A Psalter for Prayer: Pocket Edition

The pocket edition of A Psalter for Prayer is a beautiful little psalter book about 4" by 5.5". The font size is large enough and the "woodcut" images of Christ, the holy Cross, the angels and the saints are also very prayerfully done. As is customary in the Orthodox Christian tradition, the book of psalms is divided into 20 sections called Kathismata which means "sitting". Apparently, the early monastics used to sit at the readings of the selected psalms during lengthy services. A unique feature of this psalter is that it has the latin names of each psalm as found in the original Coverdale Psalter which, as was mentioned in the introduction, were included to demonstrate the universality of the psalms and to recall a time in the Church when East and West were fully united. Besides the psalms themselves there are also prayers after each kathisma as well as general prayer before and after the recitation of the psalter. I was disappointed that the 9 Canticles are not included in the pocket edition as they are in the large edition and the Kindle version. However the pocket edition does have the rite chanted following the departure of the soul from the body, reading of the entire psalter for the departed, and the rite for singing the 12 psalms. The only thing physically awkward about the book is that due to its small size it will take time for it to open comfortably without stretching the spine of the book. All in all, this is a wonderful psalter with a beautiful translation corrected to the Septuagint psalms (LXX) and for those who do not mind an older style of English, I wholeheartedly recommend it as a way to pray with the Church since the Psalter is called "the prayerbook of the Church".