This book of prayers for the forty days of Lent is both a gift and an opportunity.

Frank Topping chose forty words and expressions, delved into where Jesus spoke them and to whom he said them, and probed the meaning of these words in Jesus’ day. Having completed this work, he asked himself what these same words mean in our day. Finally, he lay his study and his thoughts before God in prayer.

The prayers in this book were written after that last step. They are meant to be used as a starting point for your own meditation, read alongside the biblical passage from which each is taken. Because Frank Topping wrote these prayers after a personal study and meditation on the words of Christ, he urges you to do the same: to make up for the inadequacy of each one by penciling your own notes in the margin. Then each prayer will become your own.