Blessing and Beseeching: Seventy Prayers Inspired by the Scriptures

As pandemic lockdowns descended across the world, Gail Ramshaw, scholar, author, and liturgist, settled in to read the Scriptures anew. At each biblical book's end, she wrote a prayer inspired by what she encountered.

Collected here in a beautifully typeset volume are seventy new prayers that resulted from that work. Surprises and riches are found on every page, as when the book of Leviticus inspires an intercession for guidance in the holy, the book of Esther pleads for good government, and the book of James reminds us of the invisible migrant workers who pick our produce.

By turns bold and humble, universal and deeply personal, Ramshaw's poetry in prayer will inspire individual reflection and enrich public worship settings alike.

Gail Ramshaw, M.A., M.Div., Ph.D., D.D., a retired professor of religion, has published extensively in the field of liturgical language. Her most recent publications are Word of God, Word of Life: Understanding the Three-Year Lectionaries (2019), a collection of liturgical prayers titled Pray, Praise, and Give Thanks (2017), and a collection of personal prayers titled Blessing and Beseeching (2022). In 2010 she received the Berakah award from the North American Academy of Liturgy. In 2019 she was honored by Virginia Theological Seminary with the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 2020 received a Doctor of Divinity from Wartburg Theological Seminary.