Published by IVP on June 11, 2024
Genres: Non-Fiction, Christian Life
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An Invitation into God's Grace
As we race to work in the morning, have coffee with a friend, or fall into bed exhausted, we want to feel God's presence, to sink into his grace. Yet too often he feels aloof, absent. Our prayers feel trivial. But as Julie Lane-Gay discovered, the Book of Common Prayer is designed for just this purpose: to root Christians in the riches of God's grace.
Lane-Gay has written this book to share the treasures she has found in the Book of Common Prayer. It's not a history of the prayer book nor a guide (though it will certainly help readers get their bearings). Instead, using stories from her own life, Lane-Gay shows what it means to live in the prayer book: to allow its prayers and patterns to shape an ordinary Christian life. Discover how the Book of Common Prayer can anchor us―our prayers, our daily lives, our hearts―in Christ.
This gentle, meditative book explores the role that The Book of Common Prayer has played in the author’s faith formation. Julie Lane-Gay offers a series of reflections about how the prayer book has deepened her faith in God and served as an anchor in her life, helping her depend on God and exercise her faith during the ups and downs of everyday existence. The different chapters in this book focus on different sections of the prayer book, and she explains each one in turn, providing some background on the Anglican prayer book itself while also sharing personal reflections on her experiences with that part of the prayer book. She includes illustrative anecdotes and some longer vignettes from her life, showing how these prayers intersect with and bring the light of God into her everyday moments.
This book will primarily appeal to people who share Lane-Gay’s love for The Book of Common Prayer, or at least a solid curiosity about it. However, even if someone is totally new to the prayer book and the practices of liturgical worship, they can still get a lot out of this. Lane-Gay explains things well for the uninitiated, and her thoughtful reflections about following God in everyday life will have broad resonance, regardless of someone’s denominational background. The chapters about suffering and death are especially touching, and this book will introduce many readers to meaningful prayers and practices that they might have never encountered otherwise.
The Riches of Your Grace: Living in the Book of Common Prayer is an incredibly niche book, but it is also deeply resonant. Lane-Gay intersperses information about the prayer book with powerful personal stories and quotes from various prayers and services, and she makes a clear, deeply personal case for why the Anglican prayer book remains so beloved and life-giving for so many believers throughout the world.