Good Night
Interfaith Prayers and Meditations Before Sleep
- World Religions
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2026
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Publisher's Description
Good Night: Interfaith Prayers and Meditations Before Sleep contains sacred readings from many spiritual traditions and religions, along with diverse secular selections. Its meditations, poetry, thoughts, and prayers are designed to help us put the day to rest and, with God as the final thought, with hearts at ease, sleep deeply and well. A unique aspect of the book is that it uses gender-neutral language throughout, including in references to God. Archaic language is updated, with the original version appearing after the adapted version. There are humorous readings, too. Sometimes being able to laugh at circumstances, or at oneself, is what is most needed. Good Night is organized around feelings, such as hope, fear, anger, mourning, forgiveness, patience, and comfort. There is a set of readings for forty nights, designed to help us make peace with our day, ourselves, each other, and God. This helps us sleep well and cope better with whatever tomorrow brings.
Endorsements (8)
“What a treasure! My deep bow of gratitude to and for Shulamith for guiding us into this wealth of spirited and spiritual world readings. For how she gathers us to evening, rest, and sleep. For connecting us to the traditions of prayer and song. And listening to Divine Song: the earthly poetry inside our hearts.”
“As a Muslim who has encountered other faith traditions with an open heart due to being raised with an interfaith psyche, it is always a pleasure to meet a traveler on a similar path like Shulamith Clearbridge. Her book is an offering that such explorers dream of to share the heart-warming journey of not only self-discovery, but the realization of how much we are connected in our spirituality despite our apparent differences.”
“I recommend keeping Good Night beside your bed. It offers evocative questions to help us reflect on the day’s experiences, encouraging us to notice how love was present and where we might have resisted grace-filled opportunities. Remembering and reflecting on our experiences helps us to ‘settle the day’ with greater receptivity to the divine presence in our daily lives. The book contains lessons, affirmations, and prayers for each night, wisdom from Quaker writers as well as from many other spiritual traditions, quotations that help us focus our minds and hearts on eternal truths as we prepare for sleep. This beautiful book invites us to rest in God all through the night and receive the blessings and spiritual guidance which are always available to us.”
“Shulamith Clearbridge offers a feast for the soul in this rich collection of readings and prayers meant to help us ‘settle the day.’ Good Night transposes the Christian spiritual practices of evening prayer and the examen into a refreshingly new key: By sourcing readings from many faiths and rendering them in gender-neutral language, Clearbridge makes these meditations accessible and inviting to a much wider audience. Providing forty days of readings and prayers on eleven different themes (such as gratitude, forgiving oneself, help and hope), Good Night covers a wide territory of the spirit that will leave you centered, settled, and ready for peaceful slumber and a fresh new day.”
“After an annoying and frustrating day, as I was getting ready for sleep, I opened Good Night and looked up the section on anger. The exercise of ‘settling the day’ let me look carefully at why I was annoyed. The lesson loosened the frustration in my heart. The affirmation and intention enabled me to let my irritation go. The prayer connected me with divine love. I slept well, resting in the presence, and rose in the morning free to experience the blessings of a new day. I now use this book on any day, not only when I have a special need. Through Good Night, Shulamith has provided daily practices for deeper connection to the Source and better days.”
“This book has become a trusted companion in my evening journaling practice. It’s creatively structured in a way that’s immensely helpful to this reader. Coming from a liberal Quaker background, I crave structure in my spiritual life and often have trouble finding it. Shulamith Clearbridge’s expert pairings of settling queries, lessons, affirmations/intentions and prayers, allows me to sink into the words and the solace they bring. It’s been lovely to find inspiration in such a wide array of thinkers and mystics, and I’ve enjoyed sitting with these quotes from both familiar and unfamiliar names. It’s clear that Clearbridge searched far and wide for the wisdom in this book and knit it together with much thought and gentleness. In addition to the content, I was grateful for the different ways to read and use the book that Clearbridge offers in the introduction, and I have found myself returning to it for guidance often and enjoy experimenting with the different methods based on what I need in the moment. So grateful for this book! I’ve been especially grateful for the queries.”
“For forty nights, you are invited to a spiritual practice of putting the day to rest. Shulamith provides a four-part practice: a reading or questions for reflection, a lesson, an intention or affirmation, and a prayer. The readings offer time to breathe and be present, time to process and sanctify the day, and an opportunity to rest in God. . . . With this book, Shulamith offers us a spiritual practice that people from all backgrounds and beliefs can benefit by.”
“How does one enter a night of rest? For years, it’s been my journal and the current fiction I’m reading. This book, though, is giving me another idea: an intention of gently laying down the day, by reflecting, reading, and considering where my spirit might be inspired, mended, settled. This collection of writings from many faith traditions includes a roadmap of sorts—of emotional and experiential frames to consider, should there be a need to focus on one, as one seeks to settle the day. I am surprised at the welcome I feel—invited in. The inclusion of gender and God considerations in some of the adjusted language, even as the original is also included, feels warmly respectful and opening. This feels like a gift I never knew I needed.”
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