Customer Reviews

The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Tickle has done a great service for everyone who practices daily devotions. Along with the "Prayers for Summertime" and "Prayers for Springtime," this book provides everything one needs to pray one or all of the Daily Offices (the night prayers of Matins, Laud, and Prime are contained in her "The Night Offices").

The book is broken into chapters by month, with daily Morning Prayer, Midday Prayer, and Vespers. Compline is the same from week to week within a given month, so Tickle provides the seven days of Compline readings at the back of each month. The Introduction also includes a history of the Divine Hours and some instruction in how the use the prayers. She encourages readers to chant or sing the psalms or prayers when appropriate, but affirms that silent reading, chanting, or singing is a matter of personal preferences.

Each day's Offices follow the structure of the Book of Common Prayer, although the old familiar Invitatories and Responses are replaced by other varied, often less-familiar, lines from Scripture. The readings are usually biblical, but may also be from Christian sources. All-in-all, each office takes only a few minutes to read to oneself, and is varied, accessible, and enjoyable. The book, itself, is easy to use (although a built-in bookmark or two would be great), the type is easy to read, and it's not so heavy I'm going to mind packing it for a trip (although it's not a small book, by any means).

I highly recommend this book and its companions for the Divine Office beginner or regular practitioner. Those new to daily prayer may also enjoy Brook's The School of Prayer: An Introduction to the Divine Office for All Christians.

The Divine Hours was recommended in Philip Yancy's book, "Prayer". The daily readings are mostly from Scripture but has prayers from early Church Fathers and the Book of Common Prayer. After reading each day's prayers, praying became a joy instead of chore. I bought all three books!

I bought this book to help get me through the cold dark winter. It was in my recommendations from Amazon but I knew nothing about what the Daily Offices were or what a Compline was. When I got the book back in October I just started doing the readings four times a day. I found that this book is so much more than I expected. I have tried different forms of devotions in my life but this is the first that I actually look forward to reading.

The combination of Psalms, prayers, hymns, and other verses from the Bible helps me to center my thoughts on things that really matter throughout the day. Each reading is only a page or two long and takes maybe 10 minutes but each one has a powerful impact on my day and on my life.

Although I planned to use this method of devotions just through the winter I have now added the springtime and summer versions to my wish list.

As someone who has worked with a good number of prayer books over many years including the old Roman Breviary (in Latin), Phyllis Tickle has produced a true masterpiece through her trilogy. It is very "user-friendly" with all prayer materials appearing in tight sequence on each page, eliminating the need to flip all over a book searching for "what's next?" Thank you for making my life more simple, Ms. Tickle!! I now have more time for real prayer.
More importantly, the assigned prayers and reading selections for each day are very well chosen. They are all on the side of thoughtful brevity. This helps create that wonderful atmosphere prescribed by St. Benedict(father of western monasticism)who instructs "therefore prayer ought to be short and pure, except when it is occasionally prolonged by the inspiration of Divine Grace."

For anyone looking to pray the Hours, this is an easy way to do it.
Each day's prayers are very easily accessible and very easy to follow.
It really does not take that much time out of the day, and the time to pause and pray throughout the day is its own reward. Thank you Phyllis Tickle for bringing the Divine Hours to all of us.

I purchased this book to complete my set. There are three altogether to pray through an entire year. For anyone desiring to have a more "liturgically-based" prayer life in concert with the historical Christian church, they could not find a better tool. I have been waiting for something like this for a very long time. It is complete in itself needing no outside resources and very easy to follow. It is exactly what I have needed. Thank you Phyllis Tickle.

I use to use a prayer book as a youngster but had gotten away from that habit during my adult years. I recently got interested again in the daily rhythm of praying the hours with the "Church". I started reading several guides on the purpose for praying the hours and why we as Protestants have lost this practice and why we should pick it up again. I became convinced to try. I have now been using Phyllis Tickles books (3 volumes) for two years. I thought it time to give a review since I have tried it and found it helpful.

The Divine Hours by Tickle are very well laid out for the protestant layman and clergy alike. They are not hard to understand or navigate (some older prayer books, especially Catholic ones are hard to use) and give you a complete guide for being able to pray three times daily plus at bedtime.

You will find that it only takes about 10 minutes to go through the guide each time. But during that you will rediscover the liturgical roots that many of us grew up in. You will also find some comfort in knowing that you are not alone in praying at these times of the day, thousands if not millions around the world are practicing the same rhythm of prayer.

When you finish the 10 minutes of prompting through this guide book you can continue on with praying for the things on your heart, or for others that you have requests from. The man purpose of the guide books are to give you a set of psalms, prayers and liturgy that will help bring you before the throne of God in an attitude of prayer and thanksgiving.

I have enjoyed each of the three volumes and would highly recommend them to anyone wanting to learn more about the office of praying the hours.

Enjoy!

Somehow I missed that this was a paperback. So I was disappointed in that since this type of book is used a lot and travels a lot as well, but I assume that is my mistake.

The Prayer book itself - I really enjoy

I have enjoyed reading the book and out it relates to the season of autumn. I may indeed buy a future book with another season. Thank you.

Book arrived in better-than-advertized condition (like new) and in a very timely manner. Would use this vendor again without hesitation.