The Christian Century

For Those We Love But See No Longer: Daily Offices for Times of Grief by Lisa Belcher Hamilton
Venite: A Book of Daily Prayer by Robert Benson
Celtic Benediction: Morning and Night by J. Philip Newell
The Prymer: The Prayer Book of the Medieval Era Adapted for Contemporary Use, translated and adapted by Robert E. Webber

Prayers linger in choir stalls, soak into walls. Centuries of prayer can make you feel buoyant in medieval European cathedrals. Gratitude settles over you like a benediction within busy urban shrines.

In one of the most famous sermons ever delivered, John Donne described the challenge of retaining concentration during prayer. The year was 1626. The occasion was the funeral sermon for Sir William Cockayne.

The House of Representatives has rejected a proposed amendment that would have allowed military chaplains to close public events with faith-specific prayers.

The amendment, offered by Tea Party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) to the Military Construction Authorization Act, was deemed not relevant to the bill, her office said on May 27.

I was out of the country recently when a member of my congregation died. When this happens I feel the pain of being unable to do anything helpful, and a little guilt as well. That’s when I relearn a basic lesson in ecclesiology: I belong to a community of faith that knows how to be a church in my absence.

At one time I volunteered at an annex to a church where we collected mail for the homeless, dispensed sandwiches and snacks, helped with health issues, job hunting and so on.

The number of Americans who are praying is increasing at the same time that more of them say they have no formal religious affiliation, according to a major polling organization.

At my 20-week ultrasound appointment, my husband and I learned that the baby that we are expecting has a fatal birth defect. Sometime very early in his development something went drastically wrong. His skull never formed—the whole top and back part of it simply did not exist. We will probably never find a medical answer to why he developed this way.

This past Christmas, I wished for and received a chainsaw. On New Year’s Eve, while I was engaged in a woodworking project, the chainsaw slipped, grabbed my left sleeve, threw me to the ground, and in a matter of seconds dug into my arm, cutting my hand and wrist to the bone for about six inches. I began bleeding profusely.

President Obama, still without a church home, keeps in touch with as many as a half-dozen clergy for private prayer by telephone—all of them evangelicals.

Five of the men—three black and two white—were identified in a news story published March 15 by the New York Times.