Category: Books

A Family Handbook of Prayer

AFHoP,Cover.pngI was contacted by Mary J. Moerbe who is a blogger interested in Lutheran writers. She also runs a Lutheran homeschool website, www.LutheranHomeschool.com. She asked if I would develop a short prayerbook with a set of classic prayers, and provide some prayers and Scriptures in other languages for homeschoolers who are teaching their children other languages.

The result is A Family Handbook of Prayer. It is provided as a free download. Its 24 pages contain morning and evening prayers, the Lord’s Prayer in several languages, table prayers, and a selection of psalms taken from the English Standard Version, some are also printed with German (Luther 1545), Latin (Vulgate) and Spanish (Reina-Valera 1995) translations.

It is formatted as a pdf, and instructions on printing as a booklet are on the inside front page (p. 2).

Download at this link: 

A Family Handbook of PrayerDownload
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For an expanded selection of family and personal prayers, see Christian Prayer.

Psalm Prayers from Sarum

Psalm Prayers from Sarum by [Stratman, Paul]Many of the psalms are prayers. In the history of Christian worship, psalms have also been the inspiration for prayers. In many traditions, after a psalm is sung or read in the service of evening prayer, a short prayer based on the psalm follows. These psalm prayers are taken from the Sarum Psalter, the book used for the Liturgy of Hours in the community of Sarum (Salisbury), England. These ancient prayers reflect on each psalm, sometimes applying the truths of the psalm, sometimes repeating the petition in the psalm, sometimes reflecting on the meaning of the psalm for the individual. This book also includes other prayers and blessings from the Sarum Liturgy of Hours.

Available for Kindle from Amazon.com. These prayers are also included in “God Be in My Head…” Prayers from Old Sarum.

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Prayers of the Early Church and Prayers of the Middle Ages

We have just completed uploading the prayers of two books, Prayers of the Early Church and Prayers of the Middle Ages, both edited by J. Manning Potts. Both are in the public domain.

At Christian Classics Ethereal Library, the books can be viewed online, or can be downloadable in different ebook formats such as plain text or THML/XML.

In Prayers of the Early Church, Potts lists no sources, but only mentions,
“The prayers have been collected from many old books of prayers and devotional materials.” Bright’s Ancient Collects seems to have been one of his sources.

In Prayers of the Middle Ages: Light from a Thousand Years, Potts does list sources:

“Some of the books which have been most valuable are Prayers of the Ages, compiled by Caroline S. Whitmarsh; Of the Imitation of Christ; Great Souls at Prayer, arranged by Mrs. Mary W. Tileston; The Cloud of Witness, by Hon. Mrs. Gell; Prayers, from the collection of the late Baron Bunsen; A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages, compiled by Selina Fitzherbert Fox; Prayers We Love to Pray, arranged by Edward Leigh Pell; Morning Readings, compiled by Frank M. Rich; Prayers of the Saints, by Cecil Headlam; Prayers Ancient and Modern, compiled by Mary Wilder Tileston; Ancient Collects, by Rev. William Bright; Prayers, Massachusetts Council of the Church Service League; Theologia Germanica; The Cloud of Unknowing; His Words of Admonition and Praises of God, by St. Francis of Assisi; Common Prayers for Family Use, by Westcott.”

In A Collection of Prayers, these two books are given their own ‘categories,’ and can be viewed at the links below:

The New Ancient Collects, Christmas Sampler

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The New Ancient Collects is a revision of the classic Ancient Collects and Other Prayers by Dr. William Bright. These treasures of the ancient Christian church have been refreshed in contemporary English, and the collection is available for purchase through Amazon.com at this link: http://amzn.to/2hFSvNR

To preview, download this free pdf of a sampling of the Christmas prayers:

The New Ancient Collects – Christmas Sampler

The Antiphonary of Bangor

The Antiphonary of Bangor and The Divine Offices of Bangor is now available in paperback through Amazon.com. It is also available for Amazon Kindle.

BANGOR was the site of an influential abbey and school in northeast Ireland. The Antiphonary of Bangor is a book of canticles and prayers that were used in Bangor Abbey’s liturgies of the hours with special prayers and elements for Easter Eve, Easter Day, Eastertide, Saturdays and Sundays and on festivals of Martyrs. It was written by hand, sometime around A. D. 680. It is significant for two main reasons. It shows us a worship tradition that developed in a different way than the Roman Rite. While some of the canticles, hymns and prayers in the Antiphonary are also found in the Roman Rite, many are unique. It also shows us some of the theology of the Celtic Christians.

Book I – The Antiphonary of Bangor reproduces the Antiphonary with all items in their original order. Reference numbers are from F. E. Warren’s Latin edition.

To have a better understanding of the use of these materials and put the items in order, I have arranged them in Book II – The Divine Offices of Bangor, a hypothetical reconstruction of what a Bangor Book of Hours may have been like, following the directions in the Antiphonary and Warren’s speculations in his notes.

Paul C. Stratman
July 2018

 

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New Prayer Book from Northwestern Publishing House, ‘There’s a Prayer for That’

A new book of prayers is available from Northwestern Publishing House. There’s a Prayer for That. It contains 494 prayers, with many of them newly composed for this book. Two of them, 18. Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, and 84. Thanks for Freedom from Satan’s Power are by Pastor Paul Stratman, the editor of A Collection of Prayers.

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The book can be ordered through Amazon.com at the following link:  https://smile.amazon.com/Theres-Prayer-That-Various/dp/081002893X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516888635&sr=8-1&keywords=There%27s+a+prayer+for+that

Description from Amazon:

The Word encourages you to pray in every circumstance. Whether life leads you to bring thanks, praise, or troubles before God, he will listen.

There’s a Prayer for That guides you in this continual conversation with God. This collection contains over 450 prayers, including some from Meditations Daily Devotional, for the people and situations in your life. Whether you are thinking about your family and friends, your future, or your faith, this book will guide you in prayer.

God may not always respond in obvious or expected ways. Yet, the messages from Scripture included in There’s a Prayer for That assure you that his answers are lovingly given for the good of your soul.

No matter what tomorrow brings, there’s a prayer for that, and there’s a loving Father who wants you to talk to him.

The New Book of Collects in Two Parts

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A Book of Collects in Two Parts was a collection of short prayers compiled by John Wallace Suter (Pater) and his son, John Wallace Suter, Jr. (Filius). Since the book was published in 1919, it is now in the public domain.

John Wallace Suter was a priest and liturgist in the American Episcopal Church, and was the custodian of the American Standard Book of Common Prayer. At his death in 1942, his son, John Wallace Suter, Jr. succeeded him as custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer.

The original text was taken from Project Canterbury, a free, online library of Anglican and Episcopalian literature, and it may be read directly on Project Canterbury by clicking on this link:  http://anglicanhistory.org/liturgy/suter_collects1919.html

The first part is a collection of short prayers newly composed by the Suters. The second part is a collection of short prayers from the history of the ancient Christian church.

A revision (an updating and refreshing of the English) of A Book of Collects in Two Parts can be downloaded from A Collection of Prayers in the following formats: [pdf] [docx]