Years ago, in the darkest season of her life, my co-author Stefania Leão began handwriting prayers in Portuguese. She was not trying to publish a book. She was trying to survive her mornings. Page by page, in a notebook nobody else was meant to see, she built a small daily rhythm of scripture, reflection, prayer, and a watercolor illustration. It was the practice that carried her through.
Those pages eventually became The Prayer: Rise with Jesus, a 30-day Christian devotional prayer book. This month, it became something neither of us imagined when we first decided to publish. The Portuguese edition hit the #1 bestseller spot in Brazil. The Italian edition hit #1 in Italy. The English edition has been a U.S. bestseller for the better part of a year. Three languages. Three #1s. The book has also been recognized by the Best Indie Book Award, the Storytrade Award, and Readers’ Favorite.
The strange, humbling part is that it began as one woman’s private conversation with God.
The Problem That Started It
The inspiration was not a market gap; it was a personal one. Stefania needed a morning rhythm that could hold both hard days and ordinary ones—something short enough to actually do, but deep enough to matter. Most devotionals she found were either too long for a busy morning or too thin to carry the weight of what she was walking through.
So she built her own: a five-to-ten-minute daily structure of scripture, reflection, guided prayer, and an original watercolor illustration for each of the thirty days. The illustrations were not mere decoration; they were a way of slowing the eye down, of letting the heart catch up to the words. When we decided to publish, we kept that exact structure because the structure itself was the answer to the problem.
Why This Matters to Readers Right Now
The most significant benefit of this announcement is not the bestseller ranking; it is what the ranking signals. Readers across very different cultures—American, Italian, Brazilian, and now Spanish and French audiences—are asking for the same thing: a simple, beautiful, daily way back to prayer. Not a program. Not a system. A practice.
For Christians who want to begin the day with Jesus but feel pressed for time, overwhelmed, or stuck, The Prayer: Rise with Jesus offers a complete 30-day on-ramp. You open the book, you spend ten minutes, and you close it. By day thirty, the habit is real. We hear this in reader notes almost every day: people who had not prayed regularly in years are praying again.
There is a second benefit, and it matters to us as much as the first. Stefania does not take a dollar from this book. Neither do I. Every cent funds homeless outreach in San Francisco and ministries like the one run by Pastor Edward Mikwamba in Blantyre, Malawi, who brings more than 300 people to Christ every month. He found us through a single press release the day we announced the bestseller news and asked if we could send books for his community. We are shipping him several hundred this week. Every copy a reader buys turns into something practical: meals, shelter, and ministry in some of the places that need it most.
What Comes Next
Looking ahead, our next major step is to grow The Prayer: Rise with Jesus from a book into a global prayer movement. Three priorities are already in motion: we are expanding into additional languages beyond the current five; we are building a free companion experience at readtheprayer.com so readers can pray along each morning; and we are deepening our giving partnerships with churches and outreach organizations serving the unhoused in the Bay Area and abroad.
For an independently published Christian devotional bestseller to break through internationally is rare. We do not take it lightly. The mission from here is the same one Stefania started with in her notebook: keep the practice small enough to actually do, keep it beautiful enough to return to, and let every copy turn prayer into something practical—service, generosity, and a daily rising with Jesus.
The Prayer: Rise with Jesus is available now in English, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and French. Review copies, high-resolution images, author interviews, and bestseller documentation are available at readtheprayer.com.
