Week 1: Introduction — Heartfelt Longing

1.Foster famously begins by confessing that he did not feel worthy to write a book on prayer and that his own prayer life was often 'thin and anemic.' Why do you think he chose to open with this confession rather than with credentials or enthusiasm? What effect did it have on you as a reader?

2.How would you honestly describe your own prayer life right now — not as you wish it were, but as it actually is? What words come to mind?

3.Foster describes prayer as 'the central avenue God uses to transform us.' What does it mean to you that prayer is not primarily about changing God's mind or getting things from God, but about being changed ourselves?

4.Foster draws on a wide range of voices — Catholic mystics, Protestant reformers, Orthodox saints, and ordinary believers. Does this breadth encourage you or make you cautious? What do you bring to this study from your own tradition's understanding of prayer?

5.The book is organized around three movements: Moving Inward, Moving Upward, and Moving Outward. Before reading further, which of these three movements do you think is most underdeveloped in your own prayer life? Why?

6.Foster suggests that many people feel a gap between the prayer life they long for and the one they actually live. What do you believe is the primary obstacle to prayer in your life — busyness, doubt, distraction, a sense of unworthiness, or something else?

7.How does the image of prayer as 'finding the heart's true home' (the book's subtitle) strike you? What would it mean for prayer to feel like home rather than like a duty or a discipline?

8.How does Jesus's own life of prayer — rising early, withdrawing to lonely places, praying through the night before major decisions — shape your expectations for what a genuine prayer life might look like?