Customer Reviews

The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is wonderful and subtle and changes your life!

If the discipline of daily prayer (let alone several times a day!) has ever been a struggle for you then YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK and the rest of the series!

I cannot even begin to stress the importance of stoppping for a time-out with God four times a day. Ms Tickle has done a terrific job of putting together prayers, hymns and short Bible readings (OT & NT) that will guide and change you. She has managed to compile what we all need in order to put the hurry and worry and stress of life into perspective. It will encourage prayer for self and others and re-focus you on the truly important aspects of life.

Tickle's "The Divine Hours" is a fresh and yet strongly traditional approach to praying the divine hours. Having each of the offices laid out for each day allows the one praying to engage fully in the prayer without the distraction of flipping through a breviary trying to locate which piece belongs to each particular office. In a culture where our time is so often at a real premium, this book makes it much easier to stop at the appointed times, engage in the presence of God, then return to business with a renewed sense of what it means to be a part of the kingdom of God. By praying the hours, as Tickle describes it, we all become a part of the "cascade of prayer" that flows continuously around the globe as the hours are kept by people all over the world.

I have long wanted to find a way to keep the divine hours, and this book is a real treasure in helping make that a reality. Each office offers something new to engage me--a reading, a hymn, or a prayer. The Prayer Appointed for the Week, repeated three times a day for a full week, becomes more than just words addressed to God. It begins to take root in my soul, creating a theme for the week in my own relationship with God.

Thank you to Phyllis Tickle for the work you have done in creating this series!!

I know some other reviewers mention it doesn't really follow the bcp, but it is still a really great collection to have in your library. The readings, morning, noon, night, and compline are short enough so that even the busies people can make time to pray.

My only complaint is the language, I would have liked to have seen a more inclusive text, especially in some areas where it would have really been helpful. I think Mrs. Tickle would have a better following if the language was updated. It is this way in all 4 of her books (Divine Hours - 3 books, and then the Evening Prayers). If you are sensitive to the male dominated text of the bcp, you probably will not like this.

The three volumes of Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours--Prayers for Springtime, Prayers for Summertime, and Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime--have guided my prayer life for almost ten years now. Each book is a manual for fixed-hour prayer, which has been practiced by followers of Jesus for centuries. The pattern and many of the prayers themselves are drawn from The Book of Common Prayer, but presented in a much more user-friendly format (and enlivened anew with new material from a wide range of contemplative works, poems, and hymns, such as "Pied Beauty," by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and "Take My Heart," by François Fénelon). It provides daily Morning Prayers, Midday Prayers, Vespers, and in a separate section, Compline, or evening prayers.

I cannot more highly recommend a book, nor a practice than the fixed-hour prayer The Divine Hours aids. Whether you use it four times a day or twice (my practice) or once, it will guide and deepen and inspire your prayer life. It will enable you, as Tickle says, to "pray with the church," the whole church, throughout history and around the world, as you unite with the people of God in praying the prayers of God's people through the centuries. It will plant in you the seeds of a prayer language, a way to express yourself at all times, even when you are praying in the car or in a line at the supermarket. The words, rhythms, cadences, and sentiments of these prayers will sink into your heart and soul and become to you a comfort and a strength. And they will enable you to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17), as you find the words (and perhaps even the tunes, if you learn to chant the prayers) returning to your mind over and over again.

Companion volumes (such as The Night Offices, The Divine Hours Pocket Edition, and a Christmastide volume) are also available, as well as ebook editions (which I use now when traveling).

I had been looking for a prayer book that was comprehensive, not too repetitive, i.e., boring (what kind of Christian am I, that prayer should bore me??? I ask myself), yet using much biblical content and ancient prayers of the church. This book is SLICK, in 1930's jargon. It is never too much, in fact leaves me wanting more, so that I take extra time to pray conversationally withe God. The price is right, even considering that you have to buy three volumes separately. I keep my summertime one beside the bed, and will exchange it for the fall and winter one soon.
Some people might prefer longer prayers, full-length psalms, longer readings, but this one is so unintimidating you are likelier to come back to it over and over. I use it at least twice a day, not always morning and evening, sometimes midday and night.
I recommend this book very highly.
Let me add that I am 69 years old, and have been using different prayer books for 36 years. The one I liked best fell totally into pieces, and is out of print, so this comes as a lifesaver. Enjoy!

Phyllis Tickle has compiled daily Psalms, readings, and historic prayers of the Christian faith into this easy-to-use daily prayer guide. It includes morning, mid-day, and evening prayers, as well as a "compline" section for bedtime. This book of prayers has broadened and deepened my prayer life in a season of spiritual dryness. Personal times of spontaneous worship and prayer are wonderful when the worshipper can feel God's presence and the wind of the Spirit at his/her back. However, in seasons of dryness, it is easy to drift into a state of prayerlessness because the inspiration doesn't come so easily. These prayers have helped me maintain a daily rhythm of practicing God's presence in the midst of spiritual dryness. These prayers, spoken out loud, by faith, can become like "daily manna" and "water from the rock". Dry souls needs daily reminders that God is still the Great Shepherd and Divine Compass who will guide them successfully to the other side of the desert. Although there is an occasional Marian (Mary-focused) prayer that makes this Protestant soul slightly uncomfortable, the majority of the prayers are straight from scripture and/or are greatly inspired by passages of scripture and can be formational for Catholics and Protestants alike.

With the revival of many classic spiritual disciplines--along with the encouragements of the Second Vatican Council--praying the Liturgy of the Hours is quickly becoming vogue. But after seeing the traditional prayer books, many are too daunted--or too frugal--to employ the official texts. Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" collection, however, presents a great alternative.

The collection includes three separate books: Springtime, Summertime, and Autumn and Winter. Unlike the traditional set of prayer books, Tickle's collection doesn't require multiple books per prayer set. For example, during the entire summer season, you only need one book, which is read through linearly--no tabs, ribbons, or awkward page flipping.

Each book features prayers for Morning, Mid-Day, Evening, and Compline, with each set of prayers taking between 5-15 minutes based on your level of contemplation. Each prayer set includes Scripture readings, a handful of Psalms, and often hymns or poetry, each pathways to prayer and worship. The texts would be acceptable to both Protestants and Catholics--Tickle is an Episcopal herself--though some Protestants may feel uncomfortable with the poems venerating the Virgin Mary.

"The Divine Hours" is a cheap, simple way to begin the ancient spiritual practice of 'praying the hours'.

Great service. Book in perfect condition. Wonderful devotioanl book by a very talented author.

I own several of these, so a review for one is a review for all. These books are such a help in praying the divine office. A friend of mine once said to me, "I saw these nuns and they were praying out of a book [the book of common prayer] I can't believe they need a book to pray." But these books are more than just "manuals" to teach you how to pray or to give you the "right words" to say.

It's about connecting with the Christians and authors and song writers who have written these beautiful words to express their own faith. It's about finding the rhythm of the scriptures in your life. It's about stopping the routine and the daily grind and connecting with God.

The Divine Office can't be explained other than you have to experience it and allow it to become a practice in your life for you to see and feel the effects it can have.

Phyllis Tickle has done an amazing job taking the obscurity and complexity of the book of common prayer and transforming it into a lay manual for the novice and the curious. The books are filled with thousands of prayers, verses, hymns and meditations that will strengthen, deepen and add to your prayer life.

Keeping in mind that these books are "tools" for prayer - not to replace your own daily honest coming and going with the Lord. I think more than anything these books are a way to connect with God and disconnect yourself with the world around for several times in the day. They act as a spiritual ground, but certainly not as a replacement for personal confession and supplication.

This is not a best seller. In a way, it's highly specialized. And it's one of three volumes: another volume is for Autumn and Winter; a second for Spring. Possible readers: mostly, not necessarily all, might be Christian--or attempting same, or interested. Have some acquaintance with the Hebrew Psalms. Need some prodding to stick to a regular schedule. Take satisfaction in awareness that others are praying the same "hours" about the same time. (This last was important to me.)

The volumes follow an abbreviated form of monastic prayer: prayers for morning, midday, evening and compline (last prayer of the day). There is a suggested "window" for each of these: example: 6 to 9 a.m., on the hour or half-hour for the morning "hour." And the "hour" certainly doesn't mean 60 minutes. Time varies, from maybe four minutes to--whatever you please.

Given the intention of having a definite and usable pattern of daily prayer for busy people, there is inevitably a sense of choppiness at times, with just one line from a Psalm, for instance, when some might be able to remember the whole of it. Well, maybe that's not a bad idea for those so inclined to recite the whole Psalm(mentally, or aloud--your call) Go ahead.