This book is structured around a compline prayer from the Book of Common Prayer: "Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake."

Tish Harrison Warren writes that during a difficult season in her life, "it was the prayers and practices of the church [including compline] that allowed me to hold to --or rather to be held by--God when little else seemed sturdy even when I found no satisfying answers." Similarly, Warren's words of God, about God, and to God are words that have grounded me deeply in truth because she does not write finding hope in pat answers or saccharine sentiments that give out when the night darkens. This book lives in the in-between spaces of this broken world and the life everlasting because that is where we are. And Warren, in her priestly wisdom, seems to know that what the church needs is someone willing to address the questions or crisis of faith that occur in the midst of suffering, and to do so honestly, vulnerably, without reservation. Prayer in the Night confronts death and darkness, sickness and pain, and somehow does so without reducing or cheapening the light.

"Prayer in the Night" is a profound exploration of the power of prayer during times of darkness and despair. The author's vulnerability and poetic prose create a deeply moving and inspiring reading experience. The book beautifully captures the transformative nature of prayer and its ability to bring solace and hope in the midst of life's darkest moments. However, at times, the book's poetic language and introspective style may be challenging for readers seeking a more structured and practical approach to prayer. Overall, it is a compelling and thought-provoking work that encourages readers to embrace the spiritual practice of prayer in their own lives.

I was not familiar with the compline before reading this book, but this is my favorite Spiritual book on 2021. I want to go back and re-read it and savor it again. The author writes so truthfully and bravely about suffering, pain, and God's goodness and sovereignty. I think some of her theology will not appeal to a more progressive audience, but to those who can hold the dialectical truths about God's love and goodness and the reality of sin and brokenness in our world, her words are a healing balm.

Just reading the introduction I felt identified, my husband and I live just something like that, like what the author writes. It was like remembering everything again and thanking God for the advanced calendar, from his hand. I really enjoyed his melodic, painful, sometimes bleeding words and sometimes like a murmur of pain in the middle of a noisy world. If you have suffered pain, illness, loss, you will surely find empathy, understanding and hope in this book. When no one else is listening, it is easier to turn to prayer. Remember that if you need it today. This book will help you to vocalize those sentences that you have stuck inside.

Prayer in the NIght became one of my quick favorites. Tish Harrison Warren takes the Compline prayer, and makes it come alive to her readers through real experiences, scriptural examples and more. The book shows how prayers of the Church exist for those times when we don't have words and how it can act as a lifeline to our faith when it feels dry.

My favorite part of the book discussed where God is at in the midst of our collective pain. Warren writes eloquently about the problem of pain, Jesus' humanity, and how to make sense of this suffering. As a reader, she invited me in to ask my own questions and mediate on their answers.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn how to trust God in the midst of life's uncertainties. It will be a faithful companion and meet you exactly where you are.

Here is the book summary:
How can we trust God in the dark?
Framed around a nighttime prayer of Compline, Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary, explores themes of human vulnerability, suffering, and God's seeming absence. When she navigated a time of doubt and loss, the prayer was grounding for her. She writes that practices of prayer "gave words to my anxiety and grief and allowed me to reencounter the doctrines of the church not as tidy little antidotes for pain, but as a light in darkness, as good news."
Where do we find comfort when we lie awake worrying or weeping in the night? This book offers a prayerful and frank approach to the difficulties in our ordinary lives at work, at home, and in a world filled with uncertainty.
And now, my review:
This book has numerous authors pulled together with different prayers for those moments/times of darkness. When you put together a book with many voices you are bound to love some and not others. That was what I found with this one. I loved what Tish had to share. There are some really great insights and sharing in there. It’s a type of book that you can skip around with. When I started it, I just opened it and went to a random reading. I was surprisingly disappointed. I then read another and another and was not liking it at all. So, I put the book down after reading quite a few. A couple days later, I tried again. That time I started at the beginning and loved what I read and kept going with it. I was so thankful that I tried again! Bottom-line is that I didn’t like some but for the ones I did like, it’s well worth the read! Pick it up and see what you think.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.


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Tish Harrison Warren uses Prayer in the Night to deeply study the compline prayer and the themes embedded in each line. When we are lost or helpless, this liturgy is offered as simple words that can ground and guide us.

I was first introduced to the beauty of the prayer through Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours. I read those same lines at the close of every day, but depending on who was on my heart and what they were experiencing, different phrases would gain new significance. Its impact is timeless:

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this ight, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ, give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous, and all for your love's sake. Amen.

This is a well-written and researched study on the categories of pain and the theology revealed; each chapter delves into a phrase of the prayer. Warren's meditation is a balance of the scholarly and the personal as she dwells on lament, weakness, silence, dying, gratitude and comfort. My copy is copiously marked up with her insights, as she is vulnerable in how moments in her own life reveal these truths and how theologians for centuries have been considering pain and lament.

This book is a beautiful gift to those seeking more insight into how God is present in difficulty, as well as a salve to those facing their own individual heartaches.

(I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)

This book is an artwork. It is thoughtfully written, sensitive and never trite. Tish Harrison Warren explores the themes of suffering, loss, and where God fits in. She writes in a gentle and honest way. The author bravely uses examples from her own life experience, without holding back. The book is written so well it is easy to read, despite covering such difficult topics. It would make a great gift for friends who are struggling, grieving or without hope.

I received an eARC of this before it was published, but I've been slow in reviewing it. I couldn't read it quickly. Every page or two I would have to stop and ponder Warren's words. With honesty and grit, she admits doubts and tackles questions about God's goodness in our broken world. A book I know I will reread, centered on a prayer I will pray again and again.

In the promo video for the book, Tish H. Warren says there's is not one exact subject for the book. To me, "Prayer in the Night" read as an exceptionally compassionate, wise and honest approach to theodicy. I really appreciate what Warren has to say (in her books and article) and I was very excited to pick up this book. It turned out to be much more than expected! It's vulnerable and personal in ways that caught me by surprise. I highly recommend it!

Another wonderful book by Tish Harrison Warren. Tish is so good at doing theology in a way that makes it accessible. She takes on big subjects, on which innumerable tomes have been written--theodicy!-- and yet she does it with such a grace and ease. She leads into people into theological reflection that is robust and rooted in the great tradition. Love it.

This book introduced (non-Anglican) me to the Compline prayer. And after The Liturgy of the Ordinary and Sacred Rhythms, I am more and more appreciative of non-free-form prayer. At least as the kick start to a conversation with God.

Tish Harrison Warren’s meditations seemed to me (not on the throes of grief) to strike the right balance in speaking both to those who are deeply struggling and also to those who may not have recent loss to grieve but experience the small griefs and losses endemic to being human.

Prayer in the Night : For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep by Tish Harrison Warren spoke to me in so many ways. Tish is very vulnerable and shares about her dark night of the soul time. Coming off a challenging year for many and a challenging couple of years for me personally, this book resonated with me. This book has challenged me to look at adding some faith practices like liturgical prayers that I could recite in trying times. Tish has a gift with words and you will be greatly blessed by this book.

I was blessed to receive an electronic copy via the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

The value of structured prayer is evident throughout the text and the many examples provided helped me to relate to this notion.

However, I found the dark places really dark so would caution other readers to determine just where they are on their faith journey before committing to the reading of this book. I found myself skimming stories on a regular basis. I was interested enough in the premis to want to make it to the end, but was definitely squirming in parts.

I related strongly to thoughts such as,"''Other people's prayers' discipled me, they taught me how to believe. again. When you're instruggle prayer can be hard so accessing others prayers can feel like a road in the dark. Very powerful.

She makes it clear that, at times, we will not feel God's presence, but He never leaves us. " Soemtimes of course it means a long day in the rain with nothing very much happening I suspect that, for most of us, a alot of our experience of prayer is precesely that....." Very comforting.

I am sure it will assist many through dark times, and perhaps I will return to explore more at a dfiferent time.

With thanks to Intervarsity Press, the author and #Netgalley for my advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Summary: Discussion of grief and the spiritual life framed with the Compline prayer from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. 

I am a big fan of the book of common prayer. There are many different books of common prayer, and I am not particularly devoted to one or another, but I am devoted to the value of prayers being common, of structured prayer (especially when prayer is hard), and the routine of prayer and scripture that takes you through both the liturgical year and the lectionary. I do not use the BCP every day, but I do most days. When I first started using BCP, I bought a kindle book with all the scripture inline so that there was no flipping, based on the 1979 Episcopal BCP. But the compiler of those dated kindle versions stopped producing them after a couple of years, and I bounced around for a while. I stumbled on a podcast of the 1928 BCP, which randomly was taken over by a Facebook friend and so I spent a year or two primarily listening to podcasts of the service. More recently, I have been using the 2019 ACNA BCP and creating a PDF of the morning service and sending it to my Supernote A5X, and that works really well both for a full service with everything nicely laid out and a larger format than a kindle. And there is a podcast of the same service, so I sometimes will listen along or listen instead of reading.

I was somewhat reluctant to pick up Prayer in the Night. I had read Tish Harrison Warren's earlier Liturgy of the Ordinary, and while I did not dislike the book, it was so strongly hyped that by the time I got around to reading it, there was no way for the book to have lived up to the recommendations. And Prayer in the Night, if anything, has received even more positive press. I don't think I have seen a single negative review or post about it. I probably would not have read it if it were not part of the Renovaré book club. I have participated in the book club for the past couple of years, so I picked up Prayer in the Night.

Prayer in the Night is framed around the compline prayer:

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen.
The book is structured as a phrase by phrase exploration of the prayer. But that is largely a framing for the book to discuss grief and the Christian life. Grief is something that all of us will become acquainted with over our lifetime, and I think it is something that most of us have become acquainted with this past year. In the years before Rev Warren (she is an Anglican priest) wrote this book, she suffered two miscarriages, a cross country move, and her father's death. Grief impacts us differently at different times, but for Warren, it led to many sleepless nights of doomscrolling and tv watching and seeking distraction from the pain of loss.

Part of what is common with grief is the why of it. There is no good solution to the problem of evil except that God is with us in that grief or pain. That is not always enough. But part of what I appreciate about Warren's writing is that she is exploring, but she does not pretend that there are easy solutions to difficult problems. And the problems of death and pain and grief and evil are some of the most complicated, on-going problems of the Christian life.

Prayer in the Night is a beautifully written book. Her writing is lyrical and deep, accessible and clear. The exploration of ideas through personal narrative has limitations. No one can relate to all aspects, and no person can universalize to all areas of life because we are simply limited creatures. But there is real wisdom and honest grappling that I think many would benefit from. There are many good books on grief. Grief is universal, and I think it is helpful to pick up a couple of books on grief when we are not grieving because it is just a matter of when, not if, we will have reason to grieve.

Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren came at just the perfect time. I have been struggling in my faith and experiencing a bit of a "dark night of the soul." This book had so many lovely reminders about God's presence in the dark. It honestly was the perfect companion for this point in my journey. So many of her words will stick with me as I continue on.

For many of us, we learn prayer as a manner of talking to God. From the pulpits, we learn about the importance not only of praying but also to pray without ceasing. The Bible says so. The ancients say so. The pastor says so. Many books have been written about prayer. Those who are starting up the journey of prayer might have been influenced by popular books such as Bruce Wilkinson's "The Prayer of Jabez," the prayer books for specific people by Stormie OMartian, and devotional books that help us learn the steps toward God. These books might teach us the techniques of prayer, but they often don't go far enough or deep enough. It didn't take long for many to desire fewer books on techniques and more on what the essence of prayer is about. Enter the ancients. For a time, advanced readers and pilgrims would gravitate toward the early ancients such as St Augustine, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. John Chrysostom, to medieval saints such as St Benedict, St John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila, etc. Readers who prefer something more modern would appreciate prayer books by James M. Houston, Philip Yancey, Richard Foster, Tim Keller, etc. Yet, there are very few books that teach us the compline, or prayers of silence. Enters a powerful prayer book that speaks to us about the latter. In a book that is birthed through personal pain, author Tish Harrison Warren shows us the importance and beauty of praying in the silence. Although the book was written just before the pandemic lockdown in early 2020, it was not inspired by the pandemic but a reflection on the "personal stories of pain, vulnerability, anxiety, and loss that will continue long after the current crisis ends." What a revelation! Just like how the author did not know how her first book won the popular vote, she probably didn't know how this second book speaks to a generation gripped with pandemic worries and concern. Warren begins the book with a flashback to her time in hospital needing surgery two days after her miscarriage. The first thing in her mind was to pray the Compline. It wasn't simply a prayer for some bleeding to stop or some pain to numb. It's about seeking the peace and comfort of Christ in the midst of growing darkness. Warren learned the necessity of Compline even as she endures two devastating miscarriages and the dark night of the soul where she didn't know how to pray anymore. These and other struggles form the backdrop of her journey into a new prayer dimension. Instead of starting prayer off as a form of daylight ritual, the Compline teaches nighttime prayers. Instead of beginning our journey of prayer, the Compline forms the "last prayer office of the day." Instead of something that hopes only for the best, the Compline enables us to prepare our hearts even in our worst moments. Prayers of Compline could be found in the Anglican Book of Common Prayers online.

Through her experience, Warren was able to begin from a position of vulnerability. Against expectations of the pressure of always coming up with original prayers, she takes refuge in liturgy and practices praying the prayers of the saints. She learn that prayer is not self-expression but impressions by the Spirit of God. Instead of just informing God about our needs, we are formed by God through our openness and vulnerability. All of these insights rose up in the midst of Warren's dark night of the soul experience. This experience could be summed up by the prayer often misattributed to Augustine:
"Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen."
Based on this prayer, Warren guides us through an invitation to God to keep watch upon us even as we experience pain. We learn to be less anxious about discomfort. We learn to accept the circumstances we are in even as we hope for better outcomes. We learn about endurance and the way of vulnerability. For those who weep, we exercise that part of our soul that is often smothered by positivistic thinking or a refusal to accept difficult reality. We learn about the discipline not to judge God when things do not turn out what we want. When we watch, we pay attention to what God wants, beyond our mere human desires. As we work, we accept that God could call us to work from the highest offices to the lowest chores. Even as we weep, watch, and work, God is the One who is weeping, watching, and working. that realization only happens when we learn to see God's vision.

The book then goes on to show the intimate connection between our common world and the cosmos, and how God is at the center of it all. That we should not fear bad things happening to us, but to keep faith that no matter what happens, God is with us.

My Thoughts
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First, a good book is not just one that teaches us things. It shows us the way as well. This book is essentially an exposition by the author on the Prayer of Compline credited to an unknown writer. Using her own life experience through pain, Warren demonstrates that prayer is more than asking for things, but knowing that God understands our pain. It is when we feel most lonely that prayer could inform us about God's nearness. It is in the midst of pain that we can reach out in solidarity to fellow pilgrims also in the various journeys of pain. The most gratifying phase of such a journey is to feel loved, completely loved. It is a prayer that puts the interest of those who work, watch, or weep each night, that they might feel the watchful presence of the Lord. In doing so, we are praying indirectly, "Come Lord Jesus! Come to us."

Secondly, in a world that is captured by fear and uncertainty, author and priest Tish Harrison Warren helps us to face up to the dim and darkness of our world, with a sharpened sense toward the Divine who speaks in ways that the world does not understand. Prayer is not self-expression because it becomes a performance about what we must do. Prayer is about opening ourselves up to God, to let the Spirit of God express His will in our hearts. This is where we need to receive more, do less; listen more, talk less; and let God's will be down not just in heaven and on earth, but also from God's heart to ours. So frequently, a lot of our prayers are attempts to bring God down not realizing that God is already with us. We try to make our way to God not knowing that God is already knocking at the doors of our hearts. Like CS Lewis's description of pain, that "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Finally, what really fascinates me about this book is that it disarms us from the need to keep achieving things or to make things happen. Prayer is not about that. Prayer is about waiting and hoping for God's will to be done. Like Jacob wrestling with God, sometimes, God needs to touch our hips of prideful accomplishments to limp toward a posture of humility and trust that God knows what we need much more than we realize. Very often, our deepest cries for God come from the most difficult times of our lives. I wonder why psalms are often called the prayers of Israel. Perhaps, this is why, for the Psalms present to us many models of prayer that we could learn from. This book may not seem like a biblical psalm but the essence of the longing for God in the midst of darkness is a modern writer's desire to want more of God. Prayer is embracing the ambiguity of life. It is to realize that regardless of how we feel about the nearness or distance from God, we learn to sit in the now and the not yet. It is the realizing that in all the craziness of life, God is still holding us together. If this book could lead readers to start becoming more aware of the mysteries of God's working, it would have worth the price of the book.

Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. After eight years with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries at Vanderbilt and The University of Texas at Austin, she currently serves as Co-Associate Rector at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, PA. She writes regularly for The Well, CT Women, and Christianity Today. She also authors the bestselling book, "Liturgy of the Ordinary" which won ChristianityToday's 2018 Book of the Year award. This is her second book.

Rating: 4.75 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of InterVarsity Press and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

The Anglican compline is the subject of Tish Harrison Warren’s Prayer in the Night. She writes with the fresh eyes and enthusiasm of one who has come to liturgical prayers later in life, digging deeply into these words that have withstood the test of time. During a period of loss and anxiety, she felt as if the church said to her: “Here are some words. Pray them. They are strong enough to hold you. These will help your unbelief.”

I underlined so much of her book; it has many rich nuggets to ponder on the subject of work, keeping watch, and weeping (the themes of compline). For instance, her theology of work is robust as she draws on the ancient view of ora et labora: “We work as prayer and pray as work.” We work because we participate with God; that is, we cooperate with God, “the sustainer of the universe.” I found her example of the man in her church who as a pediatric surgeon has written a prayer that he prays before each surgery deeply moving. His work is his prayer – and his patients love him and are grateful for his medical artistry.

Readers may resonate most with her words on weeping and lament. In a short period, her father died and she and her husband suffered two miscarriages. She felt herself plunged into a period of suffering and doubt; a time when even though she’s an ordained minister, she couldn’t find the words to pray. And so she turned to the set prayers of the church, along with, of course, those in the Psalms and Lamentations.

She helps us to keep walking in faith when we feel we’re trudging through the valley of unbelief. How when we have no words to pray, we can lean on the words of others who have gone before us. How we can wrestle with suffering and evil, when we’re asking how a good God can allow all of this to happen to us, those whom he loves.

I highly recommend this book whether or not you appreciate liturgical prayers. Her writing is deep, thoughtful and poetic without being inaccessible. Although at times she’s America-focused, this bent is not overly distracting. She includes some wonderful prayer exercises at the end, along with questions to discuss or ponder.

4.5 stars

A beautifully written contemplation on the patterns and words of liturgical prayer, Warren's insight never wavers from deep, Biblical convictions and boasts heartfelt empathy for those of us who walk, work, and pray in the dark. I highly reccomend.

I downloaded this book, read a few lines, and immediately knew I wanted to purchase the paper copy for myself in order to mark it all up and really ingest it. Love this author!