Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

Written by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro

Narrated by Shane Claiborne and Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Enuma Okoro

Experience a deeper prayer life through this fresh take on ancient liturgy for believers today.

Designed to help individuals, families, and congregations pray together across denominations, this book of common prayer will help you and your community join together each day with the same songs, scriptures, and prayers. Composed under an advisory team of liturgy experts, these three influential and inspiring authors have created Common Prayer--a tapestry of prayer that will help the church be one as God is one.

This universal prayer book allows readers to greet each day together, remembering significant dates and Christian heroes in church history, as well as important historic dates in the struggle for freedom and justice. There are morning prayers for each day of the year, evening prayers for each of the seven days of the week, a midday prayer to be repeated throughout the year, and prayers for special occasions. In addition, there are morning prayers for Holy Week.

Common Prayer also includes a unique songbook composed of music and classic lyrics to more than fifty songs from various traditions, including African spirituals, traditional hymns, Mennonite gathering songs, and Taize chants. Tools for prayer are scattered throughout to aid those who are unfamiliar with liturgy and to deepen the prayer life of those who are familiar with liturgical prayer.

Ultimately, Common Prayer makes liturgy dance, taking the best of the old and bringing new life to it with a fresh fingerprint for the contemporary renewal of the church.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Dec 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9780310326205

Shane Claiborne

Shane Claiborne is a prominent speaker, activist, and bestselling author. Shane worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta and founded The Simple Way in Philadelphia. He heads up Red Letter Christians, a movement of folks who are committed to living “as if Jesus meant the things he said.” Shane is a champion for grace, which has led him to jail advocating for the homeless, and to places like Iraq and Afghanistan to stand against war. Now, grace fuels his passion to end the death penalty. Shane’s books include Jesus for President, Red Letter Revolution, Common Prayer, Follow Me to Freedom, Jesus, Bombs, and Ice Cream, Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers, his classic The Irresistible Revolution, Executing Grace, and Beating Guns. He has been featured in a number of films, including Another World Is Possible and Ordinary Radicals. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Shane speaks over one hundred times a year, nationally and internationally. His work has appeared in Esquire, SPIN, Christianity Today, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and he has been on everything from Fox News and Al Jazeera to CNN and NPR. He’s given academic lectures at Harvard, Princeton, Liberty, Duke, and Notre Dame.  Shane speaks regularly at denominational gatherings, festivals, and conferences around the globe.

Reviews for Common Prayer

[stephenbarkley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It’s quite a pretentious act to review a prayerbook. I believe that God loves talking with his children no matter what sort of liturgical language they use, so who am I to say these prayers are “good” or “bad”? Here’s another problem: It’s next to impossible (as well as completely fruitless) to read through a year of prayers in a few weeks.Here’s what I did. Before this book arrived, I was following Phyllis Tickle’s The Divine HoursTM Pocket Edition in my personal prayer life. I’m a Pentecostal who has developed a love for liturgical prayer. Over the last few weeks, I’ve substituted Common Prayer into my normal routine. Here’s the report on what I’ve experienced.Common Prayer has prayers for three times of the day:1. Midday: There’s only one prayer for midday, but it’s simple and centering. It reminds you of the beatitudes and gives you an opportunity to meditate. I’ve enjoyed incorporating this into my work-week.2. Evening: There are seven prayers for the evening (one for each day of the week). While there’s nothing wrong with them, I still prefer Tickle’s Compline Office to close the day.3. Morning: Here’s where this volume shines. Claiborne and company have provided prayers for each day of the year. Each month has a certain theme (based loosely around his marks of new monasticism). Each day reminds you of a saint (traditional or otherwise) who has made an impact for the Kingdom.Claiborne’s blatant dismissal of our society’s love for warmongering along with his clear passion for godliness make this an excellent volume. Here’s the best thing I can say about it: I plan on using it throughout the whole year for my morning prayers.One last thing. The production quality of the book is very high. The cloth-bound cover with embossed cross along with graphically illustrated pages throughout make this a lovely book to hold and to use.Disclaimer: A free review copy of this book was provided for me by Zondervan.