Praying in Time

“A step-by-step perceptive yet practical, comprehensive yet compassionate guide to shutting down electronic devices and slowing down through a time-tested tradition of prayer hour-by-hour and day-by-day. I was touched by the plain yet prudent recommendation to pray with a book, not an app! This is a timely book for a fast-paced age.”


—John Chryssavgis, author of John: Desert Wisdom for Everyday Life





“Vassa Larin makes brilliant observations about how technologies of measuring time change the way we perceive it. Thus, transition from sundial to mechanical clock became a major revolution that has shaped modernity. Social media again revolutionized our experience of time. She suggests liturgical circles, with focus on the service of hours, to make our time prayable and livable again.”


—Cyril Hovorun, author of Scaffolds of the Church: Towards Poststructural Ecclesiology





“This is indeed a timely book. Sr. Vassa Larin guides us in a knowledgeable, yet also personal and practical way, into the mystery of time as it is embodied in the cycles of liturgical time in the Orthodox tradition. The vision offered here, and her suggestions for living this tradition, open a way for each reader to ‘redeem the time,’ as exhorted by the Apostle.”


—John Behr, author of John the Theologian and His Paschal Gospel: A Prologue to Theology





“In this wonderful book, Sister Vassa Larin introduces us to the practice of praying the ‘Little’ Hours of Byzantine Daily Prayer, that is, the First (Prime), Third (Terce), Sixth (Sext) and Ninth (None) hours, so often neglected in contemporary usage. More than a beautiful commentary on these particular hours, Larin offers us here a rich theology of the church ‘redeeming the time’ through prayer. This is a must read not only for Orthodox Christians but for all of us.”


— Maxwell E. Johnson, professor of theology, University of Notre Dame





“We live in an age in which time has been flattened out and proceeds relentlessly—24/7. Sister Vassa Larin draws on the wisdom enshrined in the prayer offices of the Orthodox Church to enable us to mark the hours of the day and mark the days of the week. In this way we shall discern the rhythms and cycles of time and thus learn to redeem it.”


—Andrew Louth, professor emeritus, Durham University