Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools

1.Staton argues that the monastic tradition of prayer was never meant to be kept inside monastery walls — it was always meant to spill out into everyday life. Does that idea feel liberating or does it raise questions for you about whether "ordinary" life can really be a place of deep prayer?

1.Staton opens the chapter by observing how uncomfortable most modern people are with silence — we fill every gap with a screen, a playlist, or a notification. When was the last time you sat in genuine silence? What happened inside you?

1.What is the unanswered prayer that has done the most damage to your prayer life? You don't have to share all the details, but name the category — healing, relationships, provision, direction. How long have you been carrying it?

1.Staton notes that roughly one-third of the Psalms are laments — the largest single category in Israel's hymnbook. Does that proportion surprise you? What does it say about what God considers acceptable prayer?

1.How have you typically thought about confession — as punishment, as obligation, as relief, or as something else? Where did that understanding come from? How does it compare to the way Staton frames it?

1.Who are the people currently on your regular prayer list — if you have one? When you think about praying for others, what emotions come up? Obligation? Love? Uncertainty about whether it actually makes a difference?

1.Think of a prayer you have been praying for a long time — months, years, perhaps decades. What has that long waiting done to your faith? Has it deepened your trust, eroded it, or something more complicated than either?

1.Staton opens the chapter with an observation about how familiarity kills wonder — we stop seeing what we see every day. Think about something in your life right now — a relationship, a place, a physical sensation — that you have stopped seeing with fresh eyes. What would it take to see it again?

1.Before reading about the Examen, how did you typically end your days in terms of reflection or prayer? Did you review your day with God, or did the day simply end and the next one begin?

1.Staton's closing chapters move from individual prayer practices to the vision of a community shaped by prayer — like the early church in Acts 2, which devoted itself to prayer as a communal, corporate act. How does your current community reflect that vision? Where does it fall short, and what would need to change?

1.Go back to the sentence you wrote in Week 1 about what you hoped to find or experience by the end of this study. Read it now. How would you answer that hope? What did you find that you were looking for? What did you find that surprised you?