Title: The Prophet: The Inner Meaning of Prayer  Author: David Torkington  ISBN: 0-8189-0851-3  Paperback: vii + 160 pp.  Price: $9.95 + shipping  To Order call:  1 800-343-ALBA (2522)  Please have your Master  or Visa card ready To order online click here.

In The Prophet: The Inner Meaning of Prayer, the second volume of his trilogy, David Torkington presents a brilliant exposition of the inner meaning of prayer and the truths that underpin the life of the spirit. He does this by narrating two parallel stories, one from the past which details the spiritual adventures of a young man in search of the spiritual wisdom that finally leads him to embrace the lifestyle of a hermit on the island of Calvay; and the other from the present which tells of the hermit's mysterious disappearance. In the course of his narrative, he takes the reader beyond the first stages of the life of prayer to an understanding of the role of the cross, sacrifice and self-denial in one's growth in the spirit. The spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi plays an important part in illustrating this vital truth and Padre Pio exemplifies the charity which is its goal.

 

David Torkington is a popular columnist for the Catholic Herald in the United Kingdom and for Our Sunday Visitor in the States. He is also the author of several other highly acclaimed works on prayer published by ST PAULS / Alba House: The Hermit, The Mystic, How to Pray: A Practical Guide, and Inner Life.  Reviews "One gains the immediate impression on taking up these books that they are not some glib response to an editorial suggestion but rather something carefully meditated. Torkington writes about prayer and one feels that he writes from experience, with the authority of one who has prayed. The hermit in question is Peter Calvay, who lives off the island of Barra in the Hebrides. The narrator is in pursuit of Peter and his knowledge of prayer. When the two meet, various conversations ensue and, with Peter as our guide, we are taken on a tour from the depths of semi-Pelagianism to the heights of mystical experience, encountering some serious spiritual theology on the way. Torkington has the happy knack of marrying style and content. At no time do we think this is a prayer manual dressed up as a novel, the novelistic trappings being the honey to snare the flies. Rather, we realize that prayer isn't simply a matter of theory, but something to be lived -- and these books succeed in presenting theology as lived experience. In an age such as ours where faith and life are so dangerously divergent, this is a considerable achievement. Torkington's books may well end up on the shelf marked "Popular Theology." This is a little unjust as these books are far from simplistic; indeed, they are a welcome antidote to modern ignorance. But St. Francis de Sales wrote "popular" works too, and if these books end up next to Introduction to the Devout Life, they will be in fitting company." --David McLaurin, winner of the "Daily Express Book of the Year Award" for his novel Bishop of San Fernando, in the Catholic Herald, Sept. 6, 1998  "I would like to thank David McLaurin for his excellent review of David Torkington's Trilogy on Prayer (Catholic Herald, 6 September). I am sure that there will be many others who, like myself, will be grateful to him for drawing attention to what is true gold, amidst so much spiritual dross published today. Would that I could send a copy to every Catholic family for, though it contains so much profound spirituality, the author has the knack of making it available to all. David McLaurin is right to put this Trilogy side by side with St. Francis de Sales' popular masterpiece." --Sr. Margarita Schwind, O.P., Southampton "In this second volume of the trilogy, the author narrates two parallel stories about hermits to take the reader beyond the first stages of prayer to an understanding of the role of sacrifice and self-denial." --Raven's Bread: Food for Those in Solitude, August 1999 Top of Page