Trends come and go. Certain habits or interests rise for a time, wane, and then rise again, often at unexpected moments. One of the recent trends I have found particularly surprising and also particularly interesting is the rise (or re-rise, if you prefer) of liturgy. This may be liturgy within formal worship services of the local church or liturgy within times of private worship. Did this trend begin with Douglas McKelvey’s Every Moment Holy series? If it didn’t begin there, his books certainly popularized it. Regardless, over the past few years, we have seen a substantial number of books that share liturgies for times of worship.
New among them is Douglas Sean O’Donnell’s Daily Liturgy Devotional: 40 Days of Worship and Prayer. He begins his book by explaining what he means by liturgy. “The Greek word leitourgia, from which we get the word liturgy, is found a few times in the New Testament and can be translated as ‘service,’ ‘ministry,’ or ‘worship.’ So think of this Daily Liturgy Devotional, with its various set prayers and forms, not as boring or mechanical but as exciting and life-giving, a book that will serve you so that you might better worship God and minister to others.”
His purpose is to help Christians develop and practice good devotional habits through a forty-day commitment. The book is arranged in a daily devotional format so readers can simply read through one each day. As they do that, they’ll first encounter a prayer that may be traditional, may be original, or may be based on a passage from the Bible. They can pray these prayers verbatim and then supplement them with their own words. Then they will read a passage of Scripture and a brief devotional. Then there will be a prayer prompt, a memory verse, and a related hymn. It’s a simple format but a traditional and effective one.
Daily Liturgy Devotional is a kind of all-in-one daily devotional book. With a commitment of perhaps 20 or 30 minutes a day, those who read it will learn how to have a deep and meaningful time with the Lord. They will find themselves learning to read Scripture and pray it, to lodge it deep in their hearts and live it out through their lives. If you are looking for something to encourage your faith as you close out this year or begin a new one, I recommend you give it a try.
