"Prayer in the Night" (Tish Harrison Warren)

TITLE: Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep
AUTHOR: Tish Harrison Warren
PUBLISHER: Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2021, (208 pages).

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

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

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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.