Contemplative prayer is primarily about love, the love which is God himself. Intimate communion with God is the deepest desire of every human heart. It's the key to holiness and happiness, to peace and purpose. But it's purely a gift. We can't make it happen. We can, however, dispose our hearts to receive it through God's grace.

Cultivating a Contemplative Heart and Becoming a Person of Prayer challenges laypeople to pursue the heights of holiness and the depths of contemplative spirituality no less than any clergy or consecrated religious. This book explores the various qualities of a contemplative heart and how to nurture them.

Through this book, you will:

• Learn to love truth and treasure God's will.
• Be helped to hear God's voice and come to appreciate the vital function of a contemplative in the Body of Christ.
• Understand why prayer is so powerful.
• Witness the unexpected victory found in surrender.

By cultivating a contemplative heart, a heart in love with Jesus Christ, you can experience a deep interior life filled with an ever-growing awareness of the presence of God.

We don’t need to flee the world to become a contemplative. Mary Beth Kremski shows us how to cultivate a rich inner life at home, at work — amid all the distractions and sorrows and even doubts. She speaks the language of ordinary people in ordinary circumstances, and that makes all the difference. Prayer goes from daunting to doable. This book can change your life.” — Mike Aquilina, author and co-founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

“The Lord is calling each one of us to go deeper into prayer with him. In this book, Mary Beth Kremski offers insight into a path made known to the great mystics — contemplative prayer. Anyone looking for a handbook on how to pray like the saints should surely pick up this book.” — Rachel Balducci, co-host of The Gist on CatholicTV, author of Make My Life Simple: Bringing Peace to Heart and Home

“Mary Beth Kremski’s Cultivating a Contemplative Heart and Becoming a Person of Prayer is a gift to the Church and to every heart hungry for deeper union with God. This book showed me how a contemplative, prayerful life isn’t just for cloistered souls but is a fire of love and listening that overflows into evangelization right where I am. If you’re ready for the grace of a contemplative heart and to let prayer change you from the inside out, this book will prepare you beautifully for that journey.” — Mary Lenaburg, award-winning author of Be Brave in the Scared

“Mary Beth Kremski’s new book is one I didn’t know I needed — but couldn’t put down. Brilliant, unique, and beautifully introspective, Kremski is a masterful spiritual Sherpa who guides the reader into a deeper, more contemplative life of prayer. By the end, though not perfectly, I found myself embracing the truth that ‘a surrendered heart is the desired disposition of a contemplative soul.’” — Allison Gingras, podcaster and author of Jesus Heals: Finding Hope, Wholeness, and Peace

“I can’t think of anything more important, in this age when we are surrounded by the violence of noise and the frenzy of endless activity, to cultivate — and fiercely protect — than a contemplative heart. Whether ‘contemplation’ is a new concept to you or you just need to be reminded of the supreme importance of keeping a receptive, contemplative posture in prayer, I recommend making room on your nightstand or in your prayer corner for Cultivating a Contemplative Heart and Becoming a Person of Prayer!” — Claire Dwyer,

best-selling author, This Present Paradise, and co-founder, Write These Words