DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - You can still hear the power of prayer in this once devoutly Roman Catholic land - in the ca-ching! of the booksellers' cash registers.
Even as Mass attendance loses out to material pursuits, a slim volume of prayers produced by Ireland's most media-savvy monks has been selling out as soon as stocks hit the shelves.
Every day in Dublin's major bookshops, scores of people can be seen asking in vain for copies of ``The Glenstal Book of Prayer,'' which offers well-known prayers like Hail Mary as well as prayers to help in daily life.
Behind the collection are the Benedictine monks of Glenstal Abbey near Limerick, who promote their books and other cottage industries through a Web site and frequent interviews. The abbey has previously topped the Irish album charts with CD recordings of Gregorian chants.
The book's ``appeal is very complicated, a welter of factors,'' said the Rev. Simon Sleeman, its editor. ``But it feels like we've all had a birthday here - or a baby. We get tons of congratulation cards and phone calls. Somehow, we've touched a nerve running through the spirit of the land.''
Observers see the book's popularity as a sign of national soul-searching in a land where Catholic tradition often appears to be losing out to capitalism.
For the past decade of profound social change, Ireland has enjoyed an unprecedented growth in personal wealth, largely thanks to the arrival of high-tech American and European employers. The Catholic church, meanwhile, has seen its authority disintegrate under the pressure of a string of sexual scandals, mostly involving pedophile priests long protected by church authorities.
Now, with many foreign employers struggling, some suggest that the Irish are turning to prayer because of fears that their economy might go belly-up.
``When the most affluent generation ever to exist in this country are tripping over each other to get their hands on `The Glenstal Book of Prayer,' you know we're in trouble,'' suggested Brendan O'Connor, a Dublin comedian and commentator.
In a review, he called it ``the ideal spiritual solution for the Celtic Tiger generation, combining prayer with one last gasp of conspicuous consumption.''
The first 9,000 copies of the book quickly sold out, sending it to No. 1 in the Irish best sellers' list for hardback nonfiction. Bookshops since have been waiting for the second 20,000-copy print run that began arriving this week. Some shops, inundated with requests, have taped signs at their cash registers saying the Glenstal book wasn't yet available.
``If only we had more. This hasn't happened to us before,'' said Aidan Tarbett, owner of Cathedral Books, a religious-themed shop that sold all 600 of its copies within a week and has hundreds more reserved on back order.
``But I suppose it's true that people feel a necessity for something else, what with all the scandals in the church and people falling away from organized worship. It's good to see people rediscovering prayer,'' Tarbett said.
Shane Hallahan, at the register at a Waterstone's bookshop in Dublin, took a more cynical view.
``I think it's bizarre. The types of people I see buying it all look kind of lost, grasping at any straw they can find. It's either this book or the horoscopes,'' he said, noting that some buyers were in their 20s like him.
``With all this wealth and expectation of success, people aren't just having a mid-life crisis anymore, you know. You've got the quarter-life crisis too,'' he said with a laugh.
The book itself runs to little more than 100 pages, divided into four sections.
The first details a ``liturgy of the hours,'' the monastic tradition of dedicating set times of the day to praising God. The second reprints familiar Catholic prayers, including how to say the Rosary. The third has prayers in English, Gaelic and Latin for specific events, such as a death in the family or a new job. The fourth highlights the teachings of St. Benedict, the order's founder.
Back at the abbey, Sleeman and his fellow 50 priests are starting to field requests through their Web site from continental Europe and the United States, where the book is due to be published next month by the Liturgical Press in Minnesota for $17.95.
``We didn't really launch this project thinking, `Heh heh, we've gonna make 10 grand out of this,''' Sleeman said. ``We've got people pouring into the abbey looking for the book when we don't even have any copies ourselves. We don't even have Visa card facilities, you know?''
``I was playing golf the other day with an 86-year-old missionary,'' Sleeman said, ``and he said to me: `I've been trying to get people to pray for donkeys' years, and in three weeks you've got 14,000 people with prayer books. How you do it?' I don't really know.''
On the Net:
Glenstal Abbey, www.glenstal.org
Columba Press, www.columba.ie
Liturgical Press, www.litpress.org
AP-NY-08-21-01 0102EDT
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.