Hello friends.
Today the sunlight shown through my dining room window, over my table and a onto new booklet of liturgies written by my friend Sheila Petre. Have you seen it yet? I’m pretty sure it’s still warm from the printing press. Or maybe from the sunshine, glancing off the tiny gilt flowers on its cover.
Enter Prayers for My Hometown.
I should have moved the book to photograph somewhere else. Between the shadows of my window panes, you can see the tiny grid from my window screen on every photo. But where I live, we love the sunshine when it comes, and we never, no not ever, do not ever move out of it. Especially when it falls light and sweet in September. Plus I liked the look of that grid, over my new book and over the sunflower I bought last weekend at the Second Saturday Market in my own hometown. It felt good to put all these pieces together, earthy and homely and perfect.
Sheila’s warm-hearted prayers are meant to be read again and again in the dailyness of ordinary life. They include “Words for When I’m Stuck in Traffic,” “A Psalm for the Many Churches of my Hometown,” and “A Liturgy for Election Season.” Like all good liturgies, they hold the brokenness of the world and the light of Christ side by side.
My personal favorite is “Intercession for the Children of My Hometown,” which includes these lines:
Some of these children do not know their fathers.
Some of them must take care of their mothers.
These children skirt danger, or tumble headlong
into trouble every day.
Lord, be their safety.
– Sheila J. Petre
Alongside the prayerful words are pretty illustrations by young artist Laura Stoltzfus, in several different styles, from black-and-white to line-drawn to watercolor, and here I have no idea what I am talking about but I hope it is true. I especially like the one where coffee-cup circles leak onto white paper to form the backdrip. I mean the backdrop.
And speaking of drops, there is this other line I like so much, from “A Liturgy for When My Hometown Faces a Tragedy:”
Yesterday, through the drive-up window at the bank,
I saw a tear splash on a lollipop.
You alone know what each ache holds.
– Sheila J. Petre
To buy a copy of this book, you have two options. You may purchase through the Daughters of Promise ministry, which commissioned and published this work, on their website here. Prayers for My Hometown is part of their Fall 2024 Collection of beautiful pieces.
Or, if you’d like an autographed copy from the author herself, you may order directly from:
Sheila Petre
PO Box 127
Mercersburg PA 17236
She is selling them for $11.50 each, or three or more at $10 each. Her prices include shipping. If you have questions, her email is [email protected].
Either way, you will receive a perfect copy on thick creamy paper, with no screen grids added. Unless you supply them.
Happy fall! May the sunlight stretch its warmth across the tables of your hometown.
I was given a copy of Prayers for My Hometown in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Where do you fall on the liturgy-loving spectrum? A strong yes? A strong no? Ambivalent? I’d love to hear from you.
So yes! On the never moving out of the sunshine as well as loving liturgies 💕 thanks for the review 😊
I appreciate liturgy, but I quickly back away if I start to feel like I’m being told what to think. Inasmuch as I don’t think that was what Petre was up to, I believe I would enjoy her new book.
I will have to get 3 copies for the favorite ladies in my life. Thanks, Sheri, for this report. I am so apopreciative of the writing by the gifted Anabaptist ladies.
Such a yes to the liturgies. So much fun to read. So much fun to write. Thanks for sharing this publication.
Yes to liturgies. They help me say things and pray things that I wouldn’t otherwise.
I attended a Catholic school when I was younger and participated in their services. They were full of liturgy, and most people didn’t really mean it. It was like reading nice words in a dignified setting but not really speaking to Jesus.
So I definitely prefer speaking to Jesus in a freestyle way.
Anyway it might be good to read the book in order to get ideas how and and about which things to pray.
Thank you for sunshine of your generous review, Shari. Obviously, I write liturgies, but I have to confess that the ones I use are mostly in hymn form. We sing from The Christian Hymnal at church every Sunday, but it seems to have been more heavily influenced by the fundamentalist movement and spends more pages telling people what to think about God, and fewer pages praising Him as He is. Last week at a wedding, we used the Church Hymnal (used by most of the other churches in our conference) and I was loving the rich liturgies we sang. As Happyhenni observed, these words can be voiced in numb unity, but oh, when meant, what a rich harmony they bring to our services.
I’ve learned, reluctantly, that in today’s climate, the word “liturgy” can become a point of conflict. One of my freelance editors was uneasy about it; she looked up the word in the dictionary and could not find a definition interchangeable with “prayer.” Out of respect for her perspective, we removed the word “liturgy” from about half the titles, and swapped in less-potentially-offensive terms such as “prayer” and “lament.”
Thank you for your statement, Sheila!