Tish Harrison Warren

I have been guided by the Book of Common Prayer (1979) since a course introduction during my M.A. in Christian Spiritual Formation in 2021. I was familiar with Compline and the other daily offices before reading this book. Warren's meditations on the Compline prayer is grounded in her own experiences of insomnia, weeping and watching, the suffering of illness, death of loved ones, and the vast questions of theodicy. Her struggles of faith, mourning, and depression are shared with candor and humor. Though I have had this book since its publication, I took it off the shelf on my way to hospice, to sit vigil with my 92-year-old mother trapped in dementia, hoping I would find something to hold in my heart during the nights. I was not left wanting. Grief is deeply personal; her words cannot speak to "all" but to many.… (mais)

This is not as good as her debut Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life ( a hard act to follow) but still very good.

Warren writes about the Night Prayer - Compline - taking almost every word or small sentence for each chapter. Very good thoughts on prayer, sickness, suffering, death.

The Night Prayer (Compline):
Keep watch, dear Lord,
with those who wake, or watch, or weep this night,
and give your angels charge over those who sleep.
Tend the sick,
give rest to the weary,
sustain the dying,
calm the suffering,
and pity the distressed;
all for your love’s sake, O Christ our Redeemer.… (mais)