"In these pages, St. Thomas Aquinas gives you the help that you need to pray more attentively and to become a better Christian. He emplys more than six hundred Scriptural references to illuminate the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary and the Apostles' Creed. St. Thomas' clear, simple, phrase-by-phrase explanations of the three greatest of all Christian prayers reveal their relations to Scripture, to the sacraments, to the Church, to the moral law, and to salvation history. As you read these pages, you will discover how our familiar, daily prayers are far richer than we realize: indeed, they embody the very substance of our Christian faith." [Book jacket].

In this work Olivier Clement comments on three traditional prayers. The author's intention is to discern, within the depths of the texts themselves a trinitarian revelation, the ways of communion. The other prayers are familiar in the Eastern tradition: first the prayer of the Holy Spirit which, in the Byzantine rite, precedes any liturgical action, and on a more personal level, any work of reflection or witness. The final prayer is characteristic of the services of Great Lent and sums up the interior struggle for trust, humility and respect for each other.

This beginner's guide to prayer will guide Catholics who need help learning to pray.