Mercy & Melons

Book excerpt: Mercy & Melons is a collection of lyrical meditations that encourage the reader to pray the alphabet. Each chapter focuses on a letter of the alphabet and an accompanying spiritual practice. By naming an everyday object and a theological theme readers are given elegant takeaways to spark the imagination as well as engage the practice of prayer. In the Hebrew acrostic tradition, praying the alphabet served as a pathway to memorization as well as a prompt for thoroughness. Even more so, praying the alphabet puts all of the letters into God’s presence for God to arrange the letter of a person’s unspoken prayers. Drawing on this rich tradition, the book adds two dimensions. First, it encourages eyes to see the word made flesh in the nouns—the melons and grasshoppers of daily life. And second, draws the reader into the word by asking the reader to articulate and name the specific ways that came alive for them each day. Praying the alphabet is a practice as timeless as the Old Testament and for every day that ends in Y. This book offers momentum for the journey of prayer and paying attention. Mercy and Melons