Embracing the World

Embracing the World is your guide to finding a deeper relationship with God through prayer and to seeing how your prayers can contribute to healing the world. Author Jane E. Vennard helps you understand how to best use your spiritual gifts and graces to serve God as well as the cause of peace and social justice here on earth.

Embracing the World reveals the twofold nature of prayer: as both contemplation and action. Vennard explains that prayer is a cycle where prayer leads to service and service leads to reflection and back to God. Throughout the book, she explores many different forms of outward-reaching prayer and includes a wealth of vivid descriptions, helpful explanations, captivating stories, and biblical and theological reflections.

Preface.

1. Grounding Ourselves in God.

2. Praying for Others and the World.

3. Praying with Our Actions.

4. Praying for Renewal.

5. Praying to Be Transformed.

6. Praying for Discernment.

7. Trusting the Mercy of God.

Afterword.

Notes.

Suggested Reading.

Acknowledgments.

The Author.

Index.

Jane E. Vennard is the author of three previous books on prayer and is a popular speaker, retreat leader, teacher, and spiritual director. This book grows out of her teaching at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, where she witnessed firsthand the many shifts in her students' lives as they began to focus their prayer in new ways and to discern what actions they might take to promote justice and peace in the world around them. "A wise, helpful and nourishing book, filled with personal stories and practical guidance."
—Marcus J. Borg, author, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time and Reading the Bible Again for the First Time

"Jane Vennard's carefully constructed book creates much-needed bridges— between the personal and political, the mystical and mundane, the pastoral and prophetic— so that pilgrims can connect to the world and beyond."
—Swanee Hunt, former United States Ambassador to Austria

"In Embracing the World: Praying for Justice and Peace, Jane Vennard gives us fresh and creative perspectives on the many questions that surround prayer. With numerous and varied examples, she shows us how to connect with others through personal prayer to help bring peace in our chaotic, afflicted world. This is a very timely book. While its focus is primarily Christian, readers who follow other spiritual traditions will not go unrewarded."
—Patricia Hopkins, coauthor, The Feminine Face of God: the Unfolding of the Sacred in Women

"A comprehensive and contemporary look at the meaning and power that will speak to all who are hungry for the voice of God in today's world. Jane Vennard reaffirms our essential connectedness to the mercy and comfort of God who forever waits to hear our voices and listen to our silences."
—Edwina Gateley, minister, speaker, poet, and author of I Hear a Seed Growing