Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals Kindle Edition

Both Claiborne and Wilson-Hartgrove are part of a growing stream of thought in the US and abroad that believe when Jesus said we should come follow him and take up our cross he really meant it. He is bidding us come, die and find resurrection, community in the Body, an economy of love, reconciliation, stability, hospitality, and an abundant life lived with Him here and in the hereafter. Finally we in the west can see what it means to follow Jesus without traveling to the Majority World. They and their communities, of course, are not the only ones doing this, but they have, through their writings, caught our attention and ignited our prophetic imagination in an uncommon way.Common Prayer is definitely the most ambitious book these three authors have published. The third author is Enuma Okoro, the author of Reluctant Pilgrim(2010). Clearly, they have looked to those who have gone before them. Common Prayer offers us a spirituality that grounds us squarely in the story of God and invites us to pray the prayers of the saints and angels that have been prayed for thousands of years in some cases.Common prayer books are not a new idea. Communal prayer liturgies started with the early church. Most high church denominations have common prayer books.This book is unique though in that it invites us in to the New Monastic tradition. The prayers are based on the church calendar and the marks of the New Monasticism. So while talking about Advent, Good Friday, and Easter Common Prayer explores what it means to care for the earth, love your enemy, share your things, invite strangers to your dinner table and be grounded in the traditions and prayers that have enabled the Church to be the Church.The book is also ecumenical. So Catholics, Baptists, Quakers, Pentecostals, Americans(North, Latin and South), Europeans as well as Africans can all use it. It is multi-cultural and multi-racial. For the above reasons the book is really a marvelous accomplishment in my opinion.The book is split in to five parts: Evening Prayers, Morning Prayers, Mid-Day Prayer, Occasional Prayers and a song book.CP offers an evening prayer for every night of the week. They are each very similar with confession, two beautiful songs, a declaration of faith, and a song from scripture.There is a morning prayer for every day of the year with special prayers for the unique times like Holy Week. They are all similar in format with a song, scripture reading from the Psalms and the Old and New Testament, and a short quote from a unique Christian(such as Jean Vanier), activist, missionary, early church father or sometimes a scripture. Each month is centered around a mark from the New Monasticism. The marks tend to follow important dates such as "living in the abandoned places of empire" is in December when we celebrate Christ's incarnation, the truest model for this mark. February is "racial reconciliation".There is only one midday prayer consequently it's the most beautiful prayer of the entire book. It consists of St. Francis' prayer, the Anima Christi( a very beautiful Catholic prayer), a recitation of the Beatitudes, a time of silence and a few smaller prayers.CP then has a section for occasional prayers and finally a song book for songs sung during morning prayers.I was excited to began praying these prayers. I have to admit though, when I finally got the book I was, at first...well...perplexed mixed with disappointment. The ideas and readings felt alien. I felt like I was entering in to a foreign world of prayer. There were also prayers we simply didn't like, but we decided to stick with the book and maybe do some innovation. We proposed changing certain prayers.I think we've realized that the struggle for us was two fold. First, CP has a robust spirituality with plenty of scripture reading, thoughts from true practitioners, invitations to remember God (and not us) as the Source, prayers and readings that ask for the gift of empathy and action, and confession. The book, if taken seriously, like all true spirituality leads us down the road of self-denial and in to a counter-cultural way of living. Second, CP is repetitive. It can feel confining if you're used to being the director of your own faith journey. In a culture that is always looking for that new spiritual in ingredient to make faith work it feels like maybe our authors weren't imaginative enough.It helped when we researched the prayers and we discovered that they were, in fact, deep and well thought out and some of them have been prayed ardently for well over a thousand or more years in some cases. The authors are inviting us in to a spirituality so robust and old that there's less need for imagination and more need for research, relationships with those who have been praying these prayers most of their lives, faithfulness to the unknown and the willingness to share with us what has deeply inspired them. Lo and behold, God's path is simple and narrow. For that reason we decided to learn to love them. In most cases it has worked. Now we find ourselves humming the tunes and saying the prayers throughout the day. I'm also sharing songs from CP I've learned when I lead worship on Sundays.So if you are part of an intentional community, live alone, go to a big church or a small one, enjoy high church or no church this book will interest you.Well done Claiborne, Wilson-Hartgrove, Okoro and the many others involved. This is your best yet.Go to to get a glimpse of what you'll find in the book.

I received my copy right before the first day in the book (December 1st) so I've been praying with this book daily since then. I am loving it! As an individual who loves liturgy and common prayer but would not consider himself to be Anglican/Episcopalian nor necessarily a part of any of the classic liturgical denominations, I find this prayer book to be a refreshing look at the 'style' - if you will. As a youth pastor, this has been a good way for me to introduce a form daily and communal prayer and Scripture study to some of my more dedicated kids without having to throw extra explicitly denominational traditions/ideas/concepts on them that they may not be familiar with nor do they necessarily need. Although it does mention this 'New Monasticism' stuff, it's more of a "hey check this out if you want to" and not shoved down your throat at every turn.I enjoy the Morning, Mid-day, and Evening setup. It allows you to start your day with good prayer, good Word, and some thoughts to roll over in your mind for the day that stem from a multitude of traditions. I've been pleased to read quotes from Church Fathers all the way to modern missionaries. I've found that taking the Mid-day prayer at my lunch break has made my workday much more (only word I can think of to put here is 'beautiful'). And the Evening prayer helps me to go to bed on a good note no matter what. I also enjoy the 'Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers' ideas at the end of each month with ways to put the faith into practice.I like the inclusion of the Occasional Prayers, especially the adoption prayer.My only concern is the Songbook doesn't include complete lyrics. This does make the song section of the morning prayer difficult if someone you are praying with (or you yourself) does not know the song which, considering the wide variety of traditions they pulled from, isn't too hard to fathom. I'm attempting to compile a complete set but some songs are difficult to find (or cost money to get the lyrics to, such as 'Freedom Train').Although I disagree with other reviewers that a complete set of source references is needed, I do think the Songbook should be fleshed out.I also disagree with those complaining that this isn't THE Book of Common Prayer and that Thomas Cranmer isn't mentioned. First, the description shows that it is not and even a quick flip in the bookstore would show it. Finally, the subtitle should be a major clue. Beyond that, it is not meant to be the classic denominational handbook but a guide for praying and reading together no matter what your community looks like.To summarize: If it's going to hurt your feelings that this isn't the 'official' Book of Common Prayer with Thomas Cranmer's touch . . . get over it and enjoy it for what it IS. For everyone else, pick up this neat little liturgy for the rest of us today. It will open your eyes and help you to focus in your prayer time.

This is an outstanding prayerbook. Many prayerbooks have 5-6 pages of liturgy for morning, noon, and evening. They are overwhelming and are too much for a person who has a busy life. I find the smaller portions from the prayerbook to be the perfect solution for a busy person.I like the fact that every day of the week has a slightly different liturgy, complete with a short story or thought to think about. I also like the fact that there is a hymn that you can sing and the words and the music for the hymn are found in the back of the prayerbook.I like the prayerbook so much that I purchased a Kindle version to supplement the hardback.

Excellent text, the only small flaw was due to the seller or dispatcher - there was a small dent on the cover and I would have appreciated to recieive a copy in a better state

hermoso libro.si bien está hecho para disfrutarlo compartiendo con otros, también es súper majo para leerlo uno solo.recomendado para un grupo de amigos que tengan ganas de compartir momentos profundos juntos!

I fully agree with the other two reviewers of this book, James and A Grey in their very positive comments on this book.I am sorry though that, as witnessed by some of the tags that some have added for this book, (which are totally unwarranted, suggesting that this book is heretical and representing a false Christianity), some very strongly disagree. These tags are very mistaken and misleading. On the other hand they may lead some to take more of an interest in this book instead and benefit from what they find !I understand though, that some are unfortunately objecting to this book and getting very hot under the collar because they see the title, "Common Prayer" and see it as somehow trying to usurp the position of the Anglican "Book of Common Prayer", often shortened to "Common Prayer". I am quite sure that the authors of this book never had the slightest intentions of doing this. In fact, if only those who get upset will note, the full title of this book is, "Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals", their objections ought to be, at least to some extent, resolved.Just as the original "Book of Common Prayer" formed a more concise version of previous ecumenical liturgies for the people of the time, which its successors still do, I believe that "Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals" does a similar job for our time. I cannot speak for the authors of this book, but it looks to me as if they had the intention of actually honouring the original "Book of Common Prayer" in using its shortened name as part of the title of this book. As such, and as I have already said, I am sure that they did not have any intention of trying to propose this book as a replacement.Those with experience of the Liturgy of the Hours and similar forms for daily prayer, will recognise this as a very valid and useful resource for prayer and reflection. It includes elements from a number of different Christian traditions and so can be very useful towards helping Christians of all denominations feel at home and to come together in prayer.A small criticism of this book might be in the way that it separates the material for morning prayer from evening prayer. At the same time, bearing in mind that morning prayer is more or less the same for each day of the week, and evening prayer has material for each day of the Christian year, I can see that, in the end, it makes sense. On the other hand, those wanting to bring more variety into their morning could easily make use of the seasonal material as well. It is worth noting here that some liturgical books can be even more difficult for newcomers to find their way around, so this one is very easy by comparison).For those wishing that this book included Night Prayer, as I did, on first looking at it, it is worth noting that, as with the "Book of Common Prayer", Evening and Night Prayer have been combined into one service. If anyone wanted to keep to a separate Night Prayer, they could quite easily simply omit the Nunc Dimittis - The Canticle of Simeon from Evening Prayer and adapt the form for Evening Prayer, including the Nunc Dimittis and perhaps some other suitable prayers for Night Prayer. I note though, that the forthcoming shortened Pocket Version  Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals  will include a separate form of Night Prayer, as well as other material not included in this full edition, as mentioned in an email the publishers have sent to me, as follows:-"Common Prayer Pocket Edition helps individuals and today's diverse church pray together across traditions and denominations. With an ear to the particulars of various liturgical prayer traditions, and using an advisory team of liturgy experts, the authors have created a tapestry of prayer that celebrates the best of each tradition. This convenient and portable book also includes tools for prayer scattered throughout to aid those unfamiliar with liturgy and deepen the prayer life of those already familiar with liturgical prayer"."Common Prayer Pocket Edition adds new prayers for Compline (late evening) and for individual use, such as prayers for travel, protection, and various blessings. It includes a table of days and readings for the morning prayers as well as an annotated list of saints and days to remember".I have the Pocket Edition on pre-order already, because as well as supplementing the big book, it will evidently be very useful for traveling as well.As one who mainly uses other forms of the Liturgy of the Hours, I find this book provides good additional and alternative material to help me in my prayer life. I also believe that this book will be helpful for those who would find the more formal church books of prayer less attractive. Likewise those who might want to begin with something that is easier to use, even if they may later on want to make use of the formal denominational ones, such as used by Anglicans, Lutherans or Roman Catholics etc.Oh yes! I nearly forgot to mention, as well as providing the words of hymns and songs, the music and chords are also helpfully provided. As a saying goes, "Those who sing, pray twice". A lot of careful thought and artistry has gone into the production of this book and I recommend it. Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

I have been using this prayer book almost every morning for a few months now, and it has been very helpful for me. It draws me in to my prayer time, helps me to focus and centre myself, and then leaves a space to pray from the heart for as long as I want. The written prayers have both poetry and depth of theology. It is clearly trinitarian and speaks to both the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ. It relates our personal prayer time to the world around us and to the communion of saints that came before us and still surrounds us. I'm young and strong, but some may find the physical book itself heavy and cumbersome. Otherwise, I think it's the perfect prayer book.