A 'prayer book' is a book containing prayers and perhaps devotional readings, for private or communal use, or in some cases, outlining the liturgy of religious services. Strictly speaking books containing mainly orders of religious services, or readings for them are "service books" or "liturgical books" not prayer-books, but the term is often used very loosely. Prayer books may be Holy books, as well.
The following are among the many books to which the term may loosely refer in various churches or religions, 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 second group below:
Actual prayer books:
- Saint Augustine's Prayer Book, in the Episcopal Church
- Vatican Croatian Prayer Book, a Croatian vernacular prayer book
- Book of Common Prayer (BCP), first published in 1549 for the Church of England
- Siddur, in Judaism
Service & liturgical books:
- Breviary or 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
- Book of Hours
Famous quotes containing the words prayer and/or book:
“And prayer is more
Than an order of words, the conscious occupation
Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Remember thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)