The HarperCollins Book of Prayers: A Treasury of Prayers Through the Ages

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Van De Weyer first gathered these prayers for his personal prayer times, and the selections reflect his concern for the devotional life. The compendium includes the prayers of church leaders(Clement of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, several Anglican leaders), mystics (John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila), theologians (Bede, Augustine), authors (John Donne), liturgies (Book of Common Prayer) and people of action (Dag Hammerskjold). The names in this review are a mere sample; there are several hundred sources in the book. His sources are primarily Catholic, but he does not neglect the Protestant and Orthodox traditions. He also includes a few prayers from non-Christian traditions, such as Judaism, Islam, and Aztec and African monotheistic traditions. The prayers include some of the most famous in Christian literature (Augustine s line about the heart not finding rest until it finds God is in here) and are intensely personal. Van De Weyer did a good job of selecting prayers for all occasions: feeling weak, feeling in need of forgiveness, expressing gratitude, desiring justice, contemplating the meaning of life--they re all there. Van De Weyer includes a helpful one or two sentence biography of each source. This is important if you want to feel a connectedness to the people who have lived the spiritual quest before you, as I do. This is not an academic book, and it is not designed for those who believe that spirituality cannot be discovered from within (rather than from outside of) the Christian tradition. It may also run against the grain of the American self-help religion. But if you want to drink from the wells of the Christian spiritual tradition, you will satisfy your thirst over and over again as you meditate upon the passages in this book.