Prayers

Review: Irreverent Prayers

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Cover image of "Irreverent Prayers" by Elizabeth Felicetti and Samantha Vincent-Alexander

Irreverent Prayers: Talking to God When You’re Seriously Sick, Elizabeth Felicetti and Samantha Vincent-Alexander. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802882639), 2024.

Summary: Talking to God when you’re seriously sick is modelled in this book by honest, unvarnished prayers written during such illnesses.

Samantha noticed her leg was hurting and swollen. She was feverish. She went to the ER and was rushed into an ICU with a life-threatening case of MRSA. Samantha spent several months in and out of the hospital, wearing a wound vac to drain infection from her leg.

Elizabeth was diagnosed with breast cancer, and after treatment, with lung cancer, resulting in the removal of part of her lung and courses of chemo and radiation. And while writing, she was diagnosed with a recurrence of inoperable nodules, one on her aorta.

Both women are Episcopal priests and writing friends. And both faced the question of “how do you talk to God when you are seriously sick?” Serious sickness means tests, hospitalization, surgeries, pain, drugs, and feeling weak and lousy for extended periods of time. Friends and caregivers mean well and say unhelpful things. Meanwhile, death is sometimes a real possibility. How does one pray about all that?

For these women, the answer is blunt honesty, even if it seemed “irreverent.” They wrote these prayers down and grouped them under the following headings:

  • Pain and Anger
  • Blood and Breath
  • Waiting, Wondering and Wandering
  • Hospitals
  • Well-wishers and Caregivers
  • Aftermath
  • Relapse

Examples of the kinds of subjects for prayer include painkillers and cursing the nurses who wake one to administer Tylenol when it is not effective or needed. One prayer rejoices in hospital underwear. Another prays for help lying still during hours of scans or in dealing with the common adjunct to pain meds: constipation. There are lots of prayers about well-wishers, usually well-intentioned but unaware of how to accompany one with a long and serious illness.

Not only are the prayers bluntly honest. They are short and pithy, sometimes preceded by a verse of scripture. Here’s one example, a “Prayer When People Call Me Brave or Inspiring”

“Gracious God, help me to react graciously when well-meaning people call me brave. I’m not brave. I didn’t choose this and wouldn’t if I had a choice. All I do when I’m not in treatment is sit around or sleep, which is hardly inspiring. I should pray that you shield them from knowing that they would react as they must if they were in this situation too, but I would like them not to say stupid things in the future. So please sort it out, God. Amen.”

This book is helpful for the person of faith facing serious illness. It not only gives words to pray about all the things this entails. We may say to God what we think and feel! As well, the prayers help friends and caregivers imagine what it is like to face serious illness.

And I pray for Elizabeth, fighting inoperable cancer and wanting to live, echoing her prayer: “bring me peace, but not yet.”

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Being Here

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Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love, Pádraig Ó Tuama. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2024.

Summary: A book of essays and prayers, including 31 days of readings and prayers, focused on being in communion with God as we seek to live lovingly and justly in our own places.

Pádraig Ó Tuama is an Irish poet-theologian invited for a writer-in-residence program at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in Manhattan during 2020. The essays, poems, and prayers of this book arose out of the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns of this annus horribilis. The work opens with this prayer that seemed to express the longings of many of us in that year:

     Turning to the light
     the light turns to us.
     Moving toward the source
     the source moves toward us.
     Holding on to hope
     hope holds on to us.

The book opens with asking, “What is Prayer?” and answers “It’s not a passport to heaven. If anything, it’s a way of seeing here, a way, of being here.” After a short essay on the uses of the book, Pádraig Ó Tuama offers a fascinating essay on the Collect, a form he uses through the thirty-one days of prayer to follow. His most succinct summary is:

  1. Address
  2. Say more
  3. Ask one thing
  4. Say more
  5. End

Then he practices that kind of succinctness over the 31 prayers and readings that follow. For each day, there is:

  • Opening Prayer
  • Reading (drawn from literature)
  • Scripture
  • Silence
  • Collect of the Day
  • A Remembering Prayer

The opening prayer and remembering prayer are the same throughout. I found myself centering on different phrases each day. The prayers for generosity, encounter, stories, new beginnings and mutual confession in the opening are gathered up in this wonderful closing: “Because this is a way of living/That’s worth living daily.” Being here. The remembering prayer recalls the glory of our creation as very good as we look about our city and then “pray for our city/and for the cities we are” and that God would breathe renewal into us throughout our days and all their encounters. What a wonderful prayer to pray in the midst of Manhattan or any of our cities! Being here.

Between the opening and remembering prayers were literary and scripture readings, a time for silence, and a collect, often thematically related. For example, from day 18, he pairs Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, with its tale of dying aspirations and the call of Life, with Matthew 20:32, where Jesus asks the question “What do you want me to do for you?” He follows with this collect:

     Questioning Jesus,
     we do not always know what we want.
     Yet what we want
     can drive us
     even when we do not know it.
     Help us find the moments to come in contact
     with those deep drives
     so that we can be moved
     toward what will
     create
     and not destroy.
     Amen.

The thirty one days follow the course of Jesus’s life from genealogy and birth to death and resurrection.

The book concludes with several brief essays and poems including one on the power of stories during the author’s struggle with vertigo amid our collective disorientation of COVID, and one on the spirituality of conflict. There is also a thought-provoking essay on Mary questioning the ways we shroud her with a kind of saccharine piety when her life, and the life she bears, is a form of resistance to Rome. And he offers a wonderful prayer for times after pandemic, asking, “Help us help us/with the time needed for integration;/with the time needed for risk;/with the time for recovery/and honor and trying old things again/and trying new things again, too.”

What Pádraig Ó Tuama brings us in these prayers is an invitation to be present both to Christ and to our lives, and the lives around us. Indeed, this is praying that opens our eyes to the presence of the unseen kingdom in our midst. Being here.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Pray This Way To Connect With God

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Pray This Way To Connect With God, Hal Green. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023.

Summary: A book on learning to pray, focusing on God’s initiative toward us to teach us to pray and prayer as focused on deepening our relationship with God.

“Lord, teach us to pray.” That was the longing expressed by the disciples of Jesus. Hal Green encourages us that the “good news is that God will teach you how to pray” and that the journey begins with “speaking whatever is in your heart,” that we learn to pray by praying, and that we pray as we can and not as we can’t. In a collection of readings, generally a page and a paragraph long. Green leads us into praying.

The readings are divided into eight sections

  1. About Prayer: a number of reflections on the nature of prayer: why, what to pray, how to tell if a word is from God, on distractions, and more.
  2. Breath Prayers: Explained and examples around peace, love, faith, hope, joy, gratitude, forgiveness, etc.
  3. Praying the Scriptures: A single chapter on how to pray scripture.
  4. Hebrew Scriptures: focusing on the Psalms and Prophets.
  5. The New Testament: Numerous passages from Matthew through Revelation
  6. Praying With the Saints. Prayers of the saints from Augustine to Henri Nouwen.
  7. Meditative Prayer: Resting and knowing God’s touch, breath, and gaze.
  8. Contemplative Prayer: The God Hug, Abiding Prayer, The Romance of God and more.

Green advises beginning with the prayers themselves and then going back and reading the “About Prayer.” While each reading is short, to pray the prayer meditatively may take anywhere from five to twenty minutes. This is a book to be taken slowly, taking a day or several days on the prayer in a reading.

Green leads us into prayer that isn’t about getting things from God but about communion with the Triune God of love. He speaks of desire that becomes romance, the love and being loved of lovers, of oneness with God. One senses that for those who experience this, human sexuality is a good but pale shadow of this love. This may be the journey of years. But along the way we learn to pray with scripture, to breathe in God and breathe out what is in our hearts, and to rest contemplatively with God.

There is so much wisdom here, whether it is dealing with the distraction that plagues all our prayers (that’s one of the reasons he encourages praying for five or ten minutes and not fighting oneself) or discerning if we have really heard God’s words (they are generally brief, understated, and concise, yet penetrate to the heart).

I’ve learned the most in prayer by praying along with someone further on the prayer journey, yet such people are rare. Hal Green’s book, the culmination of a fifty year journey and the leading of many prayer retreats offers us a companion who says “pray this way” and helps us to understand as best we humans can, the ways God teaches us and meets us as the lover of our souls.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through Speakeasy for review.

Review: The Most Holy Place

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The Most Holy Place, Jeremy D. Vogan. Staunton, VA: LightPath Publishing, 2023.

Summary: Day-by-day prayers based on a verse by verse reflection on the Book of Hebrews.

I’ve followed Jeremy Vogan’s blog, God, Life, and Beauty for several years and deeply appreciated his poetic reflections on life and faith. So I was intrigued to receive a copy of his new book The Most Holy Place.

It is an ambitious piece of work. it consists of 312 prayers that are reflections on the text of Hebrews. That works out to 52 weeks of six prayers per week. Each prayer takes a verse or part of a verse and does what C.S. Lewis once suggested we do with the Lord’s prayer–to festoon the prayer with our own petitions around the theme of each clause.

Vogan does this, often beginning by addressing the Lord, meditating on his character, contrasting that with our own failings, and expressing trust in the Lord’s sufficiency. Each statement or “verse” in the prayers is set off from the next. Many of the verses either are direct quotes or allusions to other scriptures. This is so fitting of Hebrews itself which either quotes or alludes to so much Old Testament material as well as the gospel of Jesus. It reflected a life deeply soaked in scripture that recognizes so many thematic connections.

Here is one example from Hebrews 11:21 (copied from the author’s page on Goodreads):

Hebrews 11:21  “By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.”

Faith sees, Lord

Faith knows

But most importantly, faith obeys

Long did Jacob walk with You and see Your wonders, until his heart learned Your ways

He saw the ladder that stretched from earth to Heaven, and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it

He was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place!” And he named it Bethel

Laban dealt shrewdly with him, and Jacob learned the value of truth

But he accepted the yoke of servitude, and you made him many through Rachel and Leah

You made him rich and increased his wealth on the earth

Your Spirit kept Laban from doing him harm, and protected him from Esau

You wrestled with him until the breaking of the day, and he prevailed

And You appeared to him again, and said, “Israel shall be your name; be fruitful and multiply”

So at the end of Israel’s life, they brought his grandsons to him, the older one Manasseh on the right and the younger one Ephraim on his left

But Israel obeyed Your Spirit, and crossed his hands to bless the younger as the greater

In faith he obeyed, because it is God alone who raises up and who sets down

For one day You would reject the tent of Joseph, and not choose the tribe of Ephraim

And You would choose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which You love

You would choose David your servant to shepherd the tribe of Jacob with upright heart

For the salvation of all who would trust in You

Amen

I noted several themes running through the prayers. One is the arc between old covenant and new, of anticipation anf fulfillment, one inadequate to transform but pointing to the great high priest and king who would. There is recognition of our insufficiency, the ways we self-deceive, and sin and the utter sufficiency of Christ. And there is the bracing call to faith-obedience, to press on and not drift away.

A scripture index might have been helpful to see the breadth of scripture cited or drawn from. The layout of the prayers on a single page per day in the verse format required a smaller point size for fonts than some readers might find comfortable. There is a Kindle version that circumvents this problem.

These daily prayers are rich and give one so much to think about, so much biblical truth to turn over. The content varies with the verse. This makes for a rich, year-long devotional, simultaneously praying through Hebrews and reflecting on the whole of scripture. If you are looking for a good devotional resource for next year, this is one worth taking a look at!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author.

Review: Endless Grace

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Endless Grace: Prayers Inspired By The Psalms, Ryan Whitaker Smith & Dan Wilt. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2023.

Summary: Prayers in free verse inspired, psalm by psalm, from Psalm 76 to Psalm 150, responding with ideas from the whole of scripture as well as literature.

Endless Grace, covering Psalm 76 to Psalm 150 is the companion volume to Sheltering Mercy, prayerful responses to Psalm 1 to Psalm 75. This is a gem of devotional literature! What the writers have done is to render prayers of response for each of the psalms. These are not paraphrases. Rather, what the writers have done in free verse is to write prayers drawing upon the whole of scripture as well as references from literature and The Book of Common Prayer that connect to the themes of the psalm. Where they do so, they provide footnotes citing the relevant biblical or other text.

One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 127. Here is Psalm 127 in The New International Version:

Psalm 127

A song of ascents. Of Solomon.

1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
    the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the guards stand watch in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
    and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
    for he grants sleep to[a] those he loves.

3 Children are a heritage from the Lord,
    offspring a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
    are children born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
    whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
    when they contend with their opponents in court.

Here is the rendering of Psalm 127 by the authors:

PSALM 127

LORD OF THIS HOUSE

------------
Who is our head and host?

Christ,
Lord of the Feast.

Who watches over us?

Christ,
our stronghold and refuge.

Who grants us peace?

Christ,
our Eternal Sabbath.

Who is the giver of life?

Christ, 
in whom all the families of the earth are blessed.

Who is King over this house?

Christ,
who loved us
and gave Himself up for us--
who call us His own.

The center justification of the verse reflects the format used throughout these psalms and, for this reader allowed meditative reflection on each phrase.

As evident in Psalm 127, the writers draw upon the full redemptive arc of the biblical material, praying these psalms through the eyes of Christ, or a Christ-centered perspective. Custom artwork throughout complements the text and the book is hardbound, allowing for many seasons of devotional use. I found this not only a way to read the Psalms with fresh eyes but to pray with fresh words.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

Going Deeper: A Shared Language to Change and Challenge Us

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PsalmsPsalm 16

1 Keep me safe, my God,
    for in you I take refuge.

2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
    apart from you I have no good thing.”
3 I say of the holy people who are in the land,
    “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
4 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
    I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
    or take up their names on my lips.

5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
    you make my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
    even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
    With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
    my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
    nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
    you will fill me with joy in your presence,
    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

This past Sunday, our pastor used this Psalm to help us understand something of how the Psalms may work in our lives. There were a few things he said that particularly have me thinking.

One is how the Psalms, though written in particular contexts only sometimes evident have the power to speak deeply to humanity because they speak to human emotions and about human realities that confront us all. Who of us has not had times where we’ve felt unsafe and wanted to find a place of security?

Because of their ability to address universal human conditions, they can function in a corporate way to give us prayers we may pray together, such as parts of the church do with the lectionary, reading, reflecting on and praying the same Psalms across the globe. I’m beginning to consider whether this may be one of the most important ways to be reminded of my solidarity with believing people around the world. No wonder they have often been called the prayer book of the church.

Rich posed the question to us of how we might be formed if we went back to setting to music, singing, and memorizing the Psalms. I think of the power of memorizing Psalm 23 as a child and how this has stayed with me for a lifetime–when I’ve been weary, or scared, faced evil, or death. I think of how God spoke deeply to me from Psalm 46 in a time of fretfulness and anxiety to “be still and know that I am God.” From Psalm 16 I’m reminded that when I wake in the middle of the night (a phenomenon that happens more often these days), even then God counsels and my heart instructs.

The Psalms also challenge us. They surface raw emotions we sometimes avoid. Even when we feel safe, they remind us of those who do not. They confront us with ultimate realities we would often care not to think of. They bid us to praise God whether we feel like it or not.

Rich concluded with talking about how often we read the Psalms. I often read through the Bible in a year, and so read the Psalms in the course of this. But some read them monthly or even more often. It strikes me that this might be what it takes to have a Psalm-saturated life. And that might not be such a bad thing.