about Lent, a season the Author adores, she mentions things that she has given up during that season. She states "My yearly practice is to give up TV, because it is a thing I notice when it's gone. In addition, one year I gave up not trusting God for Lent. One year I gave up being depressed." Gave up being depressed? How does one give up being depressed? Speaking as someone who suffers from clinical depression it is not something that can be picked up or laid down at will. It just doesn't work that way.I also respectfully disagree with Ms. Moore regarding her opinion on those who pray while driving. She feels it is not fair to God or other drivers to pray while driving because you are distracted. I spend a lot of time praying while driving. I find that talking to God while I'm driving is no more distracting than listening to the radio or carrying on a conversation with a passenger in the vehicle. Being a mother, wife and having a career outside the home are very demanding. Some days praying while driving to and from work was the only "quiet time" I could find and I have no doubt that this time of prayer, although while driving to and from work, kept me sane.The Book of Not So Common Prayer is worth a look if you're disappointed in your prayer life and interested in making it more meaningful or if you just don't know how to pray and want to begin. However I really didn't find what this book offers regarding prayer "uncommon" at all.