Experiencing God: The Three Stages of Prayer by Thomas H. Green

Experiencing God: The Three Stages of Prayer Reviews

• 
  John Rey

  Reading this book is in line with my current readings on prayer and after a retreat experience that I had about two months ago. Reading this helped me make sense of the prayer experience with God. It's as if Fr Green is sitting beside me and commenting on my prayer experience whilst reading this book. I have never been so affirmed in my prayer like any other book yet. Peter Kreeft's book, Prayer for Beginners provided some details. But this book is like your personal spiritual director on paper which describes the dynamics of the prayer experience from the point of view of an experienced spiritual director. I have to be careful in writing the previous sentence because there is no substitute for a face-to-face conversation with a spiritual director, but this book just feels like so!
  
  I like how Fr Green explained things using analogies and examples to describe how we progress in prayer and in building a relationship with God, which is essentially done in and through prayer. He broke this down into three stages which are not necessarily needed to be experienced in a linear fashion but in a way that aids each stage to describe a dynamic experience wherein we experience God.
  
  I would say that the way we progress can be likened to a spiraling fashion -- that it is as if we circle back to certain things but we spiral toward something deeper or higher when we get another round a certain stage that Fr Green wrote about. For me, a college professor told us that, this can be likened to a structure of a song, where we usually repeat the chorus or the refrain, but each time we sing a verse, then the chorus again, the chorus takes on a different meaning, perhaps a richer and deeper meaning. It doesn't mean that we lose interest in singing and hearing the chorus again, but that we develop a richer appreciation of it when we hear and/or sing it again.
  
  Even the writing of Fr Green here seems to have a similar spiraling fashion. The reader might notice how he repeats certain things he wrote in the previous chapters, but it is only to remind the reader of the previous points that would only enrich the point he is discussing. This is noticeable in the latter chapters since this is where things go deeper and richer.
  
  I have learned a lot about prayer through this book. Other books of Fr Green are on my list of books I have yet to read. This is definitely a book I would recommend, however, I would not recommend this to just anyone. I think someone who is going through dryness or who has gone through dryness in prayer is someone whom I can recommend this book. Also, I think this is a good resource for spiritual directors as it is a good reference and offers some insights into holding spiritual conversations with a pray-er under their guidance.
• 
  Tom Wascoe

  Excellent treatment of the deepening levels of prayer that lead to experiencing God. A book that is not to be read but rather is to be contemplated. Moving and inspiring and yet daunting and challenging as one contemplates his or her own spiritual journey to God.
• 
  Cheenee

  Through this book, I learned so much about how prayer changes over time, the value of penance and reconciliation, and how to experience God more deeply.
• 
  Photovy

  A bit of re-tread of Opening to God. One take-away. Contemplation.
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  Neil Saltmarsh

  This is a book on prayer that needs to be read a few times. Good advice and help particularly for contemplative praying.