HUNGRY FOR GOD:
Practical Help in Personal Prayer
By Ralph Martin
Servant Books, an imprint of St Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2007; 2nd edition,
pb, 149pp; $25.95.
Distributed by Rainbow Book Agencies, 303 Arthur St, Fairfield, Vic 3078. Telephone: (03) 9481 6611.
Email: rba@rainbowbooks.com Website: www.rainbowbooks.com.au
Reviewed by MARILYN RODRIGUES
This book did remind me of my hunger for God and I felt compelled to pray right away, so at least in one sense it fulfilled its promise of practical help.
Hungry for God was first published in 1974.
The new material includes relevant addresses and writings of Pope John Paul II, as well as reflections borne of the author’s additional years of experience in prayer.
Ralph Martin is a Catholic lay evangelist, a husband, a father of six children and grandfather of three.
After briefly describing his own early experiences of faith, prayer and the charismatic movement, he outlines the basics of Christianity; belief in God the father, his son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, in a way which is broadly accessible.
His advice is aimed at the beginner wanting to pray and reveal their own intimate relationship with God.
It covers finding a regular time and place for prayer and spiritual reading, the types of distractions in prayer, and how to pray.
His advice on overcoming anxiety, guilt, preoccupation, fatigue and ‘wrong’ relationships, all of which can interfere with our prayer life, reminds us that praying well is so closely tied (indeed crucial) to living well more generally.
He also writes of the centrality of the Mass, the need to belong to a Christian community, and of finding a sympathetic spiritual director.
He covers a key event for the charismatic movement, Pentecost 1998.
Pope John Paul II invited the related ecclesial movements and communities to Rome to celebrate them and reaffirmed the institutional and charismatic dimensions of the Church as ‘co-essential’.
Martin writes on personal prayer from the perspective of the charismatic, deeply mindful that prayer is the work of the Holy Spirit.
He touches briefly on speaking in tongues, and he understands the reserve many have towards the charismatic movements.
Not all communities are well-founded, he says, and these give the rest a bad name.
His reflections on prayer and his advice are insightful, compassionate and solidly grounded in Catholic faith and tradition.
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