Why I Wrote “Cathedral of Prayer”

There are seasons when words fail.

When sermons feel too loud.
When answers feel too sharp.
When faith feels fragile instead of triumphant.

This book was written for those seasons.

It isn’t meant to explain God, or solve anything that aches.
It isn’t here to tidy doubt or rush grief toward resolution.
Cathedral of Prayer was written to make room — for presence, for quiet, for the slow work of being held.

These prayers are meant to meet you where you are.
Not where you think you should be.
Not where faith is polished or confident, but where it is honest.

You don’t need to believe everything the same way I do.
You don’t need to be in crisis.
You don’t need the right questions, or any questions at all.

If you have ever longed to feel God with you —
rather than explained to you —
this book was written with you in mind.

There is no right way to read it.

Some people move slowly, one prayer at a time.
Some open it in moments of heaviness.
Some keep it nearby, like a companion — something steady within reach.

It is meant to be entered gently,
and returned to often.

More than anything, I hope you feel unhurried here.
Not instructed.
Not corrected.
Not rushed.

I hope you feel held.
Seen.
Accompanied.

This book is an invitation —
to rest in the presence of God
in the midst of ordinary, complicated, beautiful life.

—
Mary Florence