Upper Room Worshipbook

Grace Gutekunst introduces us to this wonderful book, and you will want to look at it during our next meeting. Containing everything you need for the Daily Office (in addition to hymns and songs--and several excellent introductory short essays) this Worshipbook is a rich source of versatile liturgies, psalm settings and prayer songs. It's truly idea for anyone who wishes to deepen his or her prayer life.

"The Worshipbook is a gift to the whole church," writes Jerry Haas, director of The Academy for Spiritual Formation. "Worship as delighting in the love of God is a rare thing today. Perhaps in our haste to create new worship resources, we have neglected the spiritual life of the worshiper! Every page [in the Worshipbook] is for your formation and growth in Christ."

Each section contains suggestions for using music and for introducing liturgies into the worship experience of a community. The book features inclusive language and a music index. At $15.00, the price is right! Ten or more are available for $12.75 each!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible

When praying traditional Daily Prayer, we use the psalms as the foundation of our prayer life. Bonhoeffer's Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible is one of the best books on how Christians pray the psalms. Here are the comments of two www.amazon.com reviewers.

According to John Morgan,

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, hung by the Nazis for his principled resistance to perversion of Christian life, leads us through the themes and value of psalms. These song-prayers, brought forth from thousands of years of human longing for connection with God, are just as powerful in their meaning of human life, today.
Use this tiny volume as a study guide to psalm themes for better prayer life.

Joshua Schneider agrees:

In this beautiful little book, Bonhoeffer guides the Christian to the Scriptures for lessons in how to pray. He affirms that the Lord's Prayer is the primary prayer of the Christian, which he asserts contains every prayer that a Christian ought to pray. Bonhoeffer also makes a startling but wise claim that jolts us out of the narrowness of our focus in prayer: "The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart." Thus we find the book of Psalms to be a rich treasury of prayers that are part of God's inspired word, and therefore a true place to learn how God would have us pray.

The book proceeds to give some general background on the history and use of the Psalms as the prayer book of the Bible. In the main part of the book he presents one possible system of categorizing the Psalms according to their petitions, and also points out that they can be organized according to the petitions of the Lord's Prayer.

But the most valuable part of the book, in my opinion, is how he shows us how the Psalms are to be prayed in Christ, of whom the Psalms also testify (Luke 24:44). As Bonhoeffer says, "It is the incarnate Son of God, who has borne every human weakness in his own flesh, who here pours out the heart of all humanity before God, and who stands in our place and prays for us."

This is a fine book for the devotional/prayer life of the Christian.

Book of Common Prayer: Daily Prayer (1993)

Published for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), this attractive, easy-to-carry, and very practical prayerbook includes not only Morning and Evening Prayer (along with Prayer at the Close of Day, that is, Compline), but it also provides all the Psalms, the Great Litany, and the Daily Lectionary, along with a Table of Major Celebrations of the Liturgical Calendar. Fully ecumenical in its use of resources, it is a wonderful foundation for anyone wishing to practice a disciplined daily prayer life. One www.amazon.com reviewer writes, "We Presbyterians needed a book which conveys our tradition and guides us in prayer. This book is wonderful! I can see the hand of providence (how Presbyterian of me!). Its major sources are The Book of Common Prayer, The Book of Common Order, [various ecumenical prayer books, and "new" material. The book has given order to my prayer life and infused my devotions with meaning."

The Glenstal Book of Prayer: A Benedictine Prayer Book (2001)

This is a shorter version of Morning (Lauds) and Evening (Vespers) Prayer, using only one psalm per hour. The one week repeating cycle also includes Mid-morning (Terce), Mid-day (Sext), and Mid-afternoon (None) prayer, as well as Night (Compline) Prayer. After the Hours, there is a section of prayers and blessings. It is hardbound with sewn binding. This is a nice, handy, short, elegant, simple aid to regular prayer.

The Daily Office, 4 vol.

Edited and published by clergy and members of the United Methodist Church, this handsome four-volume set of spiral-bound books contains all the liturgical and hymn texts necessary — including a modern setting of The Great Litany — for regular use. With these books, one needs only a Bible to make full use of the offices, thereby avoiding the juggling of multiple books. The offices are structured so they may be used equally effectively by an individual praying the office alone or a gathered community of two or more persons. Each book in the series is focused on a period of the liturgical year, gathering all of the seasonal resources into a single volume.

For example, the second volume of this series provides the seasonal resources for the season of Lent and the Sundays in Lent. Commencing with Ash Wednesday, this volume concludes with the offices for Holy Saturday, leading toward the Great Paschal Vigil. Other seasonal resources include those for the observance of Matthias, Apostle (February 24), John Wesley (March 2), Joseph (March 19), Feast of the Annunciation (March 25), Charles Wesley (March 29)

Visit The Order of St. Luke for purchasing details.

Arthur Paul Boers and Robert Webber, The Rhythm of God's Grace: Uncovering Morning and Evening Hours of Prayer (2003)

A book about fixed-hour prayer by a Mennonite pastor may seem odd, and Boers not only acknowledges this oddity but also traces the historical moments and theological perspectives that have led Christians, especially Protestants, away from ancient disciplines such as the daily Office. In a conversational, nonjudgmental tone, Boers mentions but does not belabor the obvious: Protestants, especially evangelicals, distrust liturgy because it does not seem as alive to them as spontaneous prayer, and they object to prayer being limited to fixed hours. Boers gently answers these concerns, pointing out that while God is indeed always available, it honors God to set aside specific times to pray. While Boers is careful not to oversell fixed-hour prayer (he often repeats that it is not for everyone), he does emphasize one advantage it has over do-it-yourself quiet times: believers need not come up with their own words or style day after day. Instead, they can count on a scripture-filled ritual of worship and prayer, a liturgy that has been thoughtfully arranged and the knowledge that countless other believers are praying at the same time. Boers includes descriptions of his visits to three European Christian communities that emphasize common prayer, and in several appendices gives readers ample ideas and resources for finding a suitable prayer book, starting a prayer group and avoiding burnout. This book is a lovely addition to the growing literature inviting Protestants to embrace pre-Reformation practices that they have long eschewed.

Daily Prayer for Orthodox Christians

For nearly two thousand years, Orthodox Christians have greeted the sunset and the darkness, the morning and the noon with "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs." The Orthodox Church has compiled offices of timeless beauty and depth for Vespers, Compline, Matins and Noon prayer. These offices are now available in an easy-to-use format, with readable modern language, in a compact size, suitable for private or for communal prayer. Includes Psalms, Scripture readings, hymns and prayers. 128 pages with helpful introductions, glossary and bibliography.

For All the Saints: A Prayer Book for and by the Church, 4 vols.

This set of 4 pocket-sized, beautifully bound volumes is designed to be used for daily prayer and Bible reading by Christians everywhere. Based on the two-year daily lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer and the Lutheran Book of Worship, the volumes cover a 2-year period. Each volume measures 4" by 6" with a gold-stamped, leather-like cover, durable sewn binding, ribbon markers, and over 1300 pages printed on high quality lightweight Bible paper. For All the Saints has everything you need for daily prayer under one cover:

· The orders for Matins, Vespers, Responsive Prayer and Compline
· Opening prayers for each day plus special commemorative days appropriate to the season
· The full RSV text of the three Scripture readings for each day
· A fourth reading and a closing prayer for each day from one of the saints from the 2nd to the 20th century
· All 150 Psalms, Psalm Prayers & Antiphons
· Fourteen icons, at least 3 in each volume, from the Orthodox tradition, with brief explanations of their meaning
· Short biographies of all the saints whose writings and prayers appear in the daily readings
· A full index to all the readings and closing prayers (in Volume IV)

Celtic Daily Prayer

The Ancient Paths of Northumbria in northeastern England have been trod by generations of men and women who loved God and followed Jesus, bringing faith, hope, and love to vast numbers of people. Today, the Northumbria Community remains a living expression of this monastic, contemplative stream of the faith, and the perennial need to make that faith relevant to the world.

Celtic Daily Prayer is the fruit of the spiritual life of a remarkable community. Its liturgies, prayers, and meditations are drawn from a deep well of spiritual experience that transcends fashion, culture, and denomination. Blending prayer and praise and building upon the ancient wisdom of traditional Celtic Christianity, this prayer book is extraordinarily fresh. At the heart of the life of the Northumbria Community, as well as this book, lies the Daily Office -- morning, noon, and evening prayers and a monthly cycle of meditations for individual or communal use each day. With words drawn from sources such as St. Patrick's Breastplate, Teresa's Bookmark, Columba's Blessing, and the Psalms, this cycle of daily prayers reflects the essential rhythms of life.

With liturgies for communion and other special occasions as well as daffy readings, this prayer book contains two complete years of scripture readings and a calendar of saints' days and festivals. The Jewish tradition of family Shabbat, adapted with prayers from the Celtic tradition, also finds its place in this book. A section on rites of passage suggests prayers and rituals for the pivotal times of life: birth, rebirth, marriage, midlife, and bereavement, as well as blessings and graces for all occasions. This traditionally grounded yet surprisingly modem prayer book will enrich the spiritual life of readers for years to come. One http://www.amazon.com/ reviewer says, “I have been using Celtic Daily Prayer for almost two years and it continues to amaze me. The combination of familiar repetition and inspirational readings in each day's prayer cycle provides those who "keep the hours" with fresh perspectives in prayer. The daily office was not my tradition until about two years ago, and while I own several traditional prayer books, I am continually drawn to Celtic Daily Prayer as my main guide to the rhythm of daily prayer. For those from a non-Catholic tradition, Celtic Daily Prayer offers a nice transition from the Protestant "devotional time" to the ancient practice of the daily office.”

Benedictine Daily Prayer: A Short Breviary, ed. Maxwell E. Johnson. (2005)

Benedictine Daily Prayer provides an everyday edition of the Divine Office. People who desire to pray with the church can do so in a simple manner by following this Benedictine daily prayer model. Based on solid and traditional prayer patterns of more than fifteen hundred years of liturgical prayer within the Benedictine monastic tradition, Benedictine Daily Prayer helps readers celebrate and appreciate God’s presence that is found everywhere, especially within the Divine Office. It offers a richer diet of classic office hymnody, psalmody, and Scripture than shorter resources are able to provide.

Benedictine Daily Prayer is designed for Benedictine Oblates, Benedictine monastics, and men and women everywhere. It’s small enough to fit in a briefcase for travel. Scripture readings are from the NRSV.

Benedictine Daily Prayer includes "Introduction," "An Aid to Praying Benedictine Daily Prayer," "Monastic Calendar," "Sunday and Weekday Readings," "The Ordinary of the Liturgy of the Hours," "The Weekly Psalter," "Supplemental Psalms and Canticles for Vigils and Lauds," "Festival Psalter," "Common for Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary," "Common for Feasts of Apostles," "Common for Feasts of Martyrs," "Common for Feasts of Holy Men and Women," "Office for the Dead," "Proper of the Season (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Triduum, Easter, Pentecost)," "Proper of the Saints," and "Appendix: A Selection of Benedictine Prayers."

Book of Common Prayer

Excerpts from one www.amazon.com reviewer:

The Book of Common Prayer (1979) is the latest, complete BCP used by the American branch of the Anglicans, the Episcopal church. There have been many books that have had the title Book of Common Prayer since the first one appeared in 1549; it has been used continuously in one edition or another in the Anglican tradition since 1559; the 'main' edition remains the 1662 edition. The American church modified the Book of Common Prayer for its own use beginning shortly after the Revolutionary War -- this book is the successor of a long and worthy tradition.

One can be a conservative, liberal or moderate; one can be high church, low church, or broad; one can be charismatic, evangelical, or mainline traditional -- one can be any number of things in a rich diversity of choices, and the Book of Common Prayer can still be the book upon which spirituality and worship is centred.

The Book of Common Prayer is not, in fact, a book that changed my life. It is a book that changes my life. Even though it is not the primary book of my own church, it continues to provide for spiritual insight and development; it continues to guide my worship and my theology. It continues to help me grow. The words are part of a liturgy now shared by Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and other liturgical churches, in different combination and priority. Gerry Janzen, an Anglican professor at my seminary, said to me recently as we were lunching and having a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation (in a unique way that only Gerry Janzen is capable of doing) that he strives for that kind of memory and understanding that is so complete that one forgets what one has learned. He recounted to me his experience of working with his book on Job -- he had done a lot of research, development of ideas, writing, and organization, and then set it aside for a time. When he picked up the topic later, he decided to begin by writing, and then go back to the research, other notes and writings he had done earlier. He was surprised to see, in comparing the work, that he had in fact duplicated much of the material -- he had internalized the information, incorporated it so well into his thinking and being, that it came forward without effort. It is this kind of relationship I feel I have developed with the Book of Common Prayer. To be sure, there are pages of information that I don't know. I haven't memorised the historical documents; I still consult the calendars; I haven't learned all of the collects by heart. But it has become a part of me.

The current Book of Common Prayer is not copyrighted material. The purpose for leaving the BCP out of copyright is to permit free and easy duplication and incorporation into worship materials; however, it also serves the purpose (deliberately intended) of permitting people, Anglicans or not, to use portions of the BCP as inspiration and material for their own worship. The Book of Common Prayer is an Anglican gift to the world.

The Divine Hours, complied by Phyllis Tickle. 4 vols.

A welcome remedy for the increasing number of lay Christians who have The Divine Hours is the first major literary and liturgical reworking of the sixth-century Benedictine Rule of fixed-hour prayer. This beautifully conceived and thoroughly modern three-volume guide will appeal to the theological novice as well as to the ecclesiastical sophisticate. Making primary use of the Book of Common Prayer and the writings of the Church Fathers, The Divine Hours is also a companion to the New Jerusalem Bible, from which it draws its Scripture readings. The trilogy blends prayer and praise in a way that, while extraordinarily fresh, respects and builds upon the ancient wisdom of Christianity. The third and final book in the set, Prayers for Springtime, provides prayers, psalms, and readings for this season associated with rebirth. Compact, with deluxe endpapers, it is perfect for those seeking greater spiritual depth.

Praying with the Church: Developing a Daily Rhythm of Spiritual Formation.

The so-called "high church" branches of Christianity have practiced liturgical prayer, or prayer with set words and at set hours, for centuries. In this folksy, practical and welcoming guidebook for Protestants unacquainted with, or perhaps even suspicious of, what he calls the "prayer book tradition" of the Church, McKnight attempts to root liturgical prayer in three things: biblical practice, a theology based on "loving God and loving others" and an ecumenical sensitivity to the riches of various Christian traditions. A professor of religious studies at North Park University and a popular writer on Christian spirituality, McKnight explores the Jewish practice of prayer, how Jesus practiced prayer and how various denominations use the Psalms and the Bible as foundations for liturgy. He also draws from his own experiences to illustrate how Christians can use prayer books grounded in the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions. "Praying with the Church," he writes, "involves allowing our own prayer lives to be adjusted to the sacred rhythms of the Church's prayer tradition." Laced with quotations from many "real-life" users, this helpful volume concludes with a chapter on how prayer book liturgies can be adapted for individual use.

The Daily Prayer of the Church

A treasury of prayer in the centuries old Anglican, Lutheran, Roman Catholic tradition of the offices. The material is arranged to facilitate use by clergy and laity; to be a prayer book for all the people of God. It is intended for the faithful of many denominations--to be used whole or in part, in private, in families, or small groups in churches This is complete prayer book “in the ancient way of offices” including text and music: Evening Prayer for each season of the Church year (Advent, Christmas-Epiphany, General Time, Lent, Holy Week, Easter); Morning Prayer for each season of the Church year; Compline; Forms for Prayer during the Day (mid-morning, noon, mid-afternoon); Proper antiphons with each Psalm and with the Gospel Canticles; Psalm prayers and prayers appropriate for each Old Testament and New Testament canticle; Hymns ancient and modern with music; Two-year BCP-LBW daily lectionary; Proper Responsories in Morning Prayer; An ecumenical course of collects, ancient and modern, for every Sunday of the year and for every day of Christmas, Lent, and Easter; An enriched calendar of festivals and commemorations; Prayers, intercessions, devotional prayers. Available at the Lutheran University Press.

Robert Benson, Daily Prayer.
In this package you receive a DVD featuring Robert Benson telling you all you need to know to get started: a sixty-page breviary book containing all the liturgy for daily prayers, a CD with Robert Benson leading you through the prayers, and a handy bookmark with special prayers, all for $39.95. Our local Richmond, Kentucky, group owns a copy that you may borrow locally.