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SANCTIFYING THE HOURS: A Pilgrim’s Breviary for Work and Prayer
The Christian life is a journey—a pilgrimage along the Way of Christ. Like the disciples who walked with Jesus, we are invited to order our lives so that all we do becomes an act of worship, an offering to God.
In the fall of 2024, I walked the Camino de Santiago, beginning at the Cathedral in Porto, Portugal, and making my way along the coastal route into Spain, arriving at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. I continued on to Finisterre and Muxía, the ancient “end of the world,” where land gives way to the wide Atlantic. Each step was a prayer. Each village and chapel reminded me that countless pilgrims before me had also sought Christ on the road. There were days of joy and companionship, and days of silence and struggle, yet the rhythm of walking and praying shaped me in ways both ordinary and profound.
This rhythm is not unlike what Saint Benedict envisioned when he wrote his Rule in the sixth century. He taught that a balanced life of ora et labora—prayer and work—could center every day in God. His vision was not for monks alone, but for anyone who longs to live with holy intention, keeping their hours anchored in prayer and their labors consecrated to Christ.
This book offers such an ordered way. It is an invitation to weave prayer into the fabric of daily life, following a rhythm that echoes the heartbeat of the Church through the ages. Four times each day—Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Night—you will be called to pause, to lift your heart and mind to God, and to receive the gift of God’s presence in the midst of life’s labors.
The meditations here draw upon the Directory for Worship from the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a guide rooted in the Reformed tradition yet ecumenical in scope. Its theology and practice reflect the greater Christian tradition, shaped by the wisdom of the World Council of Churches, the fruits of ecumenical dialogue, and the shared commitments of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Here you will find themes that resonate across denominational lines—Word and Sacrament, prayer and praise, service and witness, the seasons of the Christian year, and the care of the gathered community.
This is not a manual to be mastered, but a way to be lived. Its structure is simple, yet it will ask of you both attention and devotion. Each day, four times a day, you will encounter a brief meditation that invites you to reflect on the mystery of God’s grace and to respond with faith, love, and service. Over time, these moments of prayer will begin to sanctify the hours, forming in you a life attuned to God’s presence—whether in the stillness of dawn, the busyness of the day, the quiet of evening, or the darkness of night.
My hope is that this book may serve you as the Camino served me—as a path of prayer. May it lead you to discover what the saints and pilgrims before us have that a life ordered in prayer is not a restriction, but a liberation; not a burden, but a blessing; not an escape from the world, but a way of inhabiting it more fully, faithfully, and joyfully in Christ.
In the fall of 2024, I walked the Camino de Santiago, beginning at the Cathedral in Porto, Portugal, and making my way along the coastal route into Spain, arriving at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. I continued on to Finisterre and Muxía, the ancient “end of the world,” where land gives way to the wide Atlantic. Each step was a prayer. Each village and chapel reminded me that countless pilgrims before me had also sought Christ on the road. There were days of joy and companionship, and days of silence and struggle, yet the rhythm of walking and praying shaped me in ways both ordinary and profound.
This rhythm is not unlike what Saint Benedict envisioned when he wrote his Rule in the sixth century. He taught that a balanced life of ora et labora—prayer and work—could center every day in God. His vision was not for monks alone, but for anyone who longs to live with holy intention, keeping their hours anchored in prayer and their labors consecrated to Christ.
This book offers such an ordered way. It is an invitation to weave prayer into the fabric of daily life, following a rhythm that echoes the heartbeat of the Church through the ages. Four times each day—Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Night—you will be called to pause, to lift your heart and mind to God, and to receive the gift of God’s presence in the midst of life’s labors.
The meditations here draw upon the Directory for Worship from the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a guide rooted in the Reformed tradition yet ecumenical in scope. Its theology and practice reflect the greater Christian tradition, shaped by the wisdom of the World Council of Churches, the fruits of ecumenical dialogue, and the shared commitments of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Here you will find themes that resonate across denominational lines—Word and Sacrament, prayer and praise, service and witness, the seasons of the Christian year, and the care of the gathered community.
This is not a manual to be mastered, but a way to be lived. Its structure is simple, yet it will ask of you both attention and devotion. Each day, four times a day, you will encounter a brief meditation that invites you to reflect on the mystery of God’s grace and to respond with faith, love, and service. Over time, these moments of prayer will begin to sanctify the hours, forming in you a life attuned to God’s presence—whether in the stillness of dawn, the busyness of the day, the quiet of evening, or the darkness of night.
My hope is that this book may serve you as the Camino served me—as a path of prayer. May it lead you to discover what the saints and pilgrims before us have that a life ordered in prayer is not a restriction, but a liberation; not a burden, but a blessing; not an escape from the world, but a way of inhabiting it more fully, faithfully, and joyfully in Christ.
164 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2025
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