Where Jesus Prayed: Illuminating the Lord's Prayer in the Holy Land

by Danielle Shroyer

Overview

When Danielle Shroyer went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she had one goal: to enjoy God, fully present to the presence of the Holy. Tired of her own wordy prayers and theological thoughts as a pastor, she wanted her prayers to be quiet listening rather than incessant speaking. When the Lord's Prayer came to mind in the midst of her silence, she welcomed the words of Jesus as the only words she needed. Thus began a rhythm that lasted for two weeks of pilgrimage, as she traveled, praying only the words Jesus taught. Immersed in a sense of place, she felt the prayer coming to life in new and unexpected ways.

The Lord's Prayer has remained with us for two thousand years for many reasons. Here it returns to its place of origin, carried deep in the heart of a pilgrim traveler as she walks where Jesus walked and discovers within its words the depth, beauty and truth of the One who prayed them first.

"For a while, my prayer was only breath, rhythmic and slow. Then, after a while, it seemed only fitting to pray the Lord's Prayer—nothing more, nothing less. Just Jesus's words of hope for this world and for these his children. Our Father, who art in heaven. . . ." —from the Introduction

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612617459
Publisher:	Paraclete Press
Publication date:	10/01/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	168
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Danielle Shroyer is an author, speaker, and blogger. She serves as the Theologian-in-Residence at Journey Church, one of the first independent emerging churches in the country, where she also pastored for eight years. Danielle is also the author of The Boundary Breaking God: An Unfolding Story of Hope and Promise. A graduate of Baylor University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she speaks often on issues of theology, faith, church leadership, culture, and story. She has written for Patheos, The Hardest Question, and Immerse magazine, and she blogs at www.danielleshroyer.com. Danielle lives with her husband and two children in Dallas, Texas.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Danielle Shroyer has written a beautiful book, a wise book, a supremely interesting book, and a book that can help you do one of the most important and meaningful things in life … encounter God, as you are, wherever you are. —Brian D. McLaren, author/activist

“Danielle’s beautiful and wise ‘love letter to the Holy Land’ brought me right back to the smells, sounds, and textures of that extraordinary place, and it drew me into a deeper connection with the Lord’s Prayer along the way. This book is an invitation to walk with Jesus in a richer way, and I’ve learned from every step along that journey.” —Shauna Niequist, author of Bread & Wine and Savor.

As someone who regularly leads immersion trips to the Holy Land, I am familiar with the best resources available. Shroyer’s book now tops the list. She presents unexpected, new ways of viewing the places, and she centers it entirely around a conversation with Jesus. Highly recommended! —Jaime Clark-Soles, Associate Professor of New Testament, SMU Perkins School of Theology
 

Editorial Reviews

Where Jesus Prayed: Illuminating The Lord’s Prayer in the Holy Land, is an unabashed “love letter to the Holy Land and to all its pilgrims who travel there (in mind or in body) in hopes of seeing a deeper and truer glimpse of the One in whose steps we seek to follow” (ix).  This devotional book is the fruit of a two-week journey she took with a group of practicing pastors to places connected with Jesus’s life and ministry.  In it she shares her practice of approaching these sites through the lens of The Lord’s Prayer, something she found herself repeating often as she visited places from Capernaum to Megiddo to Jerusalem to Bethlehem.  We go on the journey with her to experience how those familiar prayer words sounded in varied sanctuaries and locales.

“Shroyer doesn’t give us much introduction to herself, but she makes a trustworthy guide.  A Presbyterian pastor, who self-describes as ‘half-Lebanese, half-WASP’ (81), Shroyer leads one of the most interesting ‘emerging’ communities in Dallas, Journey Church, as their theologian-in-residence.  She is an author and blogger with a Princeton Theological Seminary pedigree and she is in demand as a speaker.  What that means is that she is at home in settings as varied as classrooms to bars where some of her most interesting small group ministries take place.

Given that background, one might expect an edgy, idiosyncratic book.  But if anything, Shroyer reaches back to some very traditional methods of devotional writing.  Each of the 20 chapters begins with an historic and descriptive account of a site Shroyer visited, a biblical passage related to the site, and then Shroyer’s own imaginative reflections on how the locale worked with Jesus’s words to lead her to new understandings.  The Lord’s Prayer is reprinted at the end of each chapter.

At times Shroyer can be Buechner-esque as when she imagines herself into the scene of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law: ‘Even in the midst of miracles, Jesus of Capernaum seems unflashy, as if healing were so integrally part of who he was that of course he spent time doing it here and there…I wonder if the very ordinariness of it, the fact that she just got up and moved right along into normal life as if nothing had happened, was so surprising and noteworthy and different that he [Mark] had to say it was like that or nobody would have believed it’ (10).

What we do have in this journey is Shroyer’s open heart and quick mind and her invitation to take an imaginative journey with her.  At the end of the book we have also been given The Lord’s Prayer as a gift once more – fresher and more alive than when we began.  Perhaps this prayer is the map that matters most – illuminating not only the Holy Land but every place where we hope to glimpse ‘the One in whose steps we seek to follow.’” —Alex Joyner, Englewood Review of Books, is the author, most recently, of A Space for Peace in the Holy Land: Listening to Modern Israel and Palestine 

From the Publisher