Seek and You Will Find: Discovering a Practice of Prayer

by Rhonda Mawhood Lee

Prayer is a primary way Christians fulfill the Great Commandment to love God, our neighbor, and ourselves, and it’s the foundation of everything else we do to show that love. Yet, for something so integral to the practice of our faith, prayer remains stubbornly mysterious. What happens when we pray? Do our prayers change anything? How should we pray? These questions persist.Although some of these mysteries won't be resolved on this side of eternal life, Jesus calls his disciples to pray anyway and assures us that our prayers matter. In prayer, we consciously devote time to cultivating our relationship with God, trusting that this relationship can transform our souls, our lives, and the world.But even when we want to pray, the question How do we pray? Rhonda Mawhood Lee explores practices from the Lord’s Prayer to praying with the psalms and in song, from the eucharist and the rosary to “moving” prayers offered when walking a labyrinth, doodling, baking, or devoting another activity to God. Scripture and tradition show us that when we seek God through prayer, we will find, by grace, the One who has already reached out to us in love. Seek and You Will Find is a comforting, challenging, and instructive companion in your quest to develop the relationship God deeply desires with you. Born and raised in Québec, the daughter of a francophone father and a Scottish immigrant mother, Rhonda Mawhood Lee moved to North Carolina to pursue a doctorate in history at Duke University. There, she found her life’s companion and stayed. She has taught college and worked as an advocate for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence and now serves as an Episcopal priest, writer, and spiritual director.Lee’s essays on faith and life have appeared in outlets like The Jesuit Review, Faith & Leadership, and “Modern Love” (The New York Times). She is the author of Through with Kings and The Marriage of George and Jean Edwards (Cascade Books, 2012).

196 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 2, 2021

Reviews

[Jim Mcadams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reverend Lee, or Rhonda as she is known among her church flock, has, in Seek and You Will Find, written a scholarly, and at the same time, a warm and loving treatise on the practice of prayer. She draws on her vast ecclesiastical knowledge and training to create in this reader, first, a sense of wonder at the historical importance of prayer, and, second, the realization that prayer is not something foreign or difficult to understand. Rather, prayer is the practical extension of each mind that God has created back toward the mind of God with the intent of completing that circle of communication. When that happens, the results, as Rev. Lee writes, are spectacular. I heartily recommend this book to all everyone who believes in prayer, to those interested in expanding their knowledge and understanding of prayer, and to those who are just in pursuit of a good read about this phenomenon that is so much a part of so many humans' lives.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feeling like you don't know the "right" way to pray? This book is written in a way that shows that there is not a wrong way to pray. Rev. Rhonda explains multiple ways to pray with clear explanations and a reminder that God just wants to be in conversation with us.