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Title: Venite: A Book of Daily Prayer by Robert Benson ISBN: 1585420131 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: 07 February, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.83
Rating: 5
Summary: Useful for my prayer life
Comment: I'm kind of astounded at the people who don't find Robert Benson's book helpful or find problems with it. I use it every morning and have for years. It's one of the best I've found to use year after year. All Benson's writings are meaningful and I recently used his book on baseball in a sermon.
Venite is truly my call to prayer each morning and I find God in this book.
Rating: 3
Summary: A Well Done Introductory, Ecumenical Prayer Book
Comment: I came across this book after reading _Living Prayer_, also by Robert Benson (highly recommended). I used Benson's book for awhile, occasionally I still do (I keep a photocopy of his meal office in my knapsack). In addition to the four hours of morning, noon, evening and compline (a bedside office for the close of the day) there are three other offices: Gratia, Communion, and a Commemoration (for one who has recently passed on). All the offices are two pages.
There are thirty canticles, psalter readings and 'Gospel' readings, corresponding to the days of the month. The remembrances are a bit different - they are arranged over a thirty-day period like the other sections, but each day has twelve readings depending on what month it is (so for the sixth day there are twelve separate remembrances for different people). You plug the appropriate remembrance, canticle or 'Gospel' reading into the office at the point suggested. There are also collects (short prayers) for the Seasons of the Church Year (Christmas, Easter, Epiphany, Good Friday, etc.).
Benson has prefaced the book with his motivations for writing it, how he came to find common prayer, and his frustration with some obstacles he has encountered in trying to practice it. He also has an introduction which initiates into the practice of common prayer will find helpful, it explains this book in particular and the Daily Office in general. Each section (collects, psalms, etc.) is prefaced a page of notes offering guidance, with a single page of accompanying prayers and quotes for that section.
The offices seem to be an assembly of what are mostly optional collects from the current Book of Common Prayer (BCP)- they don't feel like they're nervously raked together, there's definitely a rhythm behind their selection (praise, confession, hearing the Word, going forth) - but I felt like its fizzle got flat quick. Sometimes the language used to address God made the collects feel like the juice has been sucked out of them. I never felt that the language was objectionable, just insufficient. The 'Gospel', Psalm and Canticle sections, since they're rewritten poetically, smuggle in interpretations not everyone will agree with.
I certainly notice the influence of the BCP on certain prayers, but some are unfamiliar, and others I believe are Benson's "We offer prayers for all those with whom we share the Journey: For our loved ones, those who have been given to us, and to whom we have been given: [add names and intercessions]" and "We offer prayers for...and for all those in whom we have seen the Christ this day, in joy and in sorrow [names and intercessions]". So in addition to the standard intercessions and canticles, there are things like these that provide the peculiar warmth that you'll find from Benson.
One reviewer mentioned the remembrances, saying something about how awkward they are. Well, Benson's selection is fairly ecumenical, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Foucalt, from Polycarp to Athanasius. If you don't know anything about the person, event or group you're praying for, perhaps you should do some homework...
True, there is no ribbon marker, but I recommend staggering cut-in-half-lengthwise post-it notes from top to bottom along the side of the book (trim them so they hardly rise beyond the edge of the page), to make sort of a thumb-index, so you can flip to the appropriate section with ease.
This book may work for most people to start out with, but I might recommend to also try starting with just the morning prayer from the 1979 BCP.
Rating: 2
Summary: Doesn't live up to its promise
Comment: I ordered the book online, and was ready to return it for a refund after only a couple of hours. To say the book is idiosyncratic would be an understatement. It follows a fairly universal modern structure found in most liturgical traditions: Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline. Each office includes an introduction or call to prayer, as well as several prayers, and a psalm and gospel "reading." The psalms and readings, however, a paraphrased. Though paraphrasing ultimately keeps the cost of the book down by avoiding permissions feed, the gospel readings do not reference which passages are being paraphrased, apparently draw from extra-canonical sources (Benson says that he's using extra-canonical material, but doesn't list which extra-canonical gospels he's utilizing), and melds multiple gospels and paraphrases together without referencing his sources. In a world that already has Pat Robertson and Robert Schuller, it seems frightening that a Christian author is reccomending we read scripture without reference to source or context, trusting only his insight and authority. His reasons for paraphrasing the psalms are even less obvious (though he claims he wants to make them easier to pray): there are modern-language translations of the psalms available in the public domain. His offices lack readings (with or without context) from the rest of the Christian or Hebrew scriptures.
The book is also not as portable as some would have you believe: though only approx. an inch thick, it is quite tall and wide (mysteriously so since many of the pages are dominated by large amounts of white space). There are no bookmarks or ribbons, despite the fact that the praying the complete office requires users to reference at least five separate sections of the book. All in all, an interesting expirement, but ... your money could be much better spent.
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Title: Between the Dreaming and the Coming True: The Road Home to God by Robert Benson ISBN: 1585420883 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: 25 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: That We May Perfectly Love Thee: Preparing Our Hearts for the Eucharist by Robert Benson ISBN: 1557253005 Publisher: Paraclete Press Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Living Prayer by Robert Benson ISBN: 0874779677 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle ISBN: 0385497571 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 19 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle ISBN: 0385492863 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 14 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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