Many of us never get beyond an immature understanding of prayer, using it chiefly as a means of reminding God what we'd like, or as a panic button in an emergency. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this, but it doesn't begin to scratch the surface of what the poet George Herbert described as 'a land of spices' to be explored.

Here, writers from across the Christian centuries share their timeless insights into prayer. Grouped into seven sections of: Awareness; Exploration; Passion; Pain, Patience; Companionship; and, Abandonment. It richly illustrates Dorothy Soelle's maxim that prayer is indeed a 'language of love'.

The writers include Thomas Merton, Dostoevsky, RS Thomas, Rowan Williams, Augustine, Basil Hume, Paul Tillich, Julian of Norwich and many more.