A Prayer Book of Days

Author Gregory Cameron
Publisher Canterbury £12.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781786225955

Looking for something to stimulate your devotional life? Interested in the development and diversity of Christian prayer? Why not try A Prayer Book of Days? Thirty-one short chapters, beautifully illustrated with icon-like portraits, explore significant figures in the history of Christianity, each focussing on one signature prayer. Beginning with David, Jesus and early Christian saints, we are led through continents and ages to the present, meeting many who feature as ‘Lesser Festivals’ in Common Worship. Some, like Augustine of Hippo, St Patrick, or Ignatius Loyola, are well known, others, like John Climacus or Edith Stein perhaps less so. The stories of these ‘saints’ are interesting, accessible and sometimes moving, reminding us that prayer can take many forms, from prose to song, from words to silence. The material could prove invaluable for incorporation into sermons, reflections or group discussions.

Yet, primarily, this is a book to use day by day as a springboard into our own prayer times, for experimenting with new insights and patterns and making some of the famous prayers our own. It is a book to treasure
and re-visit.

Reviewed by Prayer

Advent, Nativity

The Mindful Our Father

Author Thomas Casey
Publisher Messenger £11.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781788125796

Once it was widely expected that everyone could recite the Lord’s Prayer and mindfulness was not the buzz word it is now. Times have changed. We need to give back this prayer its priority and embrace it in a new way. The introduction of this highly readable book gives much food for thought about ways of praying mindfully and with love. We come to see that we need to move our petitions from head to heart. The rest of the text shows us how to do this with the Lord’s Prayer as our guide. A phrase from the prayer heads each of the ten chapters. That phrase is explored, allowing us to be drawn in by relevant stories from saints and ordinary mortals alike. Short prayers scattered throughout the text help guide us into our own deeper communication with our Lord. This book beautifully teaches us how to be open to God in prayer. If we allow ourselves to slow down and be open to the experience, we will be left with a new closeness to Our Father. A book to be savoured.

Reviewed by LIZ PACEY

Prayer