The Glenstal Prayerbook

The 2001 edition of the Glenstal Book of Prayer was an international bestseller. This edition was originally intended to be a reprint of that 2001 edition. But what has emerged is something quite different. There are many more prayers, and the biblical texts use a very different translation. Eugene Peterson’s influence runs through this prayer book, especially in the Introduction and in the use of The Message, his translation of the Bible.

Prayer has not changed since 2001, but the world has moved on. Life is even more hectic, and hope has receded. There seems little time for an extra activity, especially prayer. This book is built on the premise that hectic though our lives are, we are deficient without a connection with the living God. Without this connection, we will spend our lives seeking to fill the God-shaped hole with substitutes. And they don’t deliver.

Prayer is the language we use to sustain that relationship with the living God. We all need a ‘maintenance plan’ to sustain a faith in God—a life of faith. This book is intended as a part of that maintenance plan. The Glenstal Prayerbook provides a traditional approach to prayer, taking its essential form from the monastic prayer life as lived in Glenstal Abbey.