Prayer Book Week @ivpress @ivpbooks @adriannawright

The new Church liturgical year has begun: It is Advent, the time of waiting and anticipation. The liturgical year lends itself nicely to seasons and rhythms of worship and devotion. One of the ways to engage spiritually throughout the year is, of course, prayer. Prayer books have long been a traditional way of aiding people's prayer lives. Over the next few days, I will review some rather diverse prayer books (I have received a complimentary review copy of most without a requirement or expectation of a positive review). I have had a couple for quite a while, so I apologize to the authors for delaying on the review.


Update: Here is a summary and index of all the prayer book reviews, with links.

Celtic Devotions

I previously reviewed Celtic Devotions by Calvin Miller. Below is an excerpt from the prior review.

The book is meant to be a 30 day devotional to lead the reader in morning and evening prayers. Physically, it's an easy book to carry, which makes it effective for its intended use. It's small in all dimensions, but has a hard cover, which is nice to protect as it is carried or moved.

Each chapter for the 30 days includes a devotional reading to set the day up and then a morning and evening reading and prayer. The book uses Psalm 119 as its core, which Miller explains is because this Psalm is central to Celtic spirituality. I like the use of this kind of core because it ties all the chapters, devotions, and prayers together.

The chapters and prayers are short, making it easy to use the book for a quick morning and evening devotion. The incarnational element reinforces what I love about Celtic spirituality.

If you like Celtic Christianity or want to get into a rhythm of daily prayer, this is a nice book to use. It's nothing that will be shockingly new, but that's the beauty of it. So often I try to use my time and reading to learn and engage new things, when in fact, I probably need to slow down. This book encourages just that.