Prayers - A Personal Selection is the second collaboration by composer Michael Hoppé and actor Michael York. Both artists have received Grammy nominations and are very highly regarded in their fields. Their previous collaboration was the 2007 collection of love poems entitled How Do I Love Thee? The original intention for this collection was to include prayers from many different faiths, but when Christian Audio showed an interest in releasing the work as an audio book, the collection took a more Christian focus. York began the search for prayers by emailing all of his friends world-wide and asking for their favorite prayers. As a result, some of these prayers come directly from The Bible while others do not. Some are very familiar and some less well-known. It’s a fascinating collection, and combined with Hoppé’s gorgeous music and York’s soothing voice, it’s an uplifting and inspiring album. The audio book can be downloaded from the internet, but the physical package includes the audio disc and a PDF disc of the text of all of the prayers, which also lists where the prayers originated and gives bios of Michael Hoppé and Michael York - a much more complete set.

Hoppé’s music is widely known for its evocative simplicity, and his gentle piano and keyboard touch is the perfect companion to these spoken prayers. He also contributed three solo tracks that give breathing space and room to reflect at different points in the recording. There are twenty-four prayers, ranging from The Lord’s Prayer to The Serenity Prayer. Some are read from the King James Version of The Bible, and some are more contemporary; Jane Austen, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Louis Stevenson, and St. Francis are also represented.

This a beautiful collection that is available from www.christianaudio.com and Amazon. Recommended!