Daily devotional
Daily devotionals are religious publications which provide a specific spiritual reading for each calendar day. Examples include The Upper Room, Our Daily Bread, and The Word Among Us.
Lutheran Hour Ministries makes daily devotions specifically for the liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent, in addition to other parts of the Church Year, such as Portals of Prayer.[1]
Daily Watchwords is the daily devotional and prayer book used by the Moravian Church.
Daily devotionals have a long tradition in religious communities, with the earliest known Christian example being the Gælic Feliré written in Ireland in the Ninth Century.[2] They tend to be associated with a daily time of prayer and meditation.
Traditionally daily devotionals came in the format of a book, with one reading passage for each day, and often a reflection and prayer related to the Scripture lesson. With the advent of online content, daily devotionals come in multiple formats including apps, blogs, websites, and emails. There continues to be a multitude of devotional books and calendars, in addition to numerous online devotionals, that are tailored to a variety of recipient, denomination, or view. Daily devotionals differ from traditional breviaries, which are used by Christians to pray the canonical hours at fixed prayer times every day, in that daily devotionals can be used at leisure.
Daily devotionals, while common among Christians, can be found in many other traditions as well. Classic examples of devotionals include Leo Tolstoy's The Reading Circle.[3][4][5]
See also
References
- Lippy, Charles H. (5 July 2000). American Religious Culture in the Twentieth Century. M.E. Sharpe. p. 100. ISBN 9780765638588.
In the early 1990s, for example, the Upper Room reported a bimonthly circulation of around 2 million; Our Daily Bread claimed a bimonthly circulation of 7 million.
- Hudson, Robert (ed.) (2004) The Christian Writer's Manual of Style: Updated and Expanded Edition Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Mich., p.176, ISBN 0-310-48771-4
- Tolstoy, Lev N. (1908) Круг чтения: избранныя мысли многих писателей об истинѣ, жизни и поведении (Krug Chteniia, The Reading Circle) A compendium of edifying readings for each day of the year, culled by Lev Tolstoy from the writings of various cultures; published in English as: Tolstoy, Lev (1997)A calendar of wisdom: daily thoughts to nourish the soul (translated by Peter Sekirin) Scribner, New York, ISBN 0-684-83793-5; mentioned as a classic in Dobychin, Leonid; Borden, Richard C. and Belova, Natalia (2005) Encounters with Lise and Other Stories Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois, p. 155, ISBN 0-8101-1972-2
- Chambers, Oswald (1927) My utmost for His Highest; selections for every day F.A. Thorpe, Leicester, OCLC 3987736; 84 known editions; cited in B., Dave (1998) Good Morning!: Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early A.A. Paradise Research Publications, Kihei, Maui, Hawaii, pp. 91-92, ISBN 1-885803-22-2; and McCasland, David (1993) Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God Discovery House, Grand Rapids, Mich., ISBN 0-929239-75-X
- Chambers, Oswald My Utmost for His Highest, full text