

I‘ve loved so much of Padraig O Tuama‘s work: his podcast, Poetry Unbound, and his collection of reflections on poems by the same name, as well as various poems & prayers of his I‘ve come across here & there. So I decided to read this book of daily poems & prayers during Lent this year, to displace my habit of scrolling social media & news first thing in the morning.
The book has 31 daily readings—made up of a reading, a scripture reading, and⤵️
BarbaraJean (Cont) …a form of prayer called a collect, sandwiched by the same opening & closing prayer each day (which for me, got awfully repetitive). My mileage varied with the various readings & prayers, but I loved how O Tuama used the collect format. A group I lead at church frequently writes collects based on our group reflections, so seeing the way he both worked within & expanded the form—in response to each day‘s scripture reading—was fascinating.⤵️ 4d
BarbaraJean (Cont‘d) This ended up being just a soft pick for me—I didn‘t resonate with it as much as I‘d hoped, and having the SAME opening and closing prayers reprinted every day (length-wise, they were often equal to the rest of the day‘s readings) started to grate on me! I do plan on checking out more of O Tuama‘s collections of prayers, hoping others are a little more substantive and resonate with me more. 4d
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