Mercy & Melons: Praying the Alphabet

by Lisa Nichols Hickman

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

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

Lisa Nichols Hickman is a pastor at New Wilmington Presbyterian Church, author of Writing in the Margins: Connecting with God on the Pages of Your Bible and adjunct teacher at Westminster College in the Religion Department. She writes regularly for Faith and Leadership online magazine as well as its “Call and Response” blog. Recent articles appear in The Huffington Post, in The New Castle News and in The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. She lives in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Leah Hickman]

I’m biased what can I say?!

[Jennifer]

Love, love, love.

[Leah]

Mercy & Melons: Thanking God for All Good Gifts from A to Z presents a memorable and rememberable way to "pray always" and to perceive God's hiddenness in the smallest, most mundane objects and events. Lisa Nichols Hickman Prays the Alphabet by pairing a clearly theological or scriptural concept with one not obviously immediately so. "Mercy & Melons" in the title, Grasshoppers and Glory for letter G, Yellow and Yahweh Y. The Hebrew bible book of Lamentations and several psalms model an acrostic approach to devotion, so this book and our practice in response to reading Mercy & Melons has scriptural precedent.

You could practice Praying the Alphabet in your head or in a notebook. You could visually (drawings, sketches, photographs, paintings) or poetically illustrate your own pairs of Praises & Pavements - Berries & Baptism - Rivers & Rhubarb. You could create a month of blog posts, either minus Sundays or simply allowing for any occasional skipped day or alternate topic. You could give Mercy & Melon to a seasoned, mature, highly theological Christian, to someone newly baptized, or to that person who's not quite sure about Christianity or religion, but who nonetheless savors every bit of life.

Cover Art and an illuminated letter for each chapter by Celia Marie Baker of The Bookwood help immensely to make Mercy & Melons an appealingly attractive handbook. Dark green type inside perfectly harmonizes with yellows and greens on the cover, but given that the cover also includes black lettering, for readability I'd prefer setting the book in black type.

[Paula Vince]

This is a prose book written by an author with a poet's heart if ever I saw one. She suggests a new way of forming our prayers, based on the alphabet. You pair up the name of a common object with a theological attribute. They must both begin with the same letter. Then you ponder possible connections and insights about God and life. Lisa Hickman gives us her own examples in separate chapters ranging from A to Z. Mercy and Melons, of course, is her contribution for the letter M.

She believes it's an exercise which helps broaden our imaginations. I was skeptical to start with. It seemed restrictive to confine ourselves to things beginning with the same letter, as if we're trying to force connections. Just as I was thinking of giving up on the whole concept, I found her examples beginning to grow on me. Next, I found my own imagination ticking away with ideas which made me dash for my notebook. It does work.

As well as the prayerful purpose for which Lisa Hickman uses it, I believe this would be a good tool to get ideas flowing in creative writing workshops. I've heard that prayer and writing have the same taproot, so no wonder that makes sense.

Anyone who wants to take up the challenge could fit it easily into a year. You could do one letter each week, doing two rounds, or take it fortnightly and go through the alphabet once. Maybe I'll even consider giving a go myself at the start of next year.

Thanks to Abingdon Press and Net Galley for my review copy.

[Dawn]

I tried at first to read several letters' worth of lessons (thoughts? ideas? a plan for a daily devotion? - each letter includes some of each). But this really didn't work for me, because each letter demands more time and thought than a quick read-through. I found I would miss too much if I read more than 2 letters at a time, so that is what I settled in for. Lisa Nichols Hickman introduces each letter with a pair of words (but often, more ideas for words are included within the short, 3-4 page chapters), and shares a personal story of why these words mean something to her, how it impacted her Christian life (and her thoughts, and her prayers) and what she's learned. There is a lot of imagery, a lot of repetition (which normally I wouldn't care for - here, though, it felt like meditation, which was important to building a better memory of the key points) and quite a bit of encouragement - to think, consider, find some way to action. One of my favorites was imagination/icicles, because I could relate (several of them are relatable, but some make you smile more than others) and also because I've never considered prayer concerning imagination. I also enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of each chapter/letter ... the one for imagination/icicles was "Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere." - Albert Einstein.

[Jenny]

I read one "letter" chapter a week this year. This book is lovely, inspirational, funny, and a great tool learn to establish a pattern of praying the alphabet. Well done Lisa Nichols Hickman! I look forward to more of your writing.

[Diane]

though this is a lovely book, it isn't really what I was hoping for when I ordered it. This is, for the most part, theological essays that put together two objects from each letter of the alphabet; one object is ordinary and daily, and the other is a more theological word. This may have been the fruit of the author's efforts in "Praying the Alphabet", but I would have liked a book of actual prayers, or something that would give me a little more guidance in praying the alphabet myself. I find it an intriguing practice, and I guess that I am still looking for that book.