"The Prayer of the Priest"

Book Reviews
by Rev. Graeme Watson, Anglican Priest, London;

"This is a most useful book to put into the hands of your busy, perhaps over-active, parish priest. I wish it has been put into my hands years ago. Bill Eckert is one such priest, working for many years in New Jersey. He writes from the heart about the need for a contemplative dimension to the priestly life, without which public ministry can become sterile, unreal, and stressful. How many priests, one wonders, could have avoided burn-out and spiritual breakdown if they had been helped to meditate in the way of silence and stillness! As the title page indicates, the book contains reflections by priests working in Asia, Australia, North America, and Europe. They all have interesting stories to tell about how they come to discover the teaching of John Main. The sad thing is that very few of them were taught the prayer of silent contemplation in their theological training and formation, or if they were, they were given no help to deal with the inevitable distractions, the well-known “treeful of monkeys all chattering away”. Most had to discover meditation for themselves, very often without much help from their senior colleagues. Some of these priests are now fully engaged in a ministry of leading or running retreat centres. Others, like Fr Joe Pereira in India, have pioneered a ministry of healing drug-addicts in which meditation becomes part of the rehabilitation programme. Richard Chartres, Anglican Bishop of London, and Michael Putney, Roman Catholic Bishop of Townsville, Australia have each written a discerning Foreword. “A busy life can squeeze out one of the things it is impossible to delegate, that simple waiting upon God which lays us open to annunciations too deep for words. It is these communications from the field in which our lives unfold that make the difference between a ministry reduced to mere descriptions of the spiritual map and one which is charged with transforming energies” (Richard Chartres)."

* * * * *

Review by Rev. Julia Gill

"Prior to my ordination, I imagined that a parish priest spent most of the time immersed in holy matters – devoting time to prayer, studying the Bible, visiting the sick. Alas, the reality is far from this ideal. The average priest spends a significant amount of time wading through bureaucracy, fighting worship wars, and ensuring that year-end financial commitments are met. Fr. William Eckert, a parish priest himself, offers this book to “direct the prayer of the parish priest to the source of the priestly life, to Jesus Christ, the risen Lord who dwells within the depths of our hearts and is our support for all the responsibilities of our pastoral role.” (p. xvi). The prayer Eckert recommends is Christian meditation, the practice of stillness and silence re-introduced to the Christian church by John Main, and based on the teachings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers . . .

** Check the entire review!

Rev. Gill is an Anglican parish priest in Kitchener, Ontario, where she shares parish ministry with her husband, also a priest. She is a spiritual director, the mother of one teenage son, and has experienced the fruit of over four years of meditation.

* * * * *