Tish Harrison Warren uses this book to walk us through the evening liturgical prayer of Compline. She opens with a story of when it ministered to her in a time of pain and then weaves the importance of it in with her stories. As someone not as familiar with the liturgical prayer rhythms, I was surprised at how resonant her discussion of it was. Especially in this season, the comfort found in each clause of this prayer was palpable and her words spoke through that prayer to keep it alive and connecting to many more.

I think the last time I heard of a book that revolved around a single prayer, it was the prayer of Jabez and that was a *whole thing* in the evangelical/charismatic world 20 years ago. So I’ll admit to being a little unsure when Tish Harrison Warren, whose Liturgy of the Ordinary I loved, announced that her next book would be about a prayer from Compline, the bedtime prayer service of the Anglican/Episcopal church. I’ve been familiar with the prayer for a while and I’ve always been struck by its beauty, but I didn’t know how Warren could pull it off.

For those of you not familiar with it, this is the 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.

Warren spends a chapter on each clause (more or less), exploring what it means to her, what it’s meant to the church, historically, and why it still means so much to pray those words. The result is a beautiful book, a companion for the dark hours. I was struck over and over again by her gift with words, her ways of phrasing things. If you’ve ever been told that there’s no power, no feeling, no presence of the Spirit in these old, written prayers of the church, this is the book to show you how wrongheaded those assumptions are. I do want to provide a content warning for miscarriage and pregnancy loss though, because Warren tells the story of the two miscarriages she suffered that drover her back to praying Compline.

I loved this book, structured around the compline it was comforting and really well written. In a year which has felt very dark, I found this book to be a real comfort and offering hope.