A Sacred Primer - Elizabeth Harper Neeld

A Sacred Primer: The Essential Guide to Quiet Time and Prayer is a source of balance, guidance, calm, and joy; it guides you on the rewarding journey of integrating your spiritual desire and your hectic daily life into one seamless whole. It is like a cherished patchwork quilt—created with raw material from varied but treasured sources and bound together with love and care.

Amazon.com Editorial Review

Without a specific religion to provide structure and offer guidance, it is difficult to create a spiritual discipline much less practice one. Even those who go to church and synagogue appreciate suggestions as to how they can help their spirituality overlap with their everyday existence. Responding to this longing, Elizabeth Neeld offers a primer–packed with ideas and inspirational recommendations for creating stillness and soul-tending devotion in daily living. Although the intention is not a new one–plenty of authors have cashed in on the “everyday sacred” premise–Neeld’s suggestions are original and eloquent, and reflect years of research rather than a whimsical, hot-selling idea. Chapters include “Encouraging a Spiritual Attitude,” “Experiencing the Sacred,” “Praying with Words,” and “Surviving the Windstorms.” At the end of each chapter, Neeld suggests specific tasks for helping the human more easily meet the divine.
–Gail Hudson

NAPRA Review

Neeld reveals some absolute gems of wisdom, gives encouragement when needed, understands every kind of skepticism, and ultimately leads the reader to a totally doable spiritual practice, all with a style that respects that which is sacred and that which is academic. Few books have bridged this gap so beautifully and as succinctly as this one.

Excerpt

The Answer is Yes

When Leonard Bernstein concluded the lectures at Harvard that became his wonderful book, The Unanswered Question, his final statement was, “I’m no longer quite sure what the question is, but I do know that the answer is yes.”

Yes.

That is our answer to the call from the heart for a deep, nurturing connection with the Holy Other. The yielding of this center of consent may be a silent, slow development. Transformation may be gradual and pass unnoticed. It may be a slow permeation of the Spiritus Creator that marks no place or time.

The secret is to be able to want one thing, to seek one thing, to organize the resources of your life around one single end; and, slowly, surely, over time, you become one with that end. Your inner landscape becomes shaped by the single, central emphasis of your life—to become more and more conscious of the Divine’s presence in your life and more and more able to give and to receive love.

Even though your progress is gradual and ongoing, you discover a wonderful thing—the confidence, peace, and certainty building in your life do not belong only to you. Because you create this sanctuary for God in your quiet time, you are able, amazingly enough, to allow others to borrow hope from you. You can become like a quarry from which people in pain and despair can take stones to start to build their lives anew. People can catch the atmosphere of hoping from you.

One way our lives—and the lives of others—change is by people opening new worlds to us that transform the quality of our consciousness. One thing people who spend time listening in quiet and speaking in prayer eventually come to experience for themselves and to be able to provide (on a good day!) for others, is a sense of poise and roominess. There are some people whose very presence—often as a result of many years of practicing a spiritual discipline—inspires a relaxation of inner tensions. To come in contact with them is to find your confidence restored by a general atmosphere of spaciousness and tranquility. This quality is a profound result of moments of grace called into life, not by themselves but by a quickening Presence. This is the gift you hope to be able to give others out of your time of daily quiet and prayer.

The Gift

And the gift to yourself?

There is an old story that resonates the value of practicing a spiritual discipline. The story goes like this:

A distinguished archaeologist spent several years working in the upper Amazon. He employed local men to help him with his work. Once the archeologist and his workers had to walk a considerable distance to reach a new site. The party made very good progress for the first few days; but on the third morning, when it was time to start, the workers just sat without moving, looking very solemn and making no preparation to leave. The chief among the workers explained to the archeologist the problem: “They can’t move any further until their souls have caught up to their bodies.”

That is what you are doing each day you practice daily sacred quiet time and prayer. You are living a commitment that is the very source of hope, peace, and serenity.

You are letting your soul catch up with your body.

Reviews

Media Reviews

The Dallas Morning News, Saturday, May 8, 1999
A Sacred Primer: The Essential Guide to Quiet Time and Prayer by Elizabeth Harper Neeld (Renaissance Books, $17.95).
Dr. Neeld’s scholarship shines through as she offers up anecdote after anecdote—from figures ranging from Hildegard of Bingen (12th Century) to C. S. Lewis—in this well-organized guide to the spiritual life. In Part One the Texas author shows how to experience such a life. The chapters of Part Two are dedicated to one’s commitment to practice it. Things get harder in Part Three, where the author discusses learning to wait and coming to stillness with God. Prayer and the many ways it is answered are dealt with there. The doing—the toughest of all—is handled, in Part Four. “What is there about aligning with the Divine,” Dr. Neeld asks, “and, hence, with the best part of ourselves, that makes us feel more centered and balanced?” Less than 200 pages, this thought-provoking book is worth taking to bed each night or using for morning devotions.
–A. C.

Review of Texas Books, Volume XV, Fall 2000, Issue 3
Neeld, Elizabeth Harper. A Sacred Primer: The Essential Guide to Quiet Time and Prayer. Renaissance Books, 1999.
Borne from personal tragedy and despair, author Elizabeth Neeld sought meaning in life’s sorrows and joys. Leaving a tenured professorship in eighteenth-century literature at Texas A&M University, Neeld embarked on a spiritual journey which encompassed a daily sacred time of quiet, meditation, reflection, and prayer. In time, she was healed and ready for life. What she learned she imparts in this spiritual primer which sensitively describes how to begin and grow in a relationship with the Divine. Balanced with personal experience, Neeld skillfully incorporates wisdom from the ages from those who have journeyed before her: Albert Einstein, Martin Buber, Dame Julian, Francis de Sales, George Gallup, and Elie Wiesel, among others. Short chapters instruct with examples and then assign tasks for greater experiential understandings. These spiritual practices are not simple, since they require distancing one’s self from the secular, physical world increasingly to the awareness of the spiritual domain. In this manner, a novice can mature into authentic personhood through communication with the Divine. Neeld encourages the reader to center and to honor one’s own sacred story. This is very inviting because those practices are rewarded with wholeness and peace. Neeld resides in Austin and from that base, she writes, speaks, and consults.
–Sally Dooley

NAPRA Review

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Without a specific religion to provide structure and offer guidance, it is difficult to create a spiritual discipline much less practice one. Even those who go to church and synagogue appreciate suggestions as to how they can help their spirituality overlap with their everyday existence. Responding to this longing, Elizabeth Neeld offers a primer–packed with ideas and inspirational recommendations for creating stillness and soul-tending devotion in daily living. Although the intention is not a new one–plenty of authors have cashed in on the “everyday sacred” premise–Neeld’s suggestions are original and eloquent, and reflect years of research rather than a whimsical, hot-selling idea. Chapters include “Encouraging a Spiritual Attitude,” “Experiencing the Sacred,” “Praying with Words,” and “Surviving the Windstorms.” At the end of each chapter, Neeld suggests specific tasks for helping the human more easily meet the divine.
–Gail Hudson

Customer Reviews from Amazon.com

Everyone deserves the fruits of this read!, May 24, 1999
Reviewer: LeBlanc-jb@msn.com from Houston, TX
My husband and I were introduced to A Sacred Primer through a retreat given by Elizabeth Harper Neeld at the Cenacle in Houston Texas. The book comes alive in a very special way when this grounded, gracefilled woman shares her personal experiences of her spiritual practice as well as the experiences of historical and contemporary believers in The Divine. My husband and I are following the example of another couple who are reading the book together in an “allowable” mode. We expect to be surprised as together we read, reflect, and receive. We look forward with anticipation to other works (and retreats)from this gifted scholar.

A Sacred Primer was a joy to read, May 4, 1999
Reviewer: sharon.iglehart@gte.com from Houston,tx.
Elizabeth Harper Neeld’s book, A SACRED PRIMER is food for the soul. The book shows the author’s understanding of the spiritual and the Divine. The book was filled with refreshing ideas for rejuvenating the soul and the heart. I enjoyed the commentaries at the end of the chapters and I am recommending this book to others. I look forward to more insight from this gifted writer.

I’m already four weeks into my own spiritual practice!, April 28, 1999
Reviewer: whittonj@aol.com from Amarillo, TX
Isn’t the proof always in the pudding? After many other attempts over the years, Elizabeth Neeld seems to provided me with what I needed. Combining her own refreshingly real experience with a rich quotations from diverse sources and a multi-faceted format that touched much more than my intellect, I found Sacred Primer to be a fascinating read. But the most wonderful surprise has shown up in my own life — I’m actually applying what I’ve read and reaping the benefits already. PS I’ve already given SP to many family and friends and I hear the same from them.

What a blessing this book was! A must read for sacred time!, April 19, 1999
Reviewer: bwalker@bradleyschools.org from Tennessee
A Sacred Primer by Elizabeth Neeld is truly inspiring. I think the cover even invokes peace! What a find for help in my sacred quiet time. I learned much. Mainly, there is no right way. It was so good to read insights and examples. It is so nicely done-Oprah should read it! It even includes Journal ideas! I believe the book was “God Inspired” and have recommended it to all my friends. Thanks