Amazon.com (ISBN 0385505574, Paperback)

The Divine Hours completes the celebrated trilogy of fixed-hour prayer manuals edited by Phyllis Tickle. Where gospel and shared meals are known as the "food and sustenance of the Church," the fixed-hour prayer is the "work," according to Tickle, religion editor for Publishers Weekly. Fans of the previous Divine Hours books (Prayers for Summertime, Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime) applaud Tickle's uncomplicated format, her use of a modern calendar rather than a liturgical one, and the single ribbon in the binding, which is, amazingly, all that readers need to track the daily offices. Fixed-hour prayers (also called "keeping the hours" or "saying the offices") are listed for each calendar day--morning, midday, and evening. Almost all of the sacred readings are from the New Jerusalem Bible, and the psalms and psalm hymns are lifted from the Book of Common Prayer. Some readers may object to the occasional passages with traditional, patriarchal language ("Almighty God, my heavenly Father: I have sinned against you, through my own fault....") Be assured that Tickle chose these readings carefully, no doubt relying upon her extensive religious studies and strong feminine perspective, as evidenced in her excellent memoir The Shaping of a Life. --Gail Hudson