Receptive Prayer: Through Which God Nourishes, Heals, and Empowers

Grace Adolphsen Brame is a theologian whose ideas on prayer offer a great deal to followers of Christ, both old and new. Receptive Prayer and the companion manual for practice and group exploration demonstrate "receptive prayer" in very practical terms with many examples and exercises. Dr. Brame encourages us to see prayer as a dialogue with God, rather than a monologue of requests, as was often descriptive of my own prayers. She encourages us with the belief that God answers all our prayers, we must only be prepared to quiet our spirits and tune our senses to receive the answers. Receptive prayer in it's highest order is a meeting with God where we experience the love and acceptance of our Creator and where we open ourselves to explore every aspect of our being - even those areas that we've hidden from our own awareness. Dr. Brame seems to be telling us to continue to express ourselves and our needs in prayer, but she is also showing us the "other side" of prayer by teaching us how to experience God in prayer and to open ourselves to what he wishes to express to us and through us. The practice of Receptive Prayer, individually or in small groups, is a process that every Christian should explore. The results will likely be the opening of new pathways for understanding our relationship with God and the development of connections with other Christians that may last a lifetime and beyond.