The pieces in this volume are taken from all religious and traditions with the purpose of providing material for prayer and meditation. They are arranged in seven sections following the Canonical Hours of the Matins, Prime, Tierce, Sext, Nones, Vespers and Compline. Each section gathers poems and prose according to theme and mood and suiting the hours of the day. Sources include Herbert, Hopkins, Donne, Christina Rossetti, Cowper, St Anselm, Cardinal Newman, Bunyan, Blake, Bonhoeffer, Emily Dickinson, Herrick, Wesley, Mother Theresa, Tennyson, Spenser, Simone Weil, Kierkegaard, St Francis, the Book of Common Prayer, the Bhagavad Gita, Buddhist Scriptures, the Dead Sea Scrolls.
"Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; When there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled, as to console; Not so much to be understood as To understand; not so much to be Loved as to love: For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned; It is in dying, that we awaken to eternal life".