I generally tend to espouse the philosophy that time is an illusion, for strictly pragmatic reasons -- namely, if I can convince everyone around me that time is an illusion then it won't matter so much that I can't keep a schedule. For this reason, my attempts to adopt the habit of praying the daily office have generally not been successful.
But I'm giving it another try.
I recently picked up the Glenstal Book of Prayer which has morning and evening prayers for each day of the week and fairly short "prayer stops" for mid-morning, noon, afternoon and compline. Five days in I'm doing well. Having a simple book with psalms and scripture readings inline helps a lot.
How does anyone find their way through the Book of Common Prayer?
Thursday, September 21, 2006
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4 comments:
I like the Glenstal book. It is simple, straightforward. I use the "prayer stops" sometimes during the day.
As far as the BCP, I couldn't really navigate it until seminary, where I took all my liturgy courses from Anglican profs. I think Derek posted a primer on MP/EP somewhere that might help.
That is a nice little prayer book. There are other simple offices available. Celebrating Common Prayer is an Anglican version that I've used occasionally. I also have something called The Little Book of Hours published by the Community of Jesus - an ecumenical Benedictine-style community on Cape Cod.
Of course, for me the problem is really about setting aside regular time for prayer rather than sticking with a particular practice.
P.S. Why doesn't the ELCA publish some kind of easy-to-use breviary. There are orders for MP and EP in the LBW (and, I assume, in the new hymnal). Surely there would be some interest in that sort of thing.
I wonder if Luther's disdain for the daily office is still with us at some level.
Andy and Lee,
You might try Philip Pfatteicher's Daily Prayer of the Church for a Lutheran office which is contained in one book. You need to look up the Scripture readings, but everything else is contained in the book.
http://www.lutheranupress.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=49
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