When my copy of Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro arrived, I was struck by the intentionality of its physical make-up. The cover was wrapped in off-white linen with a debossed cross in its center, the pages were beautifully laid out and marked for each day or the year, and a silky, shiny page-marker dangled from the bottom. When I finally began to search out the book's contents, I found that they were equally intentional and beautiful.
Each day begins with the same short prayer:
O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you
as the day rises to meet the sun.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was from the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Equal parts brevity and profundity, this prayer is a perfect way to begin each day by focusing my heart on God's glory. Following these words, every entry also features a short psalm for reflection and some suggested scripture readings. Nearing the bottom is a brief quote from or story about a great Christian from history and then a final prayer to close.
Raised a low-church Baptist, I've never embraced liturgy. Heck, I've never even brushed up against it. But I've found my recent encounter--however brief it may be--both refreshing and uplifting. As I pray and reflect through this book, I'm reminded of a whole community of believers who join me in the endeavor. I'm also reminded of those persecuted Christians who aren't able to carry a book like this in public for fear of reprimand or imprisonment.
Common Prayer has sold beyond expectations, and the hefty tome has started something of a movement. The paperback pocket edition has just released, and will be no doubt welcomed by a Christian marketplace hungry for spiritual vitality. Given the impact on my life and in many others', I decided to interview co-author Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove on the project:
JM: Prayer compilation books usually have a hard time gaining traction in the marketplace. Why do you think people have connected so much with yours?
JWH: A lot of prayer books are devotional reading--excerpts from other books to read for a season or every day of the year. I'm sure those books are good news to some people. I know my granny always kept a book like that on the back of her toilet.
But Common Prayer is different. This is a book that grew out of discipleship communities and a book that draws users into community. It introduces you to a new "we" and gives you a way to pray with the global God movement that longs to become the church we pray for.
JM: People are talking about how this book has created a "movement." What does that movement look like?
JWH: I'm part of a community of Christians who live, eat, and pray together at the Rutba House. This book grew out of the need that communities like ours have for a common life of prayer. But it's been fascinating--inspiring, really--to see how this way of praying is creating a new community. We've heard from folks all around the world who are gathering in small groups or even using the prayers individually, but with the knowledge that they're part of something much bigger than themselves. We're uniting in prayers that don't just make us feel better, but prayers that challenge us to live better. We're devoting ourselves to remembering the saints--not to create monuments, but to live in our own time the life of Christ that they embodied in their time.
JM: What is your favorite prayer in the book and why?
In the new pocket edition, I love the bed time prayer. It's called "compline" in the liturgical tradition. But this prayer has a quote from Oscar Romero that I think of often. It's about our identity as people who've been claimed by God's movement. It says, "We are ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own."
JM: Can you share a story of how this book has changed someone's life or altered the way they pray?
JWH: We've heard so many. People write or call to say thanks, and they end up sharing some of the most intimate parts of their lives. I think about the elderly couple who said, "We've never been able to pray together in our marriage, but this has made it possible." Or the young woman who said, "I posted on Facebook that I was excited about this prayer book and I found out I had a neighbor who was using it too. Now we meet and do morning prayer together." Finding one another, they've found community. We have several friends in prison who have the book and pray with us at 8am, when we gather for morning prayer here at the house. One of them wrote from solitary today to say how glad he is to know he's not alone.
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