Interfaith Prayer Book Recommendations
Below are a host of resources & books that I use daily as a hospice chaplain.
They are chosen as resources for my fellow chaplains who work on the frontlines of love. As spiritual care clinicians, we show up as knowlegable, and open-hearted but our superpowers are that we don't know. We listen to what is in the room...and that can be stressful. It is my hope that these resources, and future reviews on this page will encourage my fellow chaplains to do what they do...but in a renewable way. We must self-regenerate–for ourselves & those we serve.
DISCLOSURE: The book images below have Amazon Affiliate links. If any of these books appeal to you, if you choose to click on them, and if you purchase them through Amazon, I will get a small commission. Thank you, if you choose to do so.
They are chosen as resources for my fellow chaplains who work on the frontlines of love. As spiritual care clinicians, we show up as knowlegable, and open-hearted but our superpowers are that we don't know. We listen to what is in the room...and that can be stressful. It is my hope that these resources, and future reviews on this page will encourage my fellow chaplains to do what they do...but in a renewable way. We must self-regenerate–for ourselves & those we serve.
DISCLOSURE: The book images below have Amazon Affiliate links. If any of these books appeal to you, if you choose to click on them, and if you purchase them through Amazon, I will get a small commission. Thank you, if you choose to do so.
Interfaith Ministry Handbook: Prayers, Readings and Other Resources for Pastoral Settings
The testimony of the dog-eared:
Falling-apart pages bound by a rubber band are my most sincere testimony to this little prayer book. This is the true test of the usefulness of a book; it is simply...how many times one uses it. My first copy was in pieces by the time I bought the Kindle version, which I find a more useful quick reference tool. This book is an essential piece of my ministry. I support a diverse faith population in Northern California and it is immensely useful to have a handy guide with me. It is my (very) small and secret weapon when I walk into a room. It saved my bacon, so to speak, more than once. During my hospital residency, on one of my first on call overnights, I received THE most dreaded call for any newbie chaplain–a fetal demise. With this book, I made a prayer for the parents that was needed and appropriate: a Hindu father and an orthodox Christian mother needed respectful support...over their beautiful full term baby's body. From this little book I quickly got the true and useful phrase..."WHEN HELLO IS ALSO GOODBYE..." It was powerful and around it, I built the small ceremony that morning in their hospital room. I highly recommend Matt Sander's collection of prayers and readings as a must have for any Interfaith healthcare spiritual care offering. |
Beginner's Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life
A well-done hybrid of story and prayer... The book's RX is for the "spiritually non-religious and ir-religious". Each chapter is an entertaining blend of the true-life adventures of a chaplain and the prayers that she is called to offer for each. Her process of assessing and creating beautifully-executed, extemporaneous, DIY prayer for the occasion is balanced by the grounded stories that she finds herself within. In addition, what the author astutely pulls off is that the self disclosure in the stories are well-crafted and amusing, rather than annoying and self congratulatory. (Allow me to self-identify my proclivity to tune out all name dropping or self-aggrandizement.) As a "community" minister" for the Maine Warden Service, she has plenty of interesting life and death situations which arise on her daily path. Much of which a hospice chaplain, such as myself, can relate. I include it in the Interfaith Prayer category because of, first, the beauty of her prayers and, second, that they are so thoughtful, accessible, and relevant. Here is one, I offer as an example, which I have adopted as she does whenever an ambulance or emergency siren is heard: "Strength and peace to those who help; courage to those who suffer." |
Earth Prayers: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations from Around the World
Most people I meet have no spiritual anxiety around the idea of the Earth. At the same time, many have deep trepidation around the faith traditions of their childhood. Prayers from this collection have proved to be invaluable when walking into a room where things are happening so fast, it is a blessing to simply start at a zero...or simply in a centered and grounded way. Some (but not all) prayers are evergreen and memorable. This is a favorite: "May all I say and all I do be in harmony with thee, God within me, God beyond me, maker of the trees." -excerpt from a Chinook Psalter Or this one from May Sarton: Kali, be with us. Violence, destruction, receive our homage. Help us to bring darkness into the light, To lift out of the pain, the anger, Where it can be seen for what it is– The balance-wheel for our vulnerable, aching love within the act of creation, Crude power that forges a balance Between hate and love. Help us to be always hopeful, Gardeners of the spirit Who know that without darkness Nothing comes to birth As without light Nothing flowers. Bear the roots in mind, You the dark one, Kali, Awesome power. |
Future Review Categories:
- Hospice Life lessons-
- How to Die Books -
- Dementia Memoirs
- Chaplain Stories and Tools