Praying Dangerously instructs us that we can grow up spiritually, leaving behind a childish relationship to prayer as a superstitious ritual or mere plea for favors. It encourages readers to recognize the difference between prayer that asks only for reassurance, and prayer that asks for the Ultimate, and stands for transformation. “We can cease being ‘victims’ of God’s Will, while at the same time embracing genuine surrender and reliance on the irrefutable power of love,” says author and retreat leader Regina Sara Ryan.

Readers of the first edition (published in 2001) were enthusiastic in their praise, calling it a brave and useful book. Prayer groups and church congregations around the U.S. have used it for study, and it has been translated into Dutch, German and French. And the message of the book is more relevant now than it was 10 years ago. The insecurities of our times draw us inward or back to our churches. In prayer groups and retreats of all kinds we are looking for comfort and consolation, for spiritual direction, or for answers to the eternal questions that have always challenged humanity. This book is a valued contribution in that search.

This 10th anniversary edition is fully revised, with several completely new chapters including: “The High Cost of Forgiveness”—a subject that challenges everyone—and “Praying on the Subway,” about how our generally busy and often chaotic lives can provide us with a constant impetus for blessing others.