The inner significance of Lent is best summed up in the triad of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. To quote Bishop Kallistos Ware, "Divorced from prayer and from the reception of the holy sacraments, unaccompanied by acts of compassion, our fasting becomes pharisaical or even demonic. It leads, not to contrition and joyfulness, put to pride, inward tension and irritability."
That said, here are our picks (among the myriad available) on prayer...
Beginning to Pray
by Anthony Bloom
"The day when God is absent, when He is silent—that is the beginning of prayer."
A contemporary Egyptian monastic points the way to those who desire, and are willing to sacrifice for, an existence formed by the practice of unceasing prayer.
Earthen Vessels: The Practice of Personal Prayer According to the Patristic Tradition
by Gabriel Bunge, O.S.B.
Written by a Benedictine monk and patristic scholar, this book belongs in the hands of anyone who seriously desires a life of prayer.
Prayer for Beginners (email or call for availability)
by Peter Kreeft
A clear and eminently reasonable approach to prayer for people not very good at praying.
Clinging: The Experience of Prayer
by Emilie Griffin
First Fruits of Prayer
A fine exposition of the Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete.
Prayer: Living With God
by Simon Tugwell
Focuses on our relationship with God and ways we can learn to enjoy and appreciate that relationship through prayer.
Prayer in Practice
by Simon Tugwell
An unblinkingly honest and even humorous treatise on different forms of prayer.
Three Prayers
by Olivier Clement
A meditation on three of the most essential prayers of the Christian tradition.
The Art of Prayer
compiled by Igumen Chariton
A privileged glimpse into a sort of working journal of a monk intent on achieving unceasing prayer.
Blunt and trustworthy advice about the right and wrong ways to approach the practice of the Jesus Prayer.
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