Daily Liturgy Devotional: 40 Days of Worship and Prayer

by Douglas Sean O'Donnell

40-Day Liturgical Devotional for Daily Worship and Prayer

Regular quiet time with the Lord is essential for the spiritual growth and faith of believers. But forming this habit can be difficult without the proper resources or discipline. The Daily Liturgy Devotional offers 40 readings filled with content for prayer, worship, and Scripture reading, helping believers consistently and meditatively meet with God. 

Unique to this devotional, the Daily Liturgy Devotional is organized thematically, covering 8 topics of the Christian faith, including love, hope, wisdom, holiness, perseverance, and more. Each daily reading includes a set of prayers, a Scripture reading, concise comments, prayer prompts, a memory verse, and an applicable hymn. Space for note-taking allows readers to further interact with the reflective tone of liturgy and the richness of Scripture. 

 Liturgical format spurs meditation on Scripture and important topics of the Christian faith  40 Daily  Each reading includes prayers, a Scripture reading, comments, prompts, a memory verse, and a hymn   Organized thematically, every 5 days segment focuses on a different topic of the Christian faith, such as love, hope, wisdom, holiness, perseverance, and more

Genres: Devotional, Christianity

273 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 29, 2024

About the author

Doug O'Donnell is the Senior VP of Bible Publishing at Crossway Books. He has authored or edited over a dozen books, including commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew, the Song of Songs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and 1-3 John. He earned his PhD from the University of Aberdeen.

Reviews

[Dr. David Steele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Daily Liturgy Devotional: 40 Days of Worship and Prayer (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2024), 255 pp.

The Daily Liturgy Devotional: 40 Days of Worship and Prayer by Sean O’Donnell is a tool for our times. The book contains 40 days of material to meditate upon and lead worshippers into the throne room of the living God.

The book is arranged around eight themes: The Gospel, Faith, Love, Hope, Wisdom, Holiness, Perseverance, and Witness. Each theme contains five readings that follow a similar pattern, including adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, prayer of illumination, Scripture reading, concise commentary, prayer prompt, memory verse, and hymn.

The author draws from resources in Scripture and church history, all which point the reader to the Lord Jesus Christ. The predictable pattern, which may annoy some is actually instructive and helps promote continuity in prayer.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mom and I used this book for prayer meetings throughout the year. It was an incredible blessing!
Together we read aloud the prayers and then added our personal praise, confession, supplication etc. We loved singing the hymns at the end of each reading. I bet we will go through this again and again.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a game changer & totally reinvigorated my prayer life. Basically, it puts the ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication) method of prayer into a liturgical format, along with a scripture, commentary & hymn to make a really effective 40-day devotional. I thought the variety of resources used throughout was especially helpful. From the Gloria Patri & Agnus Dei that people from a liturgical background will immediately recognize, to Martin Luther and Augustine of Hippo to Phyllis Wheatley, the variety of prayer in this book was perfect. On several occasions, I was a little awed to realize after reading a particular prayer or hymn, that it was from such a historical source. I plan to revisit this book again, probably at least annually. So thankful to have received the gift of this book from my church.

[Daniel Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great devotional that really helped me structure devotional time well. My only reason for not giving 5 stars is that it became a little repetitive towards the end so I may have preferred if it was just 31 days. However, the 5 different themes over 5 weeks was helpful and encouraging. I definitely recommend this to any who desire a little more structure in their devotional life.

[Montgomery Loehlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This devotional has some good stuff in it, but the structure didn’t work for me. I much prefer Be Thou My Vision.

[Joshua Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been a sweet 40 day study. I love the structure that this daily liturgy plan provides. My favorite part was the hymn at the end of the chapter. My love for hymns grew through these 40 days.

[Asher Conrad Aragon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most beautiful devotional of all time.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

First sentence: One day, after Jesus finished praying, a disciple asked him, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). Jesus responded with the Lord's Prayer (or the Disciples' Prayer!), a short and simple prayer that offers the perfect substance of and model for Christian prayer. The Daily Liturgy Devotional--with its prayers and patterns, Scriptures and songs--is designed to offer further help. If you struggle to pray, read God's word, or meditate upon what you have read, then this devotional will guide you; if you already practice good devotional habits, then this can serve as an additional resource to support you.

The basics: This devotional offers eight weeks of devotions (five devotions per week). Each week centers around one theme in Scripture: The Gospel, Faith, Love, Hope, Wisdom, Holiness, Perseverance, and Witness. Each of the eight weeks offer a memory verse.

Each day blends historic prayers, scripture readings, commentary, and song. I would say the concise commentary and the memory verse segment--in addition to the themes--are what set it apart from other recent liturgical devotional books. (Be Thou My Vision, Psalms in 30 Days, Life of Jesus in 30 days, etc.)

It also features suggestions on how to pray in italics. I haven't decided if this is micro-manage-y OR if it is a good thing. The italics almost read like stage directions in a play. Since my quotes appear in italics already, I'll bold what the book has in italics.

Pray the Agnus Dei. Then take time to ask God through Jesus to forgive specific sins. Also offer prayers of lament. Pray that God would deal with sufferings and injustices both now and when Christ returns. Cry out, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Rev. 6:10), or "Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!" (Psalms 130:1-2)

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Grant us peace. Amen.
It is hard to review devotional books. I was not reading the book one devotion at a time for eight weeks. (For one thing it was a library book!) I read one week at a time--or sometimes two weeks--each day over the course of a week. As I was wearing my "book reviewer hat" (if you will) I wasn't following the stage directions either.

[Rebecca Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great daily devotional. At first it felt odd praying someone else's prayers, but I quite enjoy it now. It's a reminder of what I should be praying and helps give vocabulary to my prayers. The prayers included are from a variety of sources including the Valley of Vision and the Book of Common Prayer and the author himself. Some are based on Bible passages which is helpful. Included in the book are the actual Bible passages and a helpful short commentary, a Bible verse to memorize each week and a daily hymn to sing. It may take a little longer than some daily devotionals but it's a lot more valuable. I'll definitely be working through it on repeat.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 40-day devotional guide, with five days devoted to each of the following topics: the gospel, faith, love, hope, wisdom, holiness, perseverance, and witness. Each day there are several prayers, collected from a variety of sources. Then there is a Scripture passage with brief commentary. Finally, there is a hymn for each day. For what it is, it is well done, but I don't, at this point in life, find this kind of thing particularly helpful. Others may find it very helpful.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was not as good a layout as “Be Thou My Vision.” A lot of prompts, instead of structured flow. It felt like counting steps instead of dancing.

And the when the commentary on the Bible passages are so much shorter than the Bible passages the whole thing seems anemic.

I’d rather have the catechism or confession and much larger Bible passages.

[Ian Hammond · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice devotional, but I prefer Be Thou My Vision. This one jumps into a lot of prayer prior to reading. I prefer to prime the pump for prayer by being stirred up by the Scriptures.

[Jenny Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic guide for a daily rhythm of worship. I will be repeating this book.

[David Noe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took a break from my regular quiet time routine and worked through this. I’m glad I did.