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The Divine Hours #1
Prayers for Summertime: A Manual for Prayer
The first 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 first book in the set, Prayers for Summertime, filled with prayers, psalms, and readings, is one readers will turn to again and again. Compact in size, it is perfect for those seeking greater spiritual depth. As a contemporary Book of Hours, The Divine Prayers for Summertime heralds a renewal of the tradition of disciplined daily prayer, and will whet the hunger of a large and eager audience for the follow-up autumn/winter and spring volumes.
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 first book in the set, Prayers for Summertime, filled with prayers, psalms, and readings, is one readers will turn to again and again. Compact in size, it is perfect for those seeking greater spiritual depth. As a contemporary Book of Hours, The Divine Prayers for Summertime heralds a renewal of the tradition of disciplined daily prayer, and will whet the hunger of a large and eager audience for the follow-up autumn/winter and spring volumes.
672 pages, Paperback
First published March 14, 2000
191 people are currently reading
926 people want to read
About the author
Phyllis Tickle
96 books76 followersPhyllis 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
October 4, 2020
I found this to be a helpful guide to incorporating prayer throughout my day. It's a manual that flexes to be as involved or as quick as I want it to be at any given time. I particularly enjoyed the selection of hymns for the vespers prayers. I often searched online to find an interesting version of the day's hymn to listen to as I prayed the words.
The Divine Hours uses The New Jerusalem Bible for the Bible selections in the prayers (except the psalms, which come from the Book of Common Prayer). That translation is usually okay, but occasionally wildly awkward. This prayer book would be great as an app that lets you choose from among different translations.
The Divine Hours uses The New Jerusalem Bible for the Bible selections in the prayers (except the psalms, which come from the Book of Common Prayer). That translation is usually okay, but occasionally wildly awkward. This prayer book would be great as an app that lets you choose from among different translations.
January 14, 2008
I love her Divine Hours books. Some of the readings are from poets and mystics. It's wonderful. Only complaint I have is that the language is still a bit "he and his." I suppose that's to be expected since much of it is taken from the BCP, but I wish I could find a book of hours that's as good as this but with more inclusive language.
September 23, 2025
Not an everyday thing for me, but a good supplement when I don't know what to say.
October 11, 2023
A wonderful companion for the busyness of our furlough. Praying scripture is becoming very spiritually therapeutic for me and has brought me closer to God. I’d highly recommend this series, with the caveat that there are a few Catholic things throughout that I’d skip over.
October 7, 2019
Really enjoyed working through this book. It's especially handy in ebook form to pull up on a lunch break. One critique, the ebook would be easier to work with if the complines were repeated with each day instead of in a separate section at the beginning of the month. I can understand not wanting to bulk up a printed book that way, but "flipping" back and forth in ebook form is kind of cumbersome. For that reason I actually pulled up the compline on a website most days instead of trying to use the book. :)
August 13, 2025
These are fantastic liturgy books, I read mine every summer now!
June 25, 2015
Wonderful resource for daily prayer ... my advice is do not buy an e-book version. This is a book you want to hold in your hands, turn actual pages with your fingers ... place on your night table ...
July 23, 2018
We've been using this for morning prayer all summer so I think that's enough to write a review.
We've actually owned all these since someone got them for us as wedding presents and have used them a good bit over the years but never this consistently.
It's a really nice simple prayer book. The thing about it is you have no excuse because there is no flipping around or looking up scriptures as is required with other prayer books.
The only real downside to me is its use of the Jerusalem Bible which I strongly dislike as a translation. It's very hard to read out loud and is often incomprehensible to me. At least the Psalms are from the Bcp Psalter. Immersing yourself in the Psalms is probably the best part of using this book from a devotional perspective.
We've actually owned all these since someone got them for us as wedding presents and have used them a good bit over the years but never this consistently.
It's a really nice simple prayer book. The thing about it is you have no excuse because there is no flipping around or looking up scriptures as is required with other prayer books.
The only real downside to me is its use of the Jerusalem Bible which I strongly dislike as a translation. It's very hard to read out loud and is often incomprehensible to me. At least the Psalms are from the Bcp Psalter. Immersing yourself in the Psalms is probably the best part of using this book from a devotional perspective.
October 6, 2024
Focused my Daily Prayer
After listening to the podcast accompaniment to Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, one of the people on there mentioned using Tickle’s Divine Hours as a part of his daily rhythm.
I knew I needed something to keep me focused. I’m so glad I found this. I started this summer and I am so glad I finished. I was able to maintain a daily rhythm for the past four months. Having it on Kindle is good. It’s very easy to just bookmark where you need to be and come back to it the following day.
After listening to the podcast accompaniment to Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, one of the people on there mentioned using Tickle’s Divine Hours as a part of his daily rhythm.
I knew I needed something to keep me focused. I’m so glad I found this. I started this summer and I am so glad I finished. I was able to maintain a daily rhythm for the past four months. Having it on Kindle is good. It’s very easy to just bookmark where you need to be and come back to it the following day.
October 5, 2025
It is what it claims to be; prayers for the period from June to September.
Set prayers and readings are given for four times a day. Readings are often (but not exclusively) from the Psalms and the prayers are in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Anglican church. The content is nicely set out and can be followed without a lot of flipping back and forth.
If this is what you want then it will be difficult to find a better manual
Set prayers and readings are given for four times a day. Readings are often (but not exclusively) from the Psalms and the prayers are in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Anglican church. The content is nicely set out and can be followed without a lot of flipping back and forth.
If this is what you want then it will be difficult to find a better manual
November 18, 2017
A wonderful resource for anyone who would like to add this disciple to their personal spiritual practice.
December 19, 2017
I loved this book. Such a wonderful aid to Christian growth and daily habits of prayer.
October 26, 2019
The daily hours from the book of common prayer, along with hymns and scripture that can really help during daily prayer.
October 4, 2020
Phyllis Tickle is quickly becoming my favourite liturgist of the last century.
February 18, 2010
Since the time he penned the words, Christians have been wrestling with how to live out Paul's command to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:17). Historically there have been three major spiritual disciplines that have emerged out of the desire to keep this command: breath prayers, "practicing the presence of God", and the approach this book represents, praying the hours. This is a great discipline, calling a person to pray at three or four fixed times during the day, utilizing a series of Psalms, Gospel readings, and written prayers (taken primarily from the Book of Common Prayer). The great strength of this discipline is that in calling a person to return to prayer at times throughout the day, it has the effect of keeping one in prayer even between the fixed hours of prayer. Prayer times can be short or long, depending on how much time you have to work with. Also, praying other people's prayers, be it the Psalms or one written by another believer, broadens the subject matter of one's prayer life beyond the needs of the moment and the favored areas a person tends to gravitate to. I find that I need this on occasion to break me out of my ruts and expand my capacity to hear what God might want to say to me. The weakness/challenge of this approach is that it is easy to heap on guilt and ought-ness when you miss a prayer time. I find this discipline works best for me when I hold it very lightly - going in with an understanding that I may or may not pray at each of the appointed times. One other interesting dimension of this discipline is that it is one of the few that we can say with certainty that Jesus himself practiced, as practicing Jews in the first century (and before) observed fixed hour prayer at least three times a day (see e.g. Acts 3:1, 10:9, see also Ps 119:164, Dan 6:10, and the 3x/day use of the Lord's Prayer in the Didache).
January 29, 2013
Phyllis Tickle's book is a daily liturgy that can be used for personal or corporate prayer. I started using it in personal prayer as I was going through a period where I found it difficult to motivate myself to pray improvised prayers on my own. The prayers of this book were helpful in getting me settled down and oriented towards God, and then I would follow them with my own personal thoughts and requests. Tickle offers three liturgies per calendar day (morning, midday, and evening) as well as a set of compline (end of the day) prayers for each month. I committed to trying for two prayers per day, usually morning and midday.
Each prayer session/liturgy has a number of components like "the call to prayer", "the request for presence" as well as scripture readings, which are included. Most of the prayers are quotes from scripture so this book works well for those who like to "pray the Word". There are also a number of traditional prayers and elements borrowed from other liturgies.
One thing I like is how components change each day, while other elements (like The Lord's Prayer) are always the same. It's a good blend of variety and consistency. One negative (to me, anyway) is that there is no prompt for including your own personal prayers, intercessions, confessions, reflection, etc. so you'll have to improvise if you want to add those in.
I've also nearly completed the Prayers for Autumn/Winter book and am about to begin the Prayers for Springtime.
Each prayer session/liturgy has a number of components like "the call to prayer", "the request for presence" as well as scripture readings, which are included. Most of the prayers are quotes from scripture so this book works well for those who like to "pray the Word". There are also a number of traditional prayers and elements borrowed from other liturgies.
One thing I like is how components change each day, while other elements (like The Lord's Prayer) are always the same. It's a good blend of variety and consistency. One negative (to me, anyway) is that there is no prompt for including your own personal prayers, intercessions, confessions, reflection, etc. so you'll have to improvise if you want to add those in.
I've also nearly completed the Prayers for Autumn/Winter book and am about to begin the Prayers for Springtime.
September 28, 2014
For the last several months I have been using Phyllis Tickle's prayer book series. I purchased the entire set which includes prayer books for each season of the year, along with a book of Night Offices. I started with Prayers for Springtime and have now moved to Prayers for Summertime.
If you are unfamiliar with Phyllis Tickle you will find her a prolific writer with dozens of books to her name. She is the founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly and has been a much sought after speaker on religion in America.
In The Divine Hours Ms. Tickle makes primary use of The Book of Common Prayer, the writings of the Church Fathers and takes Scripture readings from the New Jerusalem Bible. Each book is divided into specific time categories: Morning, Mid-day, Evening and Night and is easy to navigate to find today's reading.
As a recovering addict it's critical that I keep my prayer routine on track and The Divine Hours series has been most helpful in this area. Although I have several prayer books and iPhone apps, I really enjoy Phyllis Tickle's books and use them regularly.
If you are looking for a way to freshen your prayer and praise routine while participating in the ancient practice of the liturgy, I highly recommend The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle.
If you are unfamiliar with Phyllis Tickle you will find her a prolific writer with dozens of books to her name. She is the founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly and has been a much sought after speaker on religion in America.
In The Divine Hours Ms. Tickle makes primary use of The Book of Common Prayer, the writings of the Church Fathers and takes Scripture readings from the New Jerusalem Bible. Each book is divided into specific time categories: Morning, Mid-day, Evening and Night and is easy to navigate to find today's reading.
As a recovering addict it's critical that I keep my prayer routine on track and The Divine Hours series has been most helpful in this area. Although I have several prayer books and iPhone apps, I really enjoy Phyllis Tickle's books and use them regularly.
If you are looking for a way to freshen your prayer and praise routine while participating in the ancient practice of the liturgy, I highly recommend The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle.
February 6, 2013
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.
January 5, 2015
What a fantastic resource for anyone who would like to keep the offices! The author makes a potentially complicated spiritual practice approachable for those outside the clergy or monastic order.
I highly recommend the practice of adding hard stops in the day to pray, prioritizing spiritual work in a secular work day. The time commitment isn't daunting when taken in the small increment throughout the day, but the fruit of daily watering is beyond measure!
I highly recommend the practice of adding hard stops in the day to pray, prioritizing spiritual work in a secular work day. The time commitment isn't daunting when taken in the small increment throughout the day, but the fruit of daily watering is beyond measure!
October 6, 2024
A wonderful prayer journey through Ordinary Time and the summer season, accompanied by Scripture, hymns, traditional canticles, celebrations of saints, and prayer. Based primarily on the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, each days' readings for Morning Prayer, Midday Prayer, Vespers, and Compline feature multiple Scriptures to be not merely read but also prayed through. This is probably my sixth reading/praying of this book, and I continue to use the series several times each day.
September 7, 2017
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.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Please see my review for "The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime" by Phyllis Tickle.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
August 30, 2014
My friend Wade Hodges put me onto these and together he and I have recommended and more importantly prayed these prayers ourselves *with* the church worldwide and locally with our brothers and sisters on church staff and congregation. Phyllis Tickle has done a great service to the church to give us this 3 volume set, plus a smaller compact portable edition for travel and the night watch edition.
June 4, 2012
A valued daily companion. Wish the Psalm readings were a bit longer, but it's a helpful tool. I was also floored when today's prayer (6/4) of the church was the same prayer Father Patrick used at his institution last night (6/3).
December 19, 2023
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.
April 15, 2014
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. Like the care of the publishing and binding.
October 2, 2022
I don't know if this counts as having "read" as I certainly did not get to it every day. I love the idea of it though, praying the hours, and I will hopefully do better when it comes round again next year. Am currently nearly up to Advent in the Wintertime version, which I'm looking forward to.
October 5, 2009
I love it I love it I love it.
April 22, 2011
I love the rhythm of praying the hours, even though, as a Protestant, it's not really part of my culture. These books make it so easy! I love these books.
April 22, 2011
I love the rhythm of praying the hours, even though, as a Protestant, it's not really part of my culture. These books make it so easy! I love these books.
August 19, 2011
Short review: Great prayer book. Mediocre formatting.
My full review is at http://bookwi.se/the-divine-hours-pra...
My full review is at http://bookwi.se/the-divine-hours-pra...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews