Takeaway: This is a great way to both start practicing fixed hour prayers and celebrate Advent.
Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition
I am going to break one of my rules and review a book I am not finished with yet. Over the last year I have been working through a lot of books about prayer from a variety of Christian traditions. It is difficult to talk about prayer and not discuss fixed hour prayer, which is having a resurgence in the Evangelical world. That resurgence is in no small part to the work of Phyllis Tickle. She has completed her set of prayer books for fixed hour prayers throughout the church year. I reviewed the Prayers for Summertime earlier this year.
The Divine Hours (or fixed hour prayer) I think is extremely beneficial to help a person step outside their normal lives and re-direct their attention on God throughout the day. I am not particularly good at following the divine hours, I am a nanny and my day is full of interruptions and disjointed activities. But I have started this Advent book to try to reconnect with fixed hour prayer at least through this season.
The way this book is formated there are three daily prayers (ideally to be done at 6-8 AM, 12-2 PM, 5-8 PM) and one night session that is repeated for a week. I am not strict about these. I try to do it as close to the time as I can and if I miss one, I skip it and start at the next session.
The prayer are fairly brief (about 10 minutes to do as session) and include a mix of psalms, written prayers, common hymns and other scripture. The Prayers for Summertime really helped me see the psalms in context of prayer as most of them were intended.
If you are interested in trying it I would pick it up. We are only a few days into Advent and you can join in where you can.
Here are some links to the the other Kindle Editions in the series
Eastertide: Prayer for Lent Through Easter
The Night Offices: Prayers for the Hours From Sunset to Sunrise
The Divine Hours: Pocket Edition (this is a short edition of daily prayer that are general and can be used throughout the year)
You’ll want to add a facebook button to your blog. I just bookmarked this article, although I had to complete it manually. Simply my $.02 🙂
– Robson
If you look at the post page (not just the home page) there is a facebook button right underneath the twitter button.