Here’s the next installment of my top 10 favorite devotional books:
4. C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms
Last time, I wrote about the Book of Common Prayer; at the heart of its orders for Morning and Evening Prayer are the Psalms, which, in continuity the Jewish worship out of which it was born, has been at the heart of Christian worship from the very beginning. I love the discipline of praying the Psalms each day, though there are times of the year, like this one, when I’m not as disciplined as I ought to be.
But the Psalms aren’t always transparent and self-explanatory. Sometimes the forms in which they are written and the figures of speech they use puzzle me. In order to truly appreciate and pray the Psalms richly and deeply, I need help.
And who better to help than C. S. Lewis? A professor of literature, adept in theology with an unmatched ability to explain Christian doctrine to ordinary folks, and even more important, a man of prayer, Lewis is uniquely equipped to help someone who wants to know the psalms from the inside—to pray them. And in this little book—not much more than 150 pages—he does.
3. Abonymour, The Way of a Pilgrim
When I was a very young man and an even younger Christian, I was attracted to the spiritual traditions of the Christian East, especially the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I still find it a wonderful way to fill up the long hours of a sleepless night or as an accompaniment to a solitary walk in the woods. Sometimes I’ll shorten and adapt it to “Lord Jesus, Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us” and let it accompany the names and faces of the people I want to pray for.
Two things sparked my interest in the Eastern way in its Russian form: the novels of Dostoevsky (a subject for another time) and this book. Its protagonist, the Pilgrim, makes his way across Russia from place to place, to monasteries, villages and the houses of the nobility, in search of spiritual guidance. His regimen of prayer is daunting, especially to a non-Orthodox westerner in the secular stronghold of New York, but the lesson it teaches is universal: There is no time and no place that can’t be an opportunity for an encounter with the Lord if we fill it with prayer.
Next time, I’ll give you the rest of my list.
