There is a small prayer book entitled “Pocket Book of Prayers” by M. Basil Pennington O.C.S.O, published by Doubleday, New York, 1987. The Copyright is 1986 by Cistercian Abbey of Spencer, Inc. There is an interesting story behind this little prayer book.
I believe the grace of God brought this book and me together and here is that story. Our first son, Nathaniel Roman Brandner, was born 10 weeks premature in August of 1989. This was a trying time for our family and a lot of time was spent in prayer.
Just before the Christmas Holidays that year, I was looking for a small pocket-sized prayer book that I could use, that contained most of the common prayers for Catholics. I checked several bookstores but found mostly pocket-sized prayer books for the Protestant religion in the 4 to 6 dollar range. Finally, I found exactly what I was looking for at Janke’s Bookstore in Wausau, WI. The book was the “Pocket Book of Prayers” by M. Basil Pennington O.C.S.O. I was distressed at the price however, as this little prayer book listed for $14.95. To me, that was just too high a price to pay for such a small book when all the other pocket-sized prayer books were selling for about 5 dollars. Although I liked the book, I decided to keep looking for something else.
On the way out of Janke’s Bookstore, I noticed they were celebrating being in business for, I think, 25 years, by having a series of drawings for various gifts. As I passed the sign-up box, I filled out a slip and threw it in as I have done so many times for drawings, and thought no more of it.
A few days later, I got a call that my name had been drawn and I had won one of the gifts from their drawing. The prize was a $10 gift certificate for merchandise at their store and the first thought that occurred to me was that the expensive prayer book was now going to only cost me $4.95, the same as the other prayer books that I had been looking at. I used that gift certificate to buy this prayer book in January of 1990.
Nathaniel was in Neonatal Intensive Care for six weeks and had been in excellent health ever since, graduating High School with Honors and procuring a full scholarship to college. I enjoy the prayers in my little blue prayer book and someday I will give it to him along with this story.