A note before you begin

Most Christians have never been taught what prayer actually is

Twenty years of ministry. Sitting with people in their deepest despair. Standing at bedsides as souls departed this world. Counseling couples whose marriages were coming apart.

And the same thing surfaces again and again.

The misunderstanding is not small, and it is not harmless. It costs people the very things they are praying for.

Intimacy with God
Spiritual clarity
The peace that surpasses understanding
Marriages, families, and souls

Most of us were handed a model of prayer early in life that was well-intentioned but tragically incomplete. We were taught to talk to God the way we would talk to a teacher or a boss. Respectfully. Briefly. And mostly when we needed something.

We were taught that prayer is a discipline.

That is not wrong. It is a discipline.

But it is so much more than that.

Part One

Prayer is not what you think it is

In the Orthodox Christian tradition — the tradition of the ancient Church, stretching back through the desert fathers and mothers, through the early councils, through the Apostles themselves — prayer is understood in a way that is breathtaking in its scope.

Prayer is union. It is participation in the very life of God.

Let that settle.

You are not sitting down in the morning to report to heaven. You are entering into the eternal reality of heaven itself.

There is a difference between checking in with someone you respect and dwelling in the presence of someone who loves you unconditionally. The first is duty. The second is life.

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Genesis 2:7

Notice what is happening here. God did not create man at arm's length. He breathed into him. This was intimate. Personal. Direct.

From the very beginning, you were designed to live in the breath of God.

Prayer is not you trying to reach God. It is you returning to the breath He breathed into you at the beginning.

Why this book exists

Too many people are standing outside a room full of light

A man sits across from me. Shoulders slumped. Eyes hollow. His marriage is falling apart. His faith is fading. He feels utterly alone.

I ask him: tell me about your prayer life.

"Father Don, I pray. I really do. But I don't feel anything. I just say the words and nothing happens."

Nine times out of ten, that is the answer. Word for word.

"You are standing at the door of a room full of light and you are knocking. But the door is already open. Step through it."

That is always the invitation. Stop standing at the edge of prayer and actually enter it.

This book is how.

Get the eBook — $10.97

The book

Entering Heaven: A Complete Guide to the Life of Prayer

This is not a self-help book. It is not a prayer guide dressed in religious language. It is not a collection of techniques for managing stress or improving your mental health.

Those things may happen. But that is not what this is.

This book is an invitation into something ancient. Something holy. Something that has been happening since before the foundation of the world, and something that will continue long after your last breath on this earth.

It is a guide to prayer as union with the living God — written by a priest, grounded in Scripture and the Church Fathers, and built to be lived rather than admired.

8Parts

37Chapters

10Ancient prayers

20+Years in ministry

What you'll discover inside

Eight parts. One path.

Each part builds on the one before it. Read straight through and you will not end where you started.

I

What Prayer Is and What It Is Not

Strips away every misconception you have carried about prayer. You will finally understand the difference between talking at God and genuinely entering His presence. This alone changes the way you pray.

II

The Nous and the Eye of the Soul

A concept at the heart of Orthodox spirituality for two thousand years — the nous, the eye of the soul. Why so many Christians cannot feel God's presence, and what actually has to happen for that to change.

III

The Sacramental Life and the Purification of the Soul

Why prayer alone, as magnificent as it is, is not the complete picture. How the sacraments and your personal prayer work together as one unified process of transformation.

IV

The Lord's Prayer: A Deep Dive

Phrase by phrase, in a way you have never seen it. These are words you may have prayed thousands of times. By the end of this section you will never rush through them again.

V

Reflection, Stillness, and Contemplative Prayer

The hesychast tradition, lectio divina, and a complete guide to the Jesus Prayer — twelve words carrying an entire theology in a single breath, and how to let it become the background music of your soul.

VI

Spiritual Warfare and Prayer

Most Christian books will not say this plainly. You have an enemy, and there is nothing he hates more than your prayer life. Why the resistance you feel is not personal weakness — and how to fight back.

VII

Praying Without Ceasing

What St. Paul actually meant, and a practical, livable framework for building a day where God is never far from your awareness — morning, hourly, mealtime, evening, liturgical.

VIII

Prayer in Every Area of Life

The hardest territory. Praying through suffering. Praying for your marriage and family. Praying when you don't feel like it. Praying when God seems silent. Written for anyone who has wondered whether their prayers are reaching heaven at all.

Included in full

Ten prayers of the ancient Church

Not referenced. Not summarized. Printed in full, in their place in the book, with the explanation of what each one is doing in your soul as you pray it. Here are three of them.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

OHeavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, O Good One.

Chapter 3 — prayed at the beginning of nearly every Orthodox service

The Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian

OLord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother, for Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

Chapter 8 — the great prayer of Lent and of the cleansing of the nous

The Jesus Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Chapter 26 — twelve words, with a complete guide to praying them

Also included: the Trisagion, the Lord's Prayer, the pre-Communion prayer of St. John Chrysostom, the morning prayer Rising from sleep, the Evening Prayer of St. John Chrysostom, the Anaphora prayer of the Divine Liturgy, and the doxology.

Every chapter

See exactly what you're getting

Open the full table of contents

Part One — What Prayer Is and What It Is Not

1The Greatest Misunderstanding in Christian Life
2Prayer Is Not What You Think It Is
3You Are Not Initiating Something. You Are Entering Something.
4The Goal Is Not Emotional Change. It Is Ontological Transformation.

Part Two — The Nous and the Eye of the Soul

5What Is the Nous?
6How Sin Darkens the Nous
7The Blurred Lens: Why So Many Christians Cannot Spiritually See
8The Cleansing of the Nous and Prayer's Deepest Purpose

Part Three — The Sacramental Life and the Purification of the Soul

9Prayer Is Not Enough Alone
10The Sacraments as Divine Medicine
11The Eucharist and the Transformation of the Whole Person
12Confession and Removing the Cataracts of the Soul
13How Prayer and Sacrament Work Together

Part Four — The Lord's Prayer: A Deep Dive

14The Most Prayed and Least Understood Prayer in History
15"Our Father" and Two Words That Change Everything
16"Hallowed Be Thy Name" and the Posture of Holiness
17"Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done"
18"On Earth as It Is in Heaven" and the Bridge Between Two Worlds
19"Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread" and Dependence as a Virtue
20"Forgive Us Our Trespasses" and the Prayer That Heals the Soul
21"Lead Us Not Into Temptation" and Prayer as Spiritual Warfare
22"For Thine Is the Kingdom" and Ending in Doxology

Part Five — Reflection, Stillness, and Contemplative Prayer

23The Lost Discipline of Reflection
24Stillness and the Art of Stopping
25Hesychasm and the Prayer of the Heart
26The Jesus Prayer and a Complete Guide
27Lectio Divina and Scriptural Prayer

Part Six — Spiritual Warfare and Prayer

28The Enemy Hates Your Prayer Life
29Negligence, Pride, and Demonic Influence
30How Prayer Becomes Your Armor

Part Seven — Praying Without Ceasing

31What St. Paul Actually Meant
32Building a Life of Continuous Prayer
33The Liturgy as the Backbone of Your Prayer Life

Part Eight — Prayer in Every Area of Life

34Praying Through Suffering
35Praying for Your Marriage and Family
36Praying When You Don't Feel Like It
37Praying When God Seems Silent

Conclusion

·The Heaven That Is Already Here

Who this is for

This book is for you if…

You feel distant from God and you are not sure why.
You pray regularly but something important feels missing.
You have heard about "deeper" prayer and no one has shown you the path.
Your marriage or family needs something you cannot manufacture on your own.
You are in a season of suffering and you need to know God is actually there.
You want more than religion. You want God.

The author

Rev. Father Don Purdum

Orthodox Christian Priest

I have been an Orthodox Christian priest for over twenty years. I have sat with people in their deepest moments of despair. I have been at bedsides when souls departed this world. I have counseled couples whose marriages were crumbling.

And I have watched broken, desperate people encounter the living God in prayer and walk away utterly transformed.

Not just emotionally moved. Transformed. There is a difference — and by the time you finish this book, I pray you understand exactly what that difference is.

God bless you,
Father Don

Entering HeavenA Complete Guide to the Life of Prayer