Prayer / Pope Benedict XVI

"Lord, teach us to pray." Luke 11:1

What exactly is prayer? If God knows our hearts why do we still pray? How did Jesus pray, and why? What can we learn from the prayers of the patriarchs and saints? How can we hear God speaking through our prayers? How can we pray despite our weaknesses? What can Mary teach us about prayer?

Wherever we are on our spiritual journey, we all have questions about prayer. Even the first disciples asked Jesus how to pray.

Pope Benedict XVI considered prayer such an important topic that he devoted nearly a year to it in his Wednesday audiences. Those talks have been gathered into one volume, Prayer. Here the Holy Father, in his deeply theological, yet approachable manner guides us through the many questions to find answers that ultimately draw us closer to God through Christ in prayer.

Born in 1927 in Germany as Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI has been head of the Roman Catholic Church since April 2005. A prolific author, theologian and university professor, Ratzinger served as an "expert" at the Second Vatican Council, and was tapped in 1977 by Pope Paul VI to lead the German Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. In 1981, Pope John Paul II called him to Rome to head the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he served until his papal election.