Most of us reading this have not suffered war on our doorstep, hunger, drought, stormy seas, the crash of civilization.  But most of those writing the prayers in this collection have faced very real tests of endurance and faith. 

Almost a century ago, in the midst of  World War One, another editor wrote an introduction to Prayers for today, with a series of meditations from modern writers: 

 "We are living on the confines of a new world. Amid the crash of falling kingdoms, the break-up of all we had hitherto deemed most stable, we need to remind ourselves that the great realities of the spiritual world stand fast, and that on these we can build another and a juster civilization than that which now appears to be doomed. But we must first of all rebuild it in our own souls by faith and prayer. It is as a help, however humble and inadequate, to this work of spiritual reconstruction that this book is now sent forth."