Featured Resource: In her book Landscapes of Prayer: Finding God in Your World and Your Life, Margaret Silf spells out eight environments that can be used as spurs to meditations on prayer and the devotional life including gardens, mountains, seashores, forests, rivers, jungles, deserts, caves and night skies.

In challenging situations, many people feel the need to vary and expand their repertoire of devotional practices. Devotional Toolkit for Times of Crisis lists 50 practices from the world's spiritual traditions — with links to full books of the resources that describe them.

• Anne Lamott makes her contribution to succinct devotional literature by reducing prayer to three words: help, thanks, and wow.

• Christine Valters Paintner has put together a creative and engrossing close-encounter with the wisdom sayings of the fourth and fifth century Christians.

• David Frenette presents a complete handbook on Christian contemplation and the practice of centering prayer.

• Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee probes the mystical prayers of Christians and Sufis and what they have in common.

• Gary Neal Hansen offers different ways of praying from ten masters of the medium.

• Andrew Harvey presents meditations, prayers, and devotional exercises from many faiths that will keep us grounded in the Divine Presence in the midst of life.

• Wayne Teasdale puts inspirational material from the mystical traditions into a daybook of quotes and short commentaries.

• Editor Bonnie Louise Kuchler spots 65 virtues in the devotional repertoires of seven major religions.

• Kirk Bryon Jones presents a soul-stirring devotional resource to jump-start your day.

• Carl McColman showcases the devotional riches in Celtic lore and wisdom.

• Edward Hays, a Catholic artist of prayers, delivers 148 original psalms designed for those who are moving from the known to the unknown, from one place or state of life to another.

• Robert Benson, an Episcopalian, weaves the strands of his experiences together around a dialogue with God.

• Joseph D. Driskill presents Protestant spiritual exercises for deepening a devotional life.

• Stephen P. Huyler conveys Hindu devotional duties through a look at various festivals and holy days.

• Thich Nhat Hanh draws together the verses, chants, ceremonies, and discourses used regularly by the monks, nuns, and laypeople of Plum Village, a Buddhist monastery and retreat center.

• Rabbi Zalaman Schachter-Shalomi delivers a mystical masterpiece filled with spiritual practices and an exciting vision of the future.

• Rabbi David A. Cooper examines Jewish devotional practices that aim for harmony, peace of mind, and a soft heart.

• Francine Klagsbrun offers illuminating pathway to Jewish devotion by exploring a yearlong cycle of seasons and festivals.

• Dov Peretz Elkins delivers a great resource of ideas, exercises, and inspirational readings for use on the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur.

• Nancy Roth, an Episcopal priest, envisions body exercises as Christian prayers.

• Ana Hernandez introduces chants for gratitude, peace, compassion, and other intentions.

• Thomas Ashley-Farrand covers Sanskrit mantras that can be used to enhance one's life.

• Carol Garibaldi Rogers gives a fine overview of fasting as a devotional practice across the religious traditions.

• Megan McKenna uses the rosary as a starting point to challenge us to wed devotion with justice.

And more books about prayer:

• Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski present an edifying and imaginative overview of the history of prayer that leaves us with a great respect for both the drama and the diversity of devotions in all the world's religions and outside of them.

• Margaret Silf addresses common questions asked about prayer by seekers.

• Francis Sheridan Goulart collects prayers from all traditions, modeling the kind of devotional resource we need in our multifaith world of crossover seekers.

And more books about praying:

• Joseph Nassal and Nancy Burke use insights from all the world's religions to shed light on four different ways of praying.

• Jon M. Sweeney presents 21 practices of embodied prayer from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

• Jane E. Vennard writes about the significance of praying with body and soul.

• David Steindl-Rast and Sharon Lebell guide us through the sacred hours of the day in the Christian monastic tradition.

• C. W. McPherson reveals how praying the Daily Office in the Book of Common Prayer is a cornerstone of Christian spirituality.

• Suzanne Guthrie examines what it means to pray the hours.

• Leonardo Boff analyzes two Christian prayers, Our Father and Hail Mary, emphasizing the kingdom of God and justice.

• Protestant Christian Ted Loder writes lively, creative, and soul-stretching prayers.

• Cynthia Bourgeault gives a thoughtful assessment of the bounties of centering prayer.

• Madeleine L'Engle and Luci Shaw share examples of their regular prayer conversations.

• Coleman Barks and Michael Green shed light on the five-times daily prayer of Muslims.

• Carol J. Adams has put together a perfect gift book for family and friends who love and care for animals.

• Search for all books about devotion.

One of the important elements of the spiritual practice of devotion is using different names and images to enable us to draw closer to the Holy One. A number of children's books explore this process.

• Sarene Shulimson beautifully conveys the bounties of Shabbat as experienced by a young boy and his loving and devout grandparents.

• Douglas Wood celebrates the sacredness of life and the glory of God who shows through everywhere.

• Sandy Eisenberg Sasso celebrates religious diversity showing people coming together and realizing that there is no single right name for God.

• Mahandra Jani and Vandana Jani write about devotional practices of Hindus in their homes.

• Wayne Muller sees the Sabbath as a devotional oasis in the week, a time to lie fallow and give thanks for all our blessings.

• Paul Pearson discusses icons in the Eastern Orthodox tradition as tangible evidence of God's love and reminders that we are not alone as we enter into prayer.

• Brian Doyle unpacks some of the devotional meanings of the sign of the cross.

• Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi explores devotion as a process of ongoing discovery and personal renewal, especially as we try to name God.

We learn new devotional paths by reading another's experiences.

• In How to Know God, Deepak Chopra writes about why Sri Ramakrishna worshipped in all directions.

• Suzanne Guthrie in Praying the Hours shares St. Teresa of Avila's advice that you be comfortable for prayer.

• In Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh, Matthew Fox tells a story about a car mechanic who remembered God as he worked.

• In Finding God on the A Train, Rick Hamlin advises what to do with interruptions during prayer.

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