This week, I’ve really been enjoying the prayer of the Daily Office. The prayer of the Daily Office is a way of marking time through prayer. You might have heard of the medieval “Book of Hours”—-that’s the daily office, in a different form. Our own prayer book contains rites of Morning and Evening prayer, and has a separate lectionary that assigns readings for each time of day, on a 2 year cycle. Some of the dietary laws in Leviticus might get left out, but in two years you make it through pretty much all of the Bible. Each day has a reading from the New Testament, the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the psalms. The readings are interspersed with canticles (songs of praise), and are read in a fixed form that includes the recitation of the Confession, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the General Thanksgiving, and other prayers for the day. As you know, last week we did Morning Prayer as it would have been celebrated when this parish opened—-this is the same service, but now it’s practiced more as personal or monastic prayer than for congregations on Sunday morning. Some congregations do it during the week, too—-maybe this parish has done that at one time or another.
The idea of the Daily Office is that, by marking the beginning and the end of the day, your time is consecrated to God. The BCP also offers prayers for noonday and bedtime (called compline), which are also very helpful. I’ve practiced it off and on (mostly on) for about five years now. I wrote in this space when I got back from a monastic retreat last year about the daily office, about what a comfort it is to practice a method of prayer that depends not one iota on my own skill or creativity.
This year, I’ve found myself comforted by the office in a different way. I’ve been struck by how each day begins entirely new, as a clean slate. As I pray the Confession and Absolution of sins, I encounter a new sense of my own forgiveness. As I read the Apostles’ Creed, I have a new sense of myself coming to believe in our faith, and feeling comforted in the tradition of belief it articulates. Each day begins with Scripture, of stories of other people who tried to get things right, like I do, and failed, and tried again, just as I do. Each day begins with the Gospel, of a new piece of “good news” (since that’s what the word “gospel” means). Another neat thing about the daily office is that, pretty much without fail, whenever you’re praying it, there’s a good chance that someone else is doing it, too. A Roman Catholic monk or an Episcopal nun or a Lutheran pastor—-in Africa, or Indiana, or even Waltham—-someone, somewhere, is praying with you. And you can do it absolutely anywhere—-on the train, in your cubicle, or in your kitchen.
You can also pray the daily office online; there are a number of sites that compile the service for you, with no shuffling of books. One such site is at http://www.missionstclare.com/, which offers it in English or Spanish.
Blessings,
Sara+
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