A Book of Uncommon Prayer: 100 Celebrations of the Miracle & Muddle of the Ordinary

by Brian Doyle, Mary Miller Doyle (Foreword by), Peter Boland (Afterword)

Overview

Brian Doyle was a one-of-a-kind author who wrote one-of-a-kind prayers about everyday subjects that help readers change the way they see the world.

Prayers for cashiers and good shoes; for shorter sermons and better senators; prayers for the bruised, foolish, glorious, stumbling, brilliant Church; for chaplains and mathematicians; for idiot authors and muddy dogs: These are the most heartfelt and headlong prayers you will ever read and share—the grinning, snarling prayers we mouth quietly in the car and the shower and the pub, the small chapels of our everyday life.

Doyle said he aimed to write short pieces that functioned like “arrows to the heart.” This book is a quiver full of those sharp arrows, "stealth theology” that explores everyday encounters—from nuns to possums, from Chet Baker to Port-A-Potties—through a Catholic, sacramental imagination.

Since Doyle’s death in 2017 from a brain tumor, enthusiasm for his award-winning writing has only swelled, whether it’s his quirky prayers, kinetic essays, or magical novels such as Mink River and The Plover. This tenth anniversary edition of A Book of Uncommon Prayer includes a new foreword from his wife, Mary, and an afterword from his good friend Peter Boland, who delivered the eulogy at Doyle’s funeral.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933495637
Publisher:	Ave Maria Press
Publication date:	12/29/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	515,970
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Brian Doyle (1956-2017) was an award-winning author who served as the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland in Oregon from 1991 to 2017.

Doyle wrote many books of fiction, essays, and poems, including A Book of Uncommon Prayer: 100 Celebrations of the Miracle & Muddle of the Ordinary, which was named “A Best Spiritual Book of the Year” by Spirituality & Practice and received an honorable mention in spiritual soft-cover books from the Catholic Press Association. His novels include Mink River, The Plover, Chicago, and Martin Marten, for which he won a 2016 Oregon Book Award for Young Adult Literature. His most recent novel, The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World: A Novel of Robert Louis Stevenson, was published in March 2017.

Other honors include a number of book awards from the Catholic Press Association, the Christopher Medal, three Pushcart Prizes, the University of Notre Dame’s Griffin Award in literature, the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Foreword Reviews Novel of the Year award, the John Burroughs Award for Nature Essays, and, most recently, the 2017 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing for his novel Martin Marten, only the second work of fiction to be awarded the Medal in its 90-year history.

Doyle’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Orion, American Scholar, Commonweal, America, Notre Dame Magazine, Boston College Magazine, US Catholic, Christian Century, St. Anthony Messenger, National Catholic Reporter, First Things, and Give Us This Day. His essays have been reprinted in the annual anthologies from Best American Essays, Best American Science and Nature Writing, and Best American Spiritual Writing.

Mary Miller Doyle can be found painting in her Portland studio. She and Brian shared thirty exuberant years of marriage and were blessed with three children.

Peter Boland was Brian Doyle’s best friend and offered the eulogy at his funeral. Boland appears in the final prayer in A Book of Uncommon Prayer as a big otter.

Editorial Reviews

11/10/2014
Doyle is an underappreciated writer with a slew of books (Mink River, The Plover, Grace Notes) and distinctions to his name, and this literary prayer book will enhance his reputation as a writer more people should read. He offers one hundred prayers in a totally idiosyncratic voice, and they’re not about much at all: proofreaders, possums, women named Ethel, and so on. Doyle carefully observes quotidian details, and sings them, fashioning a litany of description: “the Soxness of the Sox, their awful seasons, their cheerful motley fans.” Any prayer—they’re all short—is a truffle of writing, which some readers may find a little too rich and over the top, but others will savor. Seen from a spiritual perspective, these prayers are plainspoken, witty fun; those who like Anne Lamott’s engaged and everyday religious stance should make Doyle’s acquaintance, though he is more of an observer of scenes than is Lamott. The book will be especially useful for novice writers interested in reading a playful and accomplished veteran author and those legions that say they don’t know how to pray. Read it on your knees in prayer or over a glass of something that hits the spot. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Brian Doyle remains our great poet of paradox: irreverently reverent, wildly civilized, jokingly serious, and earthily spiritual.” —Gregory Wolfe, founder of Image magazine

“I keep this book on my desk for days that wrench my soul or ones where I just need a little refocus. Reading Brian Doyle’s work, especially this tiny collection of prayers, has shown me how to view both moments of humor and pain as marked with God’s grace.” —Shemaiah Gonzalez, author of Brian Doyle: Finding God in the Ordinary

“A Book of Uncommon Prayer is an anthem to everyday wonder. It made me want to pray and reminded me that attentiveness is prayer at its purest. I will reach for this book and Brian Doyle’s magical blend of simplicity, tenderness, and humor for the rest of my ordinary days.” —Shannan Martin, author of The Ministry of Ordinary Places

“Brian Doyle is the best writer of spirituality in Catholicland, and I doubt if any writer can match him in any land. These amazing prayers—in thanks for decent shoes, for cashiers and checkout-counter folks, for the reader who photocopies this prayer and shares it with friends and sisters, and so many more —are where the rubber meets the road.” —Michael Leach, author of Why Stay Catholic?

From the Publisher