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Vol. 1, Issue 9

Have you considered a Prayer Book? What it is and how to use a Prayer Book.

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Imagine my surprise to open up a January 2000 issue of Christianity Today only to find an article on how Evangelicals are using prayer books because they are tired of having to make everything up as they go along! A long sentence, I know, but what a thought! We can get spiritual by being a little more structured in our prayer time. Here is some advice on how to do that with a prayer book.  

Now that we have established a spiritual life, now what? After a routine prayer time, silence, reading scripture, and praying, how can I make my spiritual life better? The answer may be in not having to re-invent the wheel. Have you considered a prayer book?

Prayer Books are simply a compilation of scripture and prayers in an ordered form. Many evangelicals are experiencing what serious Catholics have known for centuries: meditating on Scripture in small doses is a wonderful way to start, continue and end the day.

Prayer Books usually have one basic pattern which you follow. It is called "the Ordinary". This is the format of how your prayer time is outlined by the prayer book. It will simply tell you to pray first, sing a hymn now, read a passage of scripture now, end here.

Then most prayer books have sections for prayers for the particular week of the Christian calendar. These prayers are usually called "Collect(s)". Think of them simply as "collecting" the thoughts and intentions of the day.

The Psalms are next. And boy are there lots of Psalms! The Psalms were the first hymns sung by the Hebrew people and then by Christians. They are the "first Scriptures" for the first Christians. An understanding of the Psalms can be seen by clicking here:  "Starting a Spiritual Life".

There are usually shorter forms and longer forms of prayer books. And we will go into that later.

There are several options. Let’s take a look at them, shall we?

A Small Meal

For those who are caught up in the hectic world of the "Information Age" it might be easier to handle getting spiritual in small bites. These are prayer books with an outline for prayer time that are small, usually ten to fifteen minutes in length.

The Shorter Christian Prayer, which is the featured "Book of the Month", is a must have for all lay Catholics and for those who are learning. A companion book, which is the "Other Book of the Month" is called School of Prayer (click on this link to go to the "Prayer Book" web page to get a copy of "School of Prayer"). It tells you what is going on blow by blow in Shorter Christian Prayer.

Shorter Christian Prayer has the Ordinary at the beginning and gives you the outline. After this ordinary will follow four weeks of Morning and Evening Prayer forms for each day for a month. This is called "the four week cycle." This four week cycle takes you through a good many of the Psalms.

This book is designed for you to say prayers before work, after work and at bedtime in short ten to fifteen minute increments.

After the four week cycle, there is a section called "Night Prayer" which is said on a weekly cycle. Be sure to say a prayer of confession before you start each night.

Another Small Meal

The Book of Common Prayer, page 137, has an ordinary with everything in it. It is designed for "Families and Individuals". It tells you what needs to be done daily, but doesn’t change much. It is the same form for each time of the day for prayer. You can look in the different sections of The Book of Common Prayer to find a different Psalm, different Collect, different prayer of confession, etc. But you are left largely to yourself to fill in the blanks of the Ordinary.

There are larger Ordinary’s in The Book of Common Prayer, but they are largely the same: you need to carry around another book or two to be able to finish your prayer time.

Article Highlights

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A Full Meal

A truly full meal for those with a strong spiritual hunger can be found in The Liturgy of the Hours.  This is the Roman Catholic four volume prayer book, and man is it serious!

Chock full of Scripture and prayers written by faithful people, The Liturgy of the Hours is in four volumes.  Each volume covers a part of the Christian Year.  

(Yes, there are seasons to the Christian year, just like the regular year, which focuses on certain aspects of the Christian life we should be living all the time.  The purpose of the Christian Year is twofold.  First, it allows us to focus on the things we ought to be doing without being overwhelmed by the whole thing.  Secondly, the Christian Year allows us to focus on parts of Christ's life as we remember that he was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and buried.  On the third day, he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father--whew!).

Each volume of The Liturgy of the Hours has basically the same set up.  The one volume for Advent is set up a little differently because it doesn't cover as many days as the others.  Yet, the format is usually like this:

1.  Scripture Readings and readings by the Church Fathers for the day.

2.  The Ordinary.

3.  The Four Week Cycle of Reading, Morning Prayer, Daytime Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer (nine times per day in all).

4.  Different patterns of prayer for special days, called the "Common".  You use these if you follow the days of the Saints.

5.  Readings for the special days.

For those interested in learning how to use this wonderful mammoth of a prayer book, click here (A link to a live session with me on how to use this four volume set).