Praying the Hours

by Suzanne Guthrie

Overview

In Praying the Hours Suzanne Guthrie offers us a contemporary way to practice the ancient tradition of hallowing time throughout the day by marking the hours with prayer and thanksgiving. With humor and wisdom she draws on her experience as a wife, mother, Episcopal priest, and teacher of children, showing us through her own life how these devotions can fold into the times of a hectic day. By praying the hours all the activities of our days — our eating, sleeping, working, cleaning, playing, and reading — become part of the sanctification of time and place.

In part one Guthrie focuses on the importance of stability of place in the life of prayer. “Every time I move,” she observes, “I have to learn to pray all over again,” and she describes how she has learned to make a new home a house of prayer. In part two Guthrie takes us through the hours of prayer in the monastic day and explores how praying at fixed hours through the day can draw us closer to God.

Praying the Hours is one of our series of Cowley Cloister Books: smaller format, gift edition books designed for meditative and devotional reading.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781561011773
Publisher:	Cowley Publications
Publication date:	01/25/2000
Series:	Cloister Bks.
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.24(w) x 6.98(h) x 0.42(d)

About the Author

SUZANNE GUTHRIE is an Episcopal priest at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Kingston, New York, where she uses theatre, dance, and movement to teach Bible and worship to children. She is also a workshop and retreat leader, and the author of Grace's Window: Entering the Seasons of Prayer.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Moving: A New House Chapter 2 Sensing: Sounds and Scents Chapter 3 Censing: Dust and Incense Chapter 4 Gardening: Once and Future Figs Chapter 5 Mapping: The Timepiece of the Hours Chapter 6 Sleeping: The Hour of Vigils Chapter 7 Waking: The Hour of Matins Chapter 8 Reading: The Hour of Lauds Chapter 9 Worship: The Hour of Terce Chapter 10 Working: The Hour of Sext Chapter 11 Coping: The Hour of None Chapter 12 Magnifying: The Hour of Vespers Chapter 13 Returning: The Hour of Compline

Editorial Reviews

When Suzanne Guthrie moves into a new house, she is forced to reposition her prayer life in the new space and rediscover in her new routines the steady rhythm of God’s time that has governed her life. She brings us along with her as she does this in her new book, which is both a series of reflections on change and persistence in the life of faith and a guide to prayer as an activity that belongs in daily life... Woven into this appealing book are meditations on the traditional monastic hours of prayer, which Guthrie uses as an internal clock to call her to prayer throughout the day... Her message is simple and effective: all of life is suffused with the glory of God.

The Episcopal New Yorker - Deacon Kenneth Arnold

In this fine collection of meditations, Guthrie demonstrates how it is possible to sanctify the activities of sleeping, waking, reading, working, and gardening... Guthrie notes, ‘Every time I have ever moved, I have had to learn to pray all over again.’ We all know the feeling. Whether writing about the accumulation of dust in her house in Poughkeepsie, their backyard garden, or worship services at the Holy Cross Monastery,...the author captures the devotional aspect of praising God in all that she does.

Cultural Information Service - Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

In this fine collection of meditations, Guthrie demonstrates how it is possible to sanctify the activities of sleeping, waking, reading, working, and gardening... Guthrie notes, ‘Every time I have ever moved, I have had to learn to pray all over again.’ We all know the feeling. Whether writing about the accumulation of dust in her house in Poughkeepsie, their backyard garden, or worship services at the Holy Cross Monastery,...the author captures the devotional aspect of praising God in all that she does.
— Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Cultural Information Service

When Suzanne Guthrie moves into a new house, she is forced to reposition her prayer life in the new space and rediscover in her new routines the steady rhythm of God’s time that has governed her life. She brings us along with her as she does this in her new book, which is both a series of reflections on change and persistence in the life of faith and a guide to prayer as an activity that belongs in daily life... Woven into this appealing book are meditations on the traditional monastic hours of prayer, which Guthrie uses as an internal clock to call her to prayer throughout the day... Her message is simple and effective: all of life is suffused with the glory of God.
— Deacon Kenneth Arnold

The Episcopal New Yorker