A prayer book is a book containing and perhaps devotional readings, for private or communal use, or in some cases, outlining the liturgy of religious services. Books containing mainly orders of religious services, or readings for them are termed "service books" or "", and are thus not prayer-books in the strictest sense, but the term is often used very loosely. A religion's might also be considered prayer books as well.
Judaism
In
Judaism, the
Siddur is a prayer book "containing the three daily prayers; also the prayers for Shabbat,
Rosh-Chodesh and the festivals."
Christianity
Breviaries
Breviary are prayer books used in many Christian denominations by believers to
Christian prayer at fixed prayer times the
canonical hours seven times a day, a practice that has its roots in .
Daily devotional
Throughout the year, and especially during certain seasons of the Christian
liturgical year such as
Advent and
Lent, many Christians pray a
daily devotional, which contains a prayer for each day along with a reflection on a passage from the
Christian Bible.
Notable prayer books
The following are among the many books to which the term may loosely refer in various churches, although in strict usage a prayer book is likely to mean a miscellaneous book of prayers as opposed to the standard service books as listed in the last group below:
- Prayer books
General
-
Daily Watchwords (Moravian Christian)
-
Christenpflicht (Anabaptist Christian)
-
Raccolta (Catholic Christian)
-
Saint Augustine's Prayer Book (Anglican Christian)
-
Vatican Croatian Prayer Book (Catholic Christian)
Breviaries
-
Agpeya (Coptic Orthodox Christianity)
-
Anglican Breviary (Anglican Christianity)
-
(Lutheran Christianity)
-
Roman Breviary (Roman Catholic Christianity)
-
Shehimo (Indian Orthodox Christianity)
-
Take Our Moments and Our Days: An Anabaptist Prayer Book (Mennonite Christianity)
-
The Brotherhood Prayer Book (Lutheran Christianity)
-
Book of Hours, a prayer book that contains the canonical hours in various branches of Christianity
-
The first prayer book published since the Reformation by the Church of England containing the complete round of services of the Word for every day of the year: Morning Prayer, Prayer During the Day, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer, also called Compline.
- Service & liturgical books
-
Lutheran Service Book or Evangelical Lutheran Worship, in Lutheranism
-
Book of Common Prayer (BCP), first published in 1549 for the Church of England and has considerable literary influence in the English language
-
Roman Missal in Roman Catholicism
-
Agenda (liturgy), in Lutheranism
-
Common Worship, in Anglicanism
-
Alternative Service Book (adopted in 1980), in the Church of England
-
Directory of Public Worship, adopted in certain areas of the Church of England in the 17th century
Mandaeism
The canonical prayer book in
Mandaeism is the
Qulasta.
See also
