By Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove | Amazon.com | 160 pages
Published in February of 2012
SUMMARY: For those looking to dip their toe into a liturgical calendar and historical prayers, Common Prayer Pocket Edition: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a perfect introduction. The 11-page introduction succinctly explains why a book of common prayer is useful while quickly orienting the reader on how to use the book.
“Our prayer lives connect us to the rest of the body of Christ around the world; at any hour of any day,” the authors write. “Many of the prayers in this book are being prayed in some corner of the earth.”
The book is split into five parts with daily prayers for morning, midday, evening, and bedtime consisting of part one. Part two contains monthly actions where a short story with a theme is told along with suggested readings and actions to take during the month.
Part three’s 24 prayers are topical with subjects ranging from Sabbath (“To Welcome Sabbath” is one of our favorites) to traveling. Parts four and five make up the largest chunk of the book with a table for daily Scripture reading in addition to short paragraphs dealing with special events or dates.
The book is easy to use, simple to understand, and small enough to carry anywhere. Highly recommended.
KEY QUOTE: “Liturgy offers us an invitation not just to observe but to participate–active prayer, active worship.”
BONUS: Check out the companion website commonprayer.net for daily prayers and an app.
DID YOU KNOW? Sunday to Saturday has a GoodReads page where we post all of the books we have read – even the ones that didn’t make the cut.
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