How can we trust God in the dark?
Framed around a nighttime prayer of Compline, Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary, explores themes of human vulnerability, suffering, and God's seeming absence. When she navigated a time of doubt and loss, the prayer was grounding for her. She writes that practices of prayer "gave words to my anxiety and grief and allowed me to reencounter the doctrines of the church not as tidy little antidotes for pain, but as a light in darkness, as good news."
Where do we find comfort when we lie awake worrying or weeping in the night? This book offers a prayerful and frank approach to the difficulties in our ordinary lives at work, at home, and in a world filled with uncertainty.
"We pray the church's liturgical prayers at night—Compline—because they give us words when we don't know what to say, and they give us better words to say than we might give. This little book is holy glow in your hands: read it, savor it, and most of all join Tish Harrison Warren in prayer in the quiet of the night. Those who pray well are honest, vulnerable, frustrated, hopeful, learning, and most of all they are listeners—all on display in Prayer in the Night. But don't let the beauty of this book captivate you; let its subject capture you into becoming a person of prayer."
Scot McKnight, author of The King Jesus Gospel, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary
"Prayer in the Night is another radiant example of wisdom formed in the crucible of suffering. As a priest who finds she can't pray, Tish Harrison Warren finds God in our harrowing vulnerability—and stubbornly holds to believing that God remains good even when life is not. This is a book I'll turn to again and again when life is upended. It's a book I will put into the hands of suffering friends. Prayer in the Night is a book that sings, even as it weeps."
Jen Pollock Michel, author of Surprised by Paradox
"In Prayer in the Night, Tish Harrison Warren once again ingeniously mines the beauty and wonder of the ordinary, especially in what some might take for granted or neglect: night prayer—Compline for those familiar with the Divine Office. She considers well the implications of God's presence, not only in the midst of our nights, wherever and however we find ourselves, but also amid the dark nights of our souls. Through Compline, we are drawn to pray for and remember others in their nights. As Tish notes, 'Christian discipleship is a lifetime of training in how to pay attention to the right things, to notice God's work in our lives and in the world.' And that is exactly what Tish so expertly does and beckons us to do through this book. It is a beautiful offering."
Marlena Graves, author of The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself
"This book is the rare combination of beautiful prose and weighty theological reflection. It paints a picture of a faith that is still there on the other side of trite, easy answers that do not satisfy, a picture of hard-won belief. This is not just a book about prayer; at times the book becomes a prayer in its own right. It is, in the end, a reflection on what it means to be a Christian in the midst of losses large and small. I highly recommend it."
Esau McCaulley, author of Reading While Black, assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College
