Get your hands on this new prayer book by Julie Cragon, but don’t read it all the way through.
That’s not what Talking to God is for. It’s a small book (on purpose), just right to slide into your handbag for easy reference in prayer emergencies.
Julie Cragon’s book is all about the prayer emergency. We all have them: the morning we wake up short on sleep and shorter on temper, the day that brings a to-do list that’s much too long, the nights we can’t sleep, the times we’re tempted to be less-than-gentle. Talking to God has a prayer for all of these moments and more.
You’ll find more than just prayer in this book; many prayers are accompanied by quotes from Scripture, saints or spiritual writers.
My favorite spot in the book is titled “Short Prayers to Keep You Close to God.” These are one-sentence prayers that get right down to what you need and help us focus on Christ during our busiest days.
As Grace Mazza Urbanski of the Apostleship of Prayer (and CatholicMom.com) observes in the Foreword, “Converting daily encounters into lifesaving prayer changes us. This way of living faith in daily life can only be sustained, however, if we nourish our relationship with God through periods of formal prayer.”
Recently on “Conversations with Cardinal Dolan” on SiriusXM’s Catholic Channel, Timothy Cardinal Dolan encouraged listeners to make a morning offering each day, first thing. That’s a habit I’d like to develop. Talking to God contains several variations on the morning offering; I’ll choose one to memorize so that I can start my day off right.
This book will be released on Friday, May 6: just in time for Mother’s Day. It’s a terrific gift for moms!
Barb Szyszkiewicz is a wife, mom of 3 young adults, and a Secular Franciscan. She is editor at CatholicMom.com. Barb enjoys writing, cooking, and reading, and is a music minister at her parish and an avid Notre Dame football and basketball fan. Find her blog at FranciscanMom and her family’s favorite recipes with nutrition information for diabetics at Cook and Count. Her booklet, The Handy Little Guide to Prayer, is available from Our Sunday Visitor.