Essays on prayer, scripture, and the book.https://samuelmatthis.com/en-gbhttps://samuelmatthis.com/essays/what-kierkegaard-said/https://samuelmatthis.com/essays/what-kierkegaard-said/The idea at the heart of my book came to me by way of Søren Kierkegaard, from someone close to me whom I thank in the book. The idea is simple: prayer can't be explained. It can only be learned by praying, and by wrestling with it. Before I used Kierkegaard's name for that, I wanted to know what…Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://samuelmatthis.com/essays/how-the-quotations-are-checked/https://samuelmatthis.com/essays/how-the-quotations-are-checked/Famous quotations are the ones most often wrong. The more often a line is repeated, the less often anyone goes back to the page. It gets shorter, or smoother, or moves to a more famous name, and after a while everyone simply knows it. A book about the Lord's Prayer quotes a great many people: the…Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://samuelmatthis.com/essays/given-words/https://samuelmatthis.com/essays/given-words/The disciples didn't ask Jesus how prayer works. Luke says they'd been watching him pray, and when he finished, one of them said: ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples’. Jesus didn't answer with a method, a theory, or a list of conditions. He answered with words: ‘When…Fri, 26 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://samuelmatthis.com/essays/why-a-pen-name/https://samuelmatthis.com/essays/why-a-pen-name/The name on my book isn't the one I was baptized with. I say so here, on the About page, and in the book itself, because a book about prayer shouldn't begin by pretending. The best reasons I found for the choice are in the Bible. The Letter to the Hebrews is one of the great texts of the New…Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT