A Holy Island Prayer Book: Prayers and Readings from Lindisfarne

This is a wonderful book from the Christian community of Lindisfarne Island, off the coast of England. If you follow the book's structure, you will be taken through 5 weeks of prayers, 3 times per day. Each day has a theme, such as "New Life" or "The Cross," plus morning, midday and evening prayers for each of the 5 weeks, that also include 5 scripture readings per day. That is a total of 35 days of unique prayers, or 105 prayer sets in total that include 175 Bible readings. Keep your Bible handy, since scripture passages each day are listed but not quoted. This keeps the book small, and allows you to use your favorite translation. The style of many of the written prayers is traditional Celtic liturgical. There are also frequent quotes from ancient church figures, books, and documents that fit beautifully with the themes. As a relatively conservative Christian, I have enjoyed Ray Simpson's inclusion of all people and all creation as belonging to God, as is typical of Celtic style prayers, in a form that does NOT include an overtly liberal social adgenda. I am currently finishing up on my first time praying though this book (a total of 35 days), and recommend it without reservation.