This is a delightful little gem of a book. It is not a great book as it is merely a compilation and all compilations are of necessity of variable quality. However, it is a greatly useful book especially for those who would like to pray but have no notion as to how to go about it. This book offers you a multitude of options and perspectives from almost every culture known to man. The author chips in with prayers of his own too, which in a sense is the purpose of a book like this, to release you from the inhibitions of praying in the prescribed formal manner and pray according to your need and your true state of being.

The three main sections are prayers of petition, prayers of praise and prayers of thanksgiving. In a sense the book allows you to be articulate in other peoples words till you find your own sense of prayer. There is no sense of a specific god or religion or theologies that you need to align yourself to for this book to work. Jones belongs to the thankfully ever growing section of humanity that is concerned with the religious experience, not the cultural labels and prejudices that go along with it. The power of prayer is clearly brought out in this book as well as the rather mortifying fact that sometimes we pray only because we feel that god is giving us a dirty break. Some truly great prayers that we all know are included, like the famous one of Saint Francis of Assisi which begins with 'Lord make me an instrument of your peace'.

Personally I like the little prayers the best. They are brisk and to the point and they convey volumes in their terse adherence to the truth.

Though I am far from You,
May no one else be far from You. 
                                                The Persian mystic Hafiz


I doubt very much if there can be a more religious prayer than that.

The founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, had a passionate prayer that reverberates within the soul of all those who feel the religion should not be a passive waiting out of life.

O Lord, let us not live to be useless.

This Shinto prayer is a remarkable guide for living the life spiritual.

Our eyes may see some uncleanness, but let not our mind see things that are not clean.
Our ears may hear some uncleanness, but let not our mind hear things that are not clean.

And finally, a section of a prayer-poem from that remarkable poet Langston Hughes.

A gospel shout
And a gospel song:

Life is short
But God is long!

The longer prayers are worth perusing in detail, they are meditations in their own right. This is a book that is never going to become dated, never going to be anything other than very meaningful. Value for money is probably an understatement in describing it.

Reviewed by Rohit Arya

• Title: Weave a Garment of Brightness
• Author: Wayne Lee Jones
• Publisher: Berkley Books