Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep Hardcover – January 26, 2021

I was excited to read this book, being a fan of Warren's writing over the years. I loved Liturgy of the Ordinary and preordered this book as soon as I saw the announcement of its upcoming release.It didn't disappoint. I wondered how she would follow up a book as rich and accessible as LOTO, and she did it by tackling the big issue people have with God. How do we worship a God who allows us to suffer? Or, to quote a sermon that she heard many years ago, "You cannot trust God to keep bad things from happening to you." We believe this as Christians, but actually wrestling with this idea is what sustains us during our dark night of the soul.Unless we come to grips with this when trials come we'll wonder where God was. Warren shares her own struggles with pain and loss and how God met her there with prayers Christians have prayed for ages. She shares how she found meaning in learning to pray different kinds of prayer. For much of her life "prayer meant only one thing only: talking to God with words I came up with."She shares how praying "other people's words" brought her comfort when she was at her lowest points. She walks through the words of Compline, the last prayer before going to sleep, and shares how these words passed down to use bring us comfort in our literal or metaphysical night.I strongly recommend this book. Like her other writing it is accessible without being simplistic. Each page is theologically dense, but it can be read and understood by anyone.

This book is cathartic and profound. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to read it again. I appreciated the vulnerability Warren brings and the richness of the liturgical church as she breaks down the compline. Highly recommend!

This book has done nothing less than save my faith. For the last year, I have been walking the most difficult path of my life and I could feel pieces of my faith falling off as a trod weary steps of survival. My faith is had since childhood was not up to the task because the Christians around me told me my anxiety was a sin. My fear meant I didn’t love Jesus enough.Tish Harrison Warren has written a book that comes alongside us in our weakest, most vulnerable moments and gives us something to hold when it’s all slipping through our hands. A prayer to pray. A cry in the night. An image from Scripture of our Savior enduring the same (and worse). She does not say “it’s not so bad.” She does not say “you’re overreacting.”Prayer in the Night beautifully embraces the mystery of this Christian life and Christian faith. It challenges us to let go of our desperate and fruitless grip on our perceived control and cling instead to a God who loves us. Thank you, Ms Warren. Your book is a balm to my wounded and weak soul.

Although this book is about a difficult topic-theodicy or the problem of pain-it was a joy to read. And although it is written in prose, it reads like poetry. In 2017, after experiencing a series of very difficult life events, although she is a priest, she found that she could no longer form her own prayers, so she turned to the Compline, the liturgical nighttime prayers. This book is a beautiful, well researched exposition of the Night Time Compline Prayer. In this very timely book, she begins with weeping and lamenting. The American church and especially the white evangelical church has been hesitant to lament. She invites us to be honest about our losses even if small and rest in this place for a while. But she does not stay there. She moves on to explore each word of the Compline prayer-weep, watch, work, sleep, the sick, weary, dying, suffering and afflicted. Finally, she ends with joy and the source of all joy which is a God who loves us. She states the “meaning and object of suffering isn’t pain, it is to learn to give and receive love. God can take what is only straw and transform it into the very path by which we learn to love God and let ourselves be loved.” I highly recommend this book.

This is an excellent book. I probably highlighted a third of my ebook copy. I started it twice last year via audio then switched to ebook because I wanted to see and highlight the text. So I'm going to award myself with reading the book twice in the last 12 months.However, what kept me from finishing it until now and rating it with 5 stars was Harrison Warren's editorial for the NYT in February that called for an end to online church services. As a chronically ill person, online services have been a boon for me. Yes, it is ideal to enjoy the service in person, but I haven't lived an ideal life like, ever. 2020 was a particularly difficult year for my family and knowing that I didn't have to use up a whole weekend's worth of spoons to go to church Sunday morning was a relief.Also, Covid isn't over and the spectre of long term Covid is terrifying. I'm going to go get shot #4 and keep masking and mostly stay home, still. I love my church and miss my three trips down to the building per week as life was before Covid. But life changed and I don't think Harrison Warren listened to herself when she wrote in this book about ministering to the afflicted, those whose suffering will eventually lead to death.So, I do recommend this book but I also recommend reading many of the responses to her February editorial. The long night of Covid continues to linger and some of us want to keep praying from home.

Tish Warren is a gifted author; it is a treat to read what she writes! In this book she uses one of my favorite prayers in Anglican liturgy from the ancient rite of Compline (the close of the day) to explore very real questions of suffering and evil in our world and why God would allow any of it if He loves us. She writes with all the humility of a believer who is still learning to live in faith in this life, but also the confidence of one who has walked through dark times and discovered deep, enduring truths about God's love and faithfulness.