Tender and moving, these prayers show Austen's spiritual musings. ( )

As the daughter of a clergyman, Jane Austen was often remarked upon by her relatives as having a strong Christian faith. This small book collects three extant prayers that Austen wrote for evening family devotion services. Definitely of interest to the cross-section of readers who are both Christians and Janeites. Of which I am one. ( )

Although Jane Austen was the daughter of a clergyman, her novels have little overt religious content. Anyone curious about Austen's faith might be interested in this compilation of prayers written by Austen for use in family devotions. With illustrations and text on facing pages, the book is designed for gift-giving. Many Jane Austen devotees would be thrilled to pull this little volume out of a Christmas stocking.

Here's a sample from one of the prayers:
Incline us, O God, to think humbly of ourselves, to be severe only in the examination of our own conduct, to consider our fellow-creatures with kindness, and to judge of all they say and do with that charity which we would desire from them ourselves. ( )

First of all, I want to state that I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway back in December 2016. It took 2 months to arrive in my mailbox, but as an apology for the delay, Harvest House sent me 2 copies.

Secondly, I was a bit disappointed in the book only because I was expecting a book I could use during my Lent devotion. This book only has 3 prayers in it--I was expecting like 10 or 15. It is clearly meant to be a novelty item rather than a devotional aid.

Apart from that, I enjoyed this book--the design of both the cover and the pages are very beautiful. The gold and white color scheme is lovely. There are pictures meant to look like woodcuts on every other page--I assume they are pictures from editions of Jane Austen's work that I have not read.

The prayers are very beautifully written--I read each one twice. The commentary was fine--I didn't find it super enlightening or anything, but it is just a short essay at the end of the book.

I gave the book 4 stars because I will definitely be rereading the prayers and because the book had excellent design. ( )