I was sorting through my library after retiring from full time pastoral ministry. During my time in church ministry, building a library was one of the pastoral tools of the trade. Now, we go online for everything, including Greek exegesis!
It was painful to part with my cherished books. I swallowed hard as I donated fifteen boxes of books to charity and brought home ones that meant the most to me. My wife said I still brought home way too many!
I came across a book in my library I had never read titled 2000 Years of Prayer by Michael Counsell. I didn’t know how it ended up on my shelf nor had I ever bothered to open it. But it was the right book at the right time in my life. People in my church relied on my prayers to see them through tough times. Now, I needed the prayers from our “cloud of witnesses” to cultivate a deeper spiritual life in this new season in life. We read in Hebrews, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12.1). As I immersed myself in this treasure trove of ancient prayers, I began to appreciate the rich legacy of our spiritual forebears and started sharing them with family and friends. That’s how Prayers from the Cloud came into being.
Anglican priest Michael Counsell compiled time-honored prayers in his early retirement years for inclusion in 2000 Years of Prayer. He added some of his own prayers in the compilation, such as the prayer: