Sister Wendy on Prayer

Starred review from August 13, 2007
Sister Wendy, the unlikely TV host whose reflections on art have made her an international star, is a Carmelite nun who spends "many hours a day in pure prayer," including solitary silence. So she knows her stuff when she says that there is no secret to prayer or magic formula that can be taught: readers must simply "stand before God unprotected," and they will know what to do. Of course, Sister Wendy offers some helpful discussion of various traditional prayers such as the Our Father and the Jesus prayer. Mingled with musings on great works of art (plus a biographical sketch of Sister Wendy by David Willcock), this all-too-brief guide is an elegant and eloquent rumination on Christian prayer.

October 1, 2007
It is one of the finer paradoxes of our time that Beckett, aka Sister Wendy, who professes constantly that she craves the Carmelite's solitude in meditation, has become one of the more familiar faces on television and book jackets. Beckett's idiosyncratic perceptions of art and art history, because they are so remote from the arcane language of the museum professional, amount to something like genius; the same is true of her current volume on prayer. She cannot tell you what a theologian ought to say; instead, she tells you what she knows. Beckett's new volume still engages artit includes full-color reproductions of several canvases pertinent to her reflections. Highly recommended.

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