Pray through the Ages with Rev. Dr. Pete James
Rev. Dr. Pete James (MDiv ’79), adjunct professor of practical theology and board of trustees member, recently published his first book, Prayers from the Cloud: 100 Prayers through the Ages. In the preface, he speaks about how he struggled as a young person to be disciplined in prayer, how a “subtle burnout” necessitated he develop the practice, and how he was guided by the psalms and prayers of early Christians. Prayers from the Cloud, which is also available online and as a newsletter, is a natural development from Pete’s cultivated prayer life and passion for history, sparked by a family member in need of encouragement.
“I started sending prayers from church history to a cousin in 2022 who had serious back surgery and was quarantined for possible COVID. She texted me from the ICU that she felt all alone. My pastoral proclivities went into high alert. ‘You’re never alone,’ I reminded her, ‘God is with you.’ She was an active churchgoer who knew this message in her bones, but the extremis of her predicament caused her to lose sight of this fundamental reality. Since I had just been reading old prayers, I offered to send some her way. She accepted. I kept the prayers going for a few weeks until she felt better, and I ran out of readily available material. After a time, she wrote to tell me that she missed the prayers. ‘Do you have any more?’ she asked. How could I say no?”
In this new volume, Pete introduces readers to 100 Christians throughout history—among them, Polycarp, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, Hellen Keller, and Henri Nouwen—and shares one each of their recorded prayers.