This book was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t even know I needed. This collection of short essays explores different aspects of prayer and every single one was relevant to me, where I am at this point in my life, and the current climate of the world around me. I can’t recommend this book enough to anyone on a spiritual journey.

What I liked: I was fortunate enough to get a digital ARC (advanced reader copy) of this book. Each morning, I’d make a cup of coffee, take a few cleansing breaths, and read a few before I started my day. The prayers vary - some are more traditional while others are more poetic. Some are soothing while others rage against unjust systems of oppression and those who uphold them. Some are guided while others read like essays. I needed them all.

What I didn’t like: Nothing. I will be rereading these prayers with regularity.

In conclusion: I’m going to be completely honest: my relationship with prayer is complicated. This book is dedicated to Rachel Held Evans, my favorite spiritual writer, who died unexpectedly almost two years ago. There were thousands of people praying for her recovery, but she still passed away. That experience sent me into a prayer wilderness. I didn’t know what prayer was or what to do with it. I still don’t. This book made me feel okay with that. I can lean on the prayers of these women while I wander in this wilderness.

A Rhythm of Prayer is a beautiful collection of prayers, poems, essays, and meditations, authored by a diverse group of writers, leaders, ministers, and activists, and edited my beloved Sarah Bessey. In a season that has often seemed relentlessly dark and heavy, this book was such a balm of truth and light. It is an invitation to acknowledge, connect with, and honor every part of your whole, messy, exhausted, wounded, and fully-loved self as you wonder and wander towards the Divine.

I enjoyed savoring these meditations slowly over the last month, and think A Rhythm of Prayer would make an excellent meditation or devotional resource for Lent. I read it on my Kindle, but could see it being a wonderful audiobook as well.

There are quotable prayers to steal when you're at a loss for words to pray. I'm jealous of the closeness to God and longing for prayer these women have - it's #goals for every person calling themselves Christians.

For the open-minded, for the one identifying with the "evolving faith" and "progressive christian" mindset, for the christians preoccupied with social issues and racial issues, for the one adhering to the "table laid for all, no matter the political or sexual orientation" mentality - this is a book they'd find confort in reading.

I will read and love anything Sarah Bessey puts her hands on and this was no exception. As she and the other contributors offer up examples of all the different forms prayer can take, they paint a picture of El-Roi - the God who sees. He sees all of us and loves all of us and there is room for all of us to talk to Him. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #netgalley

This beautiful book features various female voices, mixed age groups, different cultures, numerous faith practices, personal styles and methods of praying. Each thought on prayer, every poetic utterance or prayer itself stems from the heart and touches our own.

Here you will have your eyes open to the rich diversity of prayer. It is larger and more inclusive than we might have imagined it to be. You will also have your preconceptions questioned, if not shaken and cast aside, as each writer reveals their unique slant, expression, and experience.

Sarah Bessey’s own contributions are sublime. She has done a marvellous job of knitting together these diverse voices to reveal everything from dancing to despair, from laughter to lament, from memories to meditation, and from the deeply personal to the universal as prayerful communing with God.

Prayer encompasses all this and so much more, as you will discover as you prayerfully sit with each person’s words and allow God to minister to you through them. This is a highly recommended resource I will return to again and again. Grateful thanks to NetGalley and Convergent Books for the ARC.

Sarah Bessey never fails to deliver. This collection of prayers is incredibly powerful and moving, no matter your life season.

A Rhythm of Prayer was an interesting read for me. It’s a collection of prayers, scripture, and thoughts surrounding prayer. While I”m intimately familiar with the concept of prayer, I appreciated the written prayers in this story as they pulled me towards new concepts to pray about. The prayer from Osheta Moore reminded me that anything can become prayer - especially a pot of chicken noodle soup. I also found it helpful to hear from a variety of faith backgrounds. As each faith denomination approaches prayer in a little bit different way, it helps to expand thinking around prayer. I enjoyed reading this book in little snippets, taking in a prayer or two each morning as part of my morning time.

This year I've been slowly making my way through A Rhythm of Prayer and it has been the perfect remedy. Each prayer is unique and powerful in it's own right. If you need hope, rest, joy and healing, I highly recommend this book.

First, let me say I am a huge fan of Sarah Bessey's earlier books and follow many of the authors whose works are included in this one, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read an advance copy of the Kindle version and provide this review. If you are old enough, you probably remember the "This is not your father's Oldsmobile" commercials. Like that, A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal is not your mother's morning devotion book, so if that is what you are looking for this is probably not what you want. These essays and prayers invite you into a shared experience of prayer with the various authors. Some of them felt comfortable and familiar, others exciting and new, and others sobering and challenging.

Taken by themselves I enjoyed each of them, but sometimes the movement between them felt jarring. I never knew what to expect as I started the next one. Was this going to be a gentle call to sit quietly in God's presence or experience God in the life's ordinariness, or was it going to an angry lament of injustice? I need and want all of these, but I found it hard to stay with the emotional rollercoaster. It is divided into three parts: Part 1 - Orientation, Part 2-Disorientation, and Part 3 - Reorientation. There is no introduction to the parts, and I think I would have found an introduction to them helpful. On a second read through, I could better understand how the pieces belonged together, but on my first read I felt lost. I should also say, I don't know to what extent my experience would have been different had I been reading the print version as opposed to the Kindle version.

All that said, I really enjoyed the glimpses into prayer each author offered and highlighted many passages. I know I will be reading these more than once and thinking on many of the ideas I encountered for quite some time.

ARC/Netgalley

The publication of A Rhythm of Prayer was pushed back due to the pandemic but the content may be even more relatable now. Sarah Bessey has collected and edited prayers and thoughts from many diverse speakers and writers. There are no simple pat answers and empty assurances. There are laments and questions that wrestle with the dark, but don’t leave you to do it alone.

Oh this book is a treasure!

In a time when you might feel disconnected or a sense of despair may be looming, Sarah Bessey brings together poetic prayerful powerful expressions of some of my favorite Christian writers.

I love how the words and images delve into new understandings of an active living loving God who is present with us. The rhythms are comforting like a lullaby. Consider reading a poem prayer each night before bed.

This title reads like poetry, an eclectic and beautiful collection of diverse voices. A benediction of peace and comfort; an offering of strength and community.

Pros: Although (as a follower/listener of Anne Bogel, Jamie Golden, and Annie B. Jones) Sarah Bessey’s name is not new to me, this is the first of her work that I’ve read. I now follow her on all the socials because I love what she has to say. Also new to me is a book like this one—I have never read a book of prayers before. Reading this book reminded me of the experience I had a week ago watching a prayer service the day after the inauguration. Sarah Bessey curated a thoughtful, diverse collection of prayers—all from women—in this book. When in the introduction, she named as evils white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, nationalism, racism and others, I knew this was a book for me and immediately thought of friends who would respond to prayers that do not shy away from topics of social (in)justice.

Cons: None. I can see how this book would not be for every person/every reader, but for those it is for, it will be wonderful. . . any maybe those who think this isn’t for them are the ones who need to read it the most.

Thank you to NetGalley and Convergent Books for the opportunity to read this book!

When is the last time you read a prayer asking God, “Grant me a Get out of Judgement Free card”?
Or a prayer that gives a recipe for Chicken Reconciliation soup, in which onions are prayer tears, carrots are loving eyes, and celery is healing anger?
Or a prayer that just names all the evils of the world because nothing else comes to mind?
Or a prayer that painfully celebrates the bipolar span from the black hole of depression to the celestial flight of meteoric mania?
Or a prayer to “harden my heart’ and “help me hate white people”?
Or a prayer that travels from slave labored cotton and tobacco fields to counter tops with red Kitchenaid mixers back to the poisoned soil of murderous Miracle Gro?
Or a prayer for when you don’t even know what you want?
These are the prayers of current faith leaders in “A Rhythm of Prayer” collected and ordered by Sarah Bessey. They are modern day Psalms with the same furious love and candid angst articulated by the ancient psalmists in the cultural context of 2021. They are apocalyptic anthems and they have the nerve to say what we are thinking without apology. They are prayers for now, this hour, for those whom Jesus dares to worship in Spirit and in Truth. They are for us.

Confession: I haven’t read A Rhythm of Prayer in its entirety. I don’t believe this is a book that you simply read from cover to cover. It would be best suited on a nightstand, or on a side table beside a favourite reading chair, full of bookmarks and page tabs marking favourite entries. It is called a “Collection of Meditations for Renewal” and features prayers, essays and even guided meditations from a variety of women who are writers, ministers, theologians, activists, and leaders all curated by a favourite author of mine, Sarah Bessey. I have been slowly making my way through it. Some of my favourites I have already discovered are “A Liturgy for Disability” by Stephanie Tait, “God of Compassion” by Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, “Reconciliation Soup” by Osheta Moore and “Instructions for an Evening of Your Life” by Sarah Bessey.
Thank you to Netgalley and Convergent Books for a digital ARC of this book. It is one that I would now like to own a physical copy of. I think this book will be a beautiful resource for many.

Sarah Bessey has invited a great group of writers, mystics and women of faith to contribute prayers for this era. Her own prayers are highlights of this spirited collection, but there are so many that work well for those of us wrestling with faith during this time.

Some are poems. Some are essays. Some are modern psalms that lean toward hope rather than only lament. It's not a book of answers, but a lovely collection of people asking the right questions and offering them to us so that we can also enter into them and use them as a roadmap for this time. These are honest and faithful as they ask those questions.

This is a prayer book for this time and for the ages.

I have been a fan of Sarah Bessey's speaking and writing for years, and I was curious when this book was announced. How will she help us reframe prayer for a new era in the Church and in the world? Yet she does help us reframe prayer, with her characteristic honesty and grace: "We think we only have two options" she says, "double down or burn it down. So when it comes to prayer we might mistakenly believe that if we can't pray the way we used to or the way we were taught, somehow that means we can't or don't pray anymore, period... But pray is still for you." Bessey's introduction offers an intimate and compassionate invitation for us to (re)enter the mystery of prayer, with openness and creativity. And the prayers held within these pages, written by poets and justice workers and ministers, create doorways into different paths of prayer, for us to try on, meander through, and find a home within. For anyone seeking a different way of approaching prayer, this book is for you. For anyone yearning for to find words that bring to life their laments and dreams for our world, this book is for you. For clergy searching for find creative prayers to help their congregations reimagine life with God, this book is for you. What a gem--thank you to all those who contributed to it. Five stars! Thank you to Convergent Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this ebook. I can't wait to get my hands on a hard copy soon!

Fervently hopeful and unabashedly relevant, Rhythm Of Prayer takes our guilt and shame surrounding corporate prayer and casts it away in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Bessey does not bring us the neat, tidy, marketable, or socially acceptable prayer -- she and her brilliant essayists, liturgists, theologians, and poets strip away our old preconceptions and prejudices, making room for a faith that deconstructs white supremacy, colonialism, homophobia, and asks us to see God in everything we do and everything we are.

Beautiful cover.
A collection of meditations for renewal.
Broken down into three parts: Orientation, Disorientation, and Reorientation.
Each chapter includes a prayer and a description of the prayer's author.
Between every few prayers there are quotes or Bible verses about prayer.
Includes Journaling pages at the end where you are encouraged to "date to write your own prayers."
Canadian Author.