‘‘Lord, teach us to pray.’’ Luke 11:1

As disciples of Christ, we are constantly learning how to pray. And learning how to pray involves learning about ourselves, learning about our God, learning about our journey in life as individuals and as members of the community called the church.

Being human in prayer reminds us of this, encouraging us to reflect on the God we worship and to whom we pray.

The cover image depicting the formation of Adam – from the cathedral in Chartres – inspires how we think about our God – gentle, tender, loving. And revealed even more lovingly in Jesus of Nazareth whose Gospel teaching about prayer was firmly based on an understanding of God as Father, love personified, forgiving, accepting, compassionate.

The book explores the nature of prayer – its place in Scripture, in the liturgy of the church, in personal and community devotions. It also acknowledges our occasional difficulties in praying with sound, practical suggestions about how we pray, finding time for prayer, aware that our ‘Teach us to pray’ is an ongoing invitation to the Lord to open our minds and hearts to the richness of prayer and its place in our life journey in faith.

Frank O'Loughlin is a priest of the Archdiocese of Melbourne. He studied Fundamental Theology at the Urban University in Rome and gained a doctorate on the topic of Theology and Sociology of Knowledge. He studied Liturgy at the Irish Institute of Pastoral Liturgy and lectured in Fundamental and Sacramental Theology and in Liturgy at Catholic Theological College, Melbourne. He was parish priest of Sacred Heart Parish, Sandringham, for nearly 24 years and is currently a retired assistant priest in the Central Eastern group of parishes - Balwyn, Camberwell, Deepdene, Surrey Hills and Wattle Park.