The Divine Hours (Volume Two): Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime: A Manual for Prayer

The Divine Hours #2

by Phyllis Tickle

The second volume in a trilogy of prayer manuals compiled by Publishers Weekly religion editor Phyllis Tickle as a contemporary Book of Hours to guide Christians gently yet authoritatively through the daily offices.The Divine Hours is the first major literary and liturgical reworking of the sixth-century Benedictine Rule of fixed-hour prayer. This beautifully conceived and thoroughly modern three-volume guide will appeal to the theological novice as well as to the ecclesiastical sophisticate. Making primary use of the Book of Common Prayer and the writings of the Church Fathers, The Divine Hours is also a companion to the New Jerusalem Bible, from which it draws its Scripture readings. The trilogy blends prayer and praise in a way that, while extraordinarily fresh, respects and builds upon the ancient wisdom of Christianity. The second book in the set, Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime, provides prayers, psalms, and readings for these two festive seasons. Compact, it is perfect for those seeking greater spiritual depth. As a contemporary Book of Hours, The Divine Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime heralds a renewal of the tradition of disciplined daily prayer, and gives those already using the first volume the continuity they are seeking. The series will culminate in a third volume for springtime, completing the liturgical and calendar year with the offices for every day.

Genres: Prayer, Spirituality, Religion, Faith, Nonfiction, Devotional, Christianity

654 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 19, 2000

About the author

Phyllis Natalie Tickle was an American author and lecturer whose work focuses on spirituality and religion issues. After serving as a teacher, professor, and academic dean, Tickle entered the publishing industry, serving as the founding editor of the religion department at Publishers Weekly, before then becoming a popular writer. She is well known as a leading voice in the emergence church movement. She is perhaps best known for The Divine Hours series of books, published by Doubleday Press, and her book The Great Emergence- How Christianity Is Changing and Why. Tickle was a member of the Episcopal Church, where she was licensed as both a lector and a lay eucharistic minister. She has been widely quoted by many media outlets, including Newsweek, Time, Life, The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, C-SPAN, PBS, The History Channel, the BBC and VOA. It has been said that "Over the past generation, no one has written more deeply and spoken more widely about the contours of American faith and spirituality than Phyllis Tickle." A biography of Tickle, written by Jon M. Sweeney, was published in February 2018. Phyllis Tickle: A Life (Church Publishing, Inc), has been widely reviewed.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been using Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours for about two months now and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I pray three times a day with it. The morning, afternoon, and evening prayers. I don't have time to pray the compline readings at this time. Often my afternoon prayers are said more like 5pm and the evening prayers at bedtime, but for me, I try not to be too rigid with the times. I have enjoyed praying the psalms, poems, and Bible readings. I love how it follows the liturgical year. I have felt my prayer life deepen and grow using this format. Thank you Phyllis!

[Scott Macy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great discipline to read every day.

I will continue to use this great tool on a daily basis to start my day with God. It’s a seasonal book so I will be reading it again soon when Autumn comes back around. Highly recommend.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phyllis Tickle has created such a beautiful resource for praying the Divine Hours. I did morning prayer and Vespers every day. So inspiring and comforting. Now on to Springtime and Lent.

[Neil R. Coulter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good collection of prayers. I appreciated the extra prayers for Advent and Christmas.

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among my favorite devotional books, this Divine Hours series sets out prayers--mostly Scripture, with the addition of hymns in the evenings--of Morning, Midday, and Vespers Prayers. Compline is also available at the end of each month, set for one week, Sunday through Saturday, that is repeated as often as is necessary each month if desired.

Because I use this devotional in tandem with The Book of Common Prayer 2011, I use the BCP Compline rather than the one in this Divine Hours series.

I love praying God's Word three times each day--it grounds me in His Spirit yet lifts me above the "busy life of common days" so that I "may take thought of its meaning and its end" (quotes from John Baillie's Diary of Private Prayer). Setting aside whatever I may be doing when the times to pray arrive, I find myself refreshed and rejuvenated in the Holy Spirit.

This second volume in the Divine Hours series of three is subtitled Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime, and I have already started the third volume: The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime.

[Paul Baker]

2025-02-09

Review 2025.02.002

Reviewers Note: It is the beginning of 2025 and one of the skills I desire to grow in is that of writing book reviews (having never done this before). I am doing this so I can better hone my writing (and reading) skills as I seek to think more critically about the books I am reading. I am sharing on Goodreads for my own personal development. I know this will be something I am always growing in so if you actually read these, please be patient with me as I develop this skill. I will also receive constructive criticism if you desire to help me become a better writer (and reader). I plan to use this disclaimer for the entire 2025 year.

The Divine Hours: Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle
688 Pages

Last year I read “Praying With The Church” by Scot McKnight. He discussed the liturgy of the church and the beauty of praying it together with the universal church. I have never been one for devotionals or praying things from a book but Mr. McKnight had a lot of compelling arguments and suggestions. One of those suggestions was The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle and so I bought the first volume (Summertime). I told myself if I made it to the end with relative success I would continue growing in my liturgical praying.

This is the second volume (Autumn and Wintertime) so I must have been successful. This book is just as accessible as the first one. While most days I am not as engaged in the text as I would like to be, doing the three daily prayers (Lauds, Sext, and Vespers) forces me to stop and focus attention on the things that are above if only for a few minutes. It has also given me the opportunity to read more of the Psalms as a bulk of the prayers in these books are just parts of the Psalms.

For protestants concerned about such things, there have been a few references to the apocrypha books but they are rare. There are also some references to praying to saints but very limited (I would guess less than five times in the two books I’ve read). I do not believe these will hinder your use of the books. There are a few issues with alignment on the Kindle edition but this is to be expected. And there seems to be a reoccurring typo where the word “play” is written instead of the word “pray”. It is one specific prayer that was duplicated with the typo.

There are also Compline prayers in the books but I have not included that in my current system. Given the success I have had though, I would like to add the Compline in the future. The issue is at night I tend to fall asleep reading instead of having a clear and focused mind. However, I do plan to add a longer and more mindful time with the Sext (noontime) prayer when I start year two of my liturgy growth. This will be more micro-reading while I take notes and think more deeply about the prayer.

Liturgical prayers are not for everyone. I honestly didn’t think they were for me until I tried them. I can recommend this book for at least two different groups of people. First for anyone who desires to grow in liturgy and doesn’t have a background in it, this is a good place to start. Second for anyone who wants to grow in prayer generally but doesn’t know where to begin. These books can be used to give you a starting point. The text provided can be your entire prayer or it can lead you into your own prayer.

There may be better liturgy books to begin with but my experience is limited.

[Marlise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love the IDEA of The Divine Hours but this version just didn’t draw me in. Or maybe I didn’t read it the right way. I understand that the repetition in liturgy is supposed to be comforting, but I found my mind wandering far too often in the repetitiveness. Maybe I’ll try it again in a different season in my life.

[Daniel Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love it but Kindle is hard to navigate

A very refreshing approach to prayer. I love the repetition of the psalms and ancient prayers. I wish the kindle version was easier to sort through.

[Child960801 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a prayer book for Autumn and Winter.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who is interested in praying the hours, this and its companion volumes are a wonderful resource.

[Bob Wolniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A daily habit of prayers and readings.

[Loretha · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the finest novels in the English language, but unputdownable.

[Booklass Garrahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like these prayers. They are beautiful.

[Meredith Kadet Sanderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ate the whole thing! Highly recommended for anyone who wants to pray the offices throughout the day, and prefers analog over digital.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second time I’ve gone through the book. I find it to be comforting.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long been drawn to fixed-hour prayer. Growing up, we were taught to have a "quiet time" or "devotional" with God once a day. This has been my regular practice through the years, though like any normal human there were seasons when it went well and times of stagnation. While I treasured reading scripture, prayer often seemed like an add-on, the time when I was supposed to do something but too often my mind wandered. At times journaling helped as writing things out helps keep focus.

A few years ago I checked out an app or two that used the Book of Common prayer and found it helpful. For convenience, I wanted an app or e-version. But I heard so much about Phyllis Tickle's prayer books that I finally bit the bullet and bought one. Most reviews said the e-version had poor formatting, so I went with a physical book. If anything, having the physical book helped me do the prayers more often.

I managed to do morning and bedtime prayers most days, sometimes working in either midday or evening (vespers). The realities of having children always gets in the way of regularity, but that is okay! Overall, I find the rhythms of these prayers incredibly helpful. I am planning to use another of Tickle's books for Lent.

If you are looking for something new to recharge your spiritual life perhaps the best place to look is something old - fixed-hour prayer. Tickle's book is a wonderful tool to be added to a journal and a Bible. It would be nice for a well-formatted e-version, but there may be something mystical about paper - paper prayer books, paper bibles and paper journals.

[Marguerite Hargreaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume, one of three covering the calendar year, affords those of us who haven't gotten to a nunnery a structure and discipline for Scripture-based prayer. Four times a day is a big commitment. I'll admit I don't always pray at the suggested times. But, I pray. Sometimes, I chant the prayers and sing the Vespers hymns (the dog seems to enjoy it). Phyllis Tickle's Hours series might strike some people as old-fashioned, but I've found it refreshing and had no problem fitting it into modern life, even my workplace. The prayers are mindful of the liturgical year, with a smattering of saints' days each month. I introduced the series to Mom, who's even more attached than I am. She keeps a list of prayer intentions in hers. I'd recommend the hardcover version, based on the battering my books have taken. There's also a pocket edition.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the enduring practices of spirtuality is that of prayer. Within the Christian practice is the traditionn of fixed-hour prayer, and within that tradition is found the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. The author of The Divine Hours, Phyllis Tickle, based this contemporary prayer manual upon the Book of Common Prayer.

Tickle, who was the founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly, is a lay minister of the Episcopal Church and is a Senior Fellow of Cathedral College of the Washington National Cathedral.

Though I am Methodist, and though I do not use this prayer manual exactly as intended, I do find the moments I take during the day to use this book to be a time for coming back to what is important

[Greg Baughman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful devotional tool. Each day has four prayers to use. They help give your day a real rhythm, and there is a context for each (e.g. the morning prayer contains a request to keep one from sin while the vespers and compline prayers contain words of repentance for the sins committed for the day). The book also follows (though a bit more loosely than other books) the liturgical calender (in this volume, for example, there are advent and Christmas prayers). Many elements remain the same each day, and they are noticeable when absent (such as the lack of the recitation of the Gloria Patri during Advent). All in all, I really appreciated this book, and it helped to remind me throughout the day whom I serve. On to volume three!

[Joshua Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this is your first intro to fixed-hour prayer, Divine Hours can seem a little heavy. You might want to first try Common Prayer by Claiborne. However, this amazing series gives a much deeper journey into the practice as it includes 3 unique prayers for each day and a set of daily prayers for each month's compline. It also includes various special weeks for the high seasons of the Church. Following the BCP, with readings primarily from the Jerusalem Bible, and excerpts from Christians of many times, nationalities, and branches of the faith, you won't find a more beautiful way to structure your daily prayer life.

[David Weller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all of the web-based and book-form daily hour prayers, The Divine Hours seems to most closely fit my daily routine. There are a total of three volumes for the year; there is also a night-time Divine Hours from Oxford Press for over-night prayers. The Psalms are heavily cited, as well as other prayers, poetry, canticles and more. The only thing I don't follow closely is the reading of offices on exactly the hour or half-hour, as suggested in the book.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely reference and resource. Personally, too much to use all of it for daily practice, but wonderful for periods or used partially as time, needs, and desires permit. Has an expanded section for use during Advent. Based on ancient Benedictine hours, with a Morning Office, Midday Office, Vespers Office, and Compline (Night Office).

Like the care of the publishing and binding of the hardcopy.

[Ebookwormy1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is part of a three book set that covers the entire calendar year as well as providing special material for Lent and Advent. Please see my review for "The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime" by Phyllis Tickle.

Please see my review for "The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime" by Phyllis Tickle.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I remember to pray through this book, I am blessed and comforted, and feel like I have hit the reset button on my relationship with God.

This could be called The Book of Common Prayer Lite -- the actual BCP is confusing (to me, anyways) but this presents a very similar prayer format, a little bit pared down and in a way that's easy to follow.

[Kathleen Acker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful gift and tool

This one of several of Phyllis Tickle’s prayer books is a wonderful way to use scripture and the words of others to pray and pause throughout the day. It also includes the opportunity to enter into some of the seasons of the church calendar. I continue to use it.

[Bo · Rating 5 out of 5]

i used this as my devotional on the subway to and from work when i first started my new job. it was perfect for where i was at in life, in that it kept me connected with god, and helped me stay grounded as i transitioned out of ministry.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, this isn't the kind of book you read straight through obviously since it is a daily prayer book, but I love it. it has prayer 3 to for times a day, and revives the ancient practice of keeping the daily office. Nothing I have read or done recently has helped my prayer life more!

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've used the Divine Hours books for several years. Well put together. Good quality throughout. I think they can now only be purchased new as paperback which is too bad as the hard cover edition will stay open on your desk or table. The p'back will not.

[Sherilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a gift from a friend and I am so grateful for the opportunity to have really explored a different way of prayer. I do believe that many of these traditional praying methods bring with them an overwhelming sense of peace. I believe we all ultimately seek.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been using these prayer books for a few years, but this was the first time I actually committed to doing all the prayers every day. It was really worth it.