ECPA Christian Book of the Year Christianity Today Book of the Year
Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist IVP Readers' Choice
Award How can we trust God in the dark? Framed around a nighttime
prayer of Compline, Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the
Ordinary, explores themes of human vulnerability, suffering, and
God's seeming absence. When she navigated a time of doubt and loss,
the prayer was grounding for her. She writes that practices of
prayer "gave words to my anxiety and grief and allowed me to
reencounter the doctrines of the church not as tidy little
antidotes for pain, but as a light in darkness, as good news."
Where do we find comfort when we lie awake worrying or weeping in
the night? This book offers a prayerful and frank approach to the
difficulties in our ordinary lives at work, at home, and in a world
filled with uncertainty.
Review This Product
A constellation of stars in a dark night
Tue, 26 Jan 2021 | Review
by: Kelly H.
“Every prayer I have ever prayed, from the most faithful to the least, has been, in part, a confession uttered in the gospel of Mark: “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:23-25). And that was my prayer as I uttered the well-worn words of Compline that night.” - From “Prayer in the Night” by Tish Harrison Warren
“Prayer in the Night”, by Tish Harrison Warren, begins as Tish reflects back on a dark period in her life when she draws the Anglican Book of Common Prayer’s Compline close. The book is broken into four parts: Praying in the Dark, The Way of the Vulnerable, A Taxonomy of Vulnerability and Culmination and in each she examines elements of the compline and reflects on faith, suffering and vulnerability.
“Reaching for this old prayer service was an act of hope that it would put me under the knife, work in me like surgery, set things right in my own heart. I may as well have said, “Compline. STAT.” - From “Prayer in the Night” by Tish Harrison Warren
Whether you love or hate or have never heard of Compline, you can appreciate the amazing insights, deep empathy for those suffering and honesty shared by Tish. Each chapter needs time to be digested and pondered. She doesn’t shy away from the difficulties, the hardships and the tough elements of Christianity.
“Faith, I’ve come to believe, is more craft than feeling. And prayer is our chief practice in the craft.” - From “Prayer in the Night” by Tish Harrison Warren
Having unpacked Compline, Tish shares ways she worked through trauma. I love her frank approach, whilst making practical suggestions, she doesn’t imply it’s easy!
“The desolate places in my life that I most want to avoid are the very places God waits to meet me. - From “Prayer in the Night” by Tish Harrison Warren
I related so entirely to so much of this book. It made me feel seen. That the scary and horrible and vulnerable parts are okay. That even in the brokenness there is healing to be found. In essence, it creates hope and shows a way forward, a constellation of stars in the dark night!
“There is much we cannot know of God. Therefore, to be a Christian is to honor ambiguity. It requires a willingness to endure mystery and to admit that there are limits to human knowledge. God has us on a “need to know basis,” and there is much it seems that we don’t need to know.“ - From “Prayer in the Night” by Tish Harrison Warren
I can’t highly recommend the book highly enough! It’s amazing and needed and perfectly timed. It’s a five out five on the enJOYment scale!
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