Catholic Review of: Prayer: The Key to Salvation

I love this book! I have a feeling it will be one of the books on my shelf that I continually go back to re-read and will gain new insights from it each time. Father Mueller makes it quite clear that our salvation depends upon our prayer life: "We cannot be saved unless we fulfill the will of God… we are unable to do God’s will unless we are assisted by Divine grace… we obtain this grace by prayer alone; that consequently we must pray in order to be saved."

Father Mueller makes you feel overwhelmed… the intensity, the length, and the frequency of the interior lives of the Saints is indeed tremendous! Father Mueller does not let up; we are all called to that same intensity of prayer and deep interior life that the Saints lived out and he points this out with no apology. It comes to the point where you feel like you should put the book away and give up because you are already so far behind! But then– one of my favorite parts of this book– Father Mueller builds you up: "Softly, my friend; have a little patience! Rome was not built in one day. The saints did not acquire the spirit of prayer all at once; the practice of prayer was not natural to them either, at first; but they persevered in it in spite of every obstacle, and were at last raised to a high degree of contemplation."

Father Mueller then follows up with plenty of examples from the lives of the Saints, and practical tips for slowly acquiring the means of achieving such progress in prayer.

The book is divided into several sections, and not all of them need to be read in order. Father Mueller first speaks of the necessity of prayer both in general and then for specific groups of people (sinners, the just, seminarians), the efficacy of prayer, the conditions of prayer, how to acquire a spirit of prayer, the praises of prayer, the practice of meditation, and then closes the book with a prayer to be said every day to obtain the graces necessary for salvation. Also included towards the end is St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Conversing Continually and Familiarly with God.

You can purchase this book here.