We Pray is a new children’s book from Ancient Faith Publishing. Authored by Daniel Opperwall, a Canadian theology professor, and illustrated by the Serbian husband and wife team Jelena and Marko Grbic, We Pray is a beautiful introduction to the concepts of Orthodox prayer.
Wholeheartedly Eastern Orthodox in its approach, each page explores a single concept of prayer, beginning with the Trinity and ending with evangelism. Along the way, we come to understand the purpose of icons, incense, prayer ropes, and even the Eucharist. We learn about common prayers such as the Our Father, prayers for forgiveness, and liturgical prayers. The book has a single page at the end with some basic short prayers even a young child can learn to pray.
Since a children’s book is constructed much like our temples, with the word presented in the midst of beauty, each passage is illustrated and illuminated by the accompanying drawings. The drawings themselves are beautiful colored lines drawings that are simple enough to engage a child, and have enough detail to make exploring the images an adventure each time you read the book with your child. There are Christian and iconic symbols sprinkled throughout, that the children can recognize from the icons in the church. Some of the elements are reminiscent of medieval text illumination.
We Pray will be a beautiful addition to your child’s nightstand, and something you will enjoy reading to them repeatedly. The theology presented is a welcome reminder to us as parents, as we learn to pray with our children.
We Pray is available in hardback from http://store.ancientfaith.com/we-pray/