In life, we often don’t have the words to pray. We’re so overcome with grief, joy, anger, frustration, or sadness that we can’t even begin to form a coherent prayer. We desperately want to cry out to God, but we don’t know where to begin.

Lutheran Prayer Companion is a collection of nearly 500 prayers that cover a wide variety of topics and needs, in addition to covering every Sunday in the Church Year and each day of the week. Some of these prayers are extremely specific, such as these:

  • Prayer when a person begins a business
  • Prayer when parents send their children to school
  • Prayer of a juror who is to decide a criminal case
  • Prayer for the relief of warm sunshine in a long period of wet weather

But as specific as these prayers are, they guide those who are experiencing these specific situations—so while you might not always be in a place where you need to pray that prayer, one day you or a loved one might be.

These prayers are not written for blind recitation or rote memorization. Rather, each prayer is written that readers “may learn from it and be encouraged to pour out their heart before the throne of grace with prayer, invocation, praise, and thanksgiving, even in their own words” (p. xxv). The goal is to use these prayers to inspire your own prayers, or to guide you when you’re worried you’re praying about something incorrectly.

Each of these prayers is so firmly grounded in God’s Word that it’s often hard to tell where Scripture ends and the prayers begin, so you can know your prayers are sound.

For more information on Lutheran Prayer Companion or to order the book, please visit cph.org/prayercompanion or contact Lindsey Martie, Public Relations, by phone at 314-268-1303 or by email at Lindsey.Martie@cph.org.

Praise for Lutheran Prayer Companion

“Lutheran Prayer Companion is yet another treasure from our church’s past that Concordia Publishing House has resurrected for our edification in our own day. Filled with over 450 prayers on every imaginable topic (and a few one might never have thought of), it provides a marvelous compendium to guide the Christian through life.”

—Rev. Paul J. Grime, PhD, Dean of Spiritual Formation and Dean of the Chapel, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN

“Do we really need another prayerbook? After using this gem, the answer is a decided yes! Through this fresh translation into modern English, Matthew Carver has done the church a tremendous service. Scripturally saturated prayers for the days of the week, the seasons of the year, and the seasons of life. . . . I had searched in vain all my life for a prayerbook like this; it will be my close companion for the rest of it.”

—Rev. Christopher S. Esget, Senior Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA, LCMS Sixth Vice-President

“Lutheran Prayer Companion helps to restore a rich heritage in Lutheran piety, and in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in particular. . . . In our watered-down, superficial age, this resource will help us not only learn how to pray but also give solid meat throughout a person’s life.”

—Rev. Dr. Walter R. Steele, Pastor, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Quartz Hill, CA

“In Lutheran Prayer Companion, Matthew Carver’s translation of The Evangelical Lutheran Prayer Treasury, you get to pray along with Luther, Gerhard, Arndt, and scads of other great Lutheran teachers of old. When you do, you step into their world of faith: a world that is formed in the Scriptures and filled with the church’s song. . . . Dig in, folks! Through this volume, the rich spirituality that shaped our church in years gone by is let loose in our own language.”

—Rev. William Weedon, Director of Worship for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod,

Chaplain of the International Center of the LCMS