What do you think?
Rate this book
Praying the Psalms with Beads: A Book of Daily Prayers
The psalms made intimate and tangible
Life is often so busy and chaotic that even when we do find time to pray, our minds cannot settle and our thoughts drift to the stresses and concerns that pull our attention elsewhere. With the use of beads, however, our bodies are incorporated into the act of praying, allowing us to remain present with God in a state of peaceful meditation.
Praying the Psalms with Beads guides the reader in a daily devotional habit that distills the entire book of Psalms into 182 five-minute prayers, allowing one to go through this whole cycle twice a year, gaining deeper familiarity with the psalms each time. By virtue of this repetition, the psalmists’ praises, laments, and supplications become something deeply felt instead of only distantly understood.
Nan Lewis Doerr’s introduction includes an overview and guide to using prayer beads, making this an accessible book for anyone who longs for deeper peace and spiritual focus in their lives.
Life is often so busy and chaotic that even when we do find time to pray, our minds cannot settle and our thoughts drift to the stresses and concerns that pull our attention elsewhere. With the use of beads, however, our bodies are incorporated into the act of praying, allowing us to remain present with God in a state of peaceful meditation.
Praying the Psalms with Beads guides the reader in a daily devotional habit that distills the entire book of Psalms into 182 five-minute prayers, allowing one to go through this whole cycle twice a year, gaining deeper familiarity with the psalms each time. By virtue of this repetition, the psalmists’ praises, laments, and supplications become something deeply felt instead of only distantly understood.
Nan Lewis Doerr’s introduction includes an overview and guide to using prayer beads, making this an accessible book for anyone who longs for deeper peace and spiritual focus in their lives.
- GenresChristian
238 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 25, 2020
50 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 9, 2022
Part of my daily prayer discipline is to read one psalm from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. (As a lifelong Episcopalian, I just really like this particular translation.) After I read Psalm 150, I start over with Psalm 1. When I stumbled across this book, I was intrigued. I have to admit that I never thought of praying a psalm using prayer beads.
Author Nan Lewis Doerr is an Episcopal priest who admits a fascination with Anglican prayer beads, the Anglican version of the Roman Catholic rosary. She rewrote the psalms to fit the very strict, prescribed confines of these prayer beads. It's an ingenious idea, but unfortunately, the result is mixed.
The upside: She introduces each psalm with a one or two-sentence introduction explaining the history and meaning. This is fabulous! These intros are succinct but packed with information that truly bring the psalms to life. This helped me to appreciate some of the psalms in an entirely new way.
The downside: Because some psalms are very long, the author broke them into several parts and/or eliminated many of the verses. This means 150 psalms turned into 182 prayer bead psalms. The idea is that you should pray one a day and finish in six months. But this kind of editing, while necessary to fit the restrictions imposed by the prayer beads, meant some of the best lines of some of the psalms were deleted. For me, that is a problem. I won't adopt this as my daily discipline; instead, I'll return to reading/praying a psalm a day from the Book of Common Prayer.
But if you want a new way to read the psalms, this is an intriguing way to do just that. Just know that you absolutely need a set of Anglican prayer beads or you'll miss the point.
Author Nan Lewis Doerr is an Episcopal priest who admits a fascination with Anglican prayer beads, the Anglican version of the Roman Catholic rosary. She rewrote the psalms to fit the very strict, prescribed confines of these prayer beads. It's an ingenious idea, but unfortunately, the result is mixed.
The upside: She introduces each psalm with a one or two-sentence introduction explaining the history and meaning. This is fabulous! These intros are succinct but packed with information that truly bring the psalms to life. This helped me to appreciate some of the psalms in an entirely new way.
The downside: Because some psalms are very long, the author broke them into several parts and/or eliminated many of the verses. This means 150 psalms turned into 182 prayer bead psalms. The idea is that you should pray one a day and finish in six months. But this kind of editing, while necessary to fit the restrictions imposed by the prayer beads, meant some of the best lines of some of the psalms were deleted. For me, that is a problem. I won't adopt this as my daily discipline; instead, I'll return to reading/praying a psalm a day from the Book of Common Prayer.
But if you want a new way to read the psalms, this is an intriguing way to do just that. Just know that you absolutely need a set of Anglican prayer beads or you'll miss the point.
August 25, 2020
Doerr's previous book of prayers (Praying with Beads: Daily Prayers for the Christian Year) was a great way to pray using the Anglican rosary/prayer beads following the lectionary. This book is better. Adapting the psalms for use with the Anglican rosary both draws us into communion with generations of believers who sang or said the psalms to reach out to God and helps us to recover the "feel" of the psalms as poetry and song. Highly recommended for those who use the Anglican rosary or who want to start.
December 28, 2020
If are using Anglican Prayer beads this book is perfect. Symbols beside the verses guide you as you pray using the beads. It allows you to concentrate on the prayer and not the bead. I loved this book! I didn't use all the prayers, just the ones that resonated with my needs. However, you could use this book for daily prayers--using a new Psalm each day.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews