Fifth Friday of Lent
Lectionary Texts:
Philippians 3:4-11
John 12:27-33
So far I have received six responses from readers who are interested in The Daily Office project. I would like to have at least four more. In addition to email or the Comments section, you can text me at 919-932-0114.
The Daily Office is also known as The Book of Hours. The cover title for my Order of St. Luke Daily Office prayer books reads: (1st line) THE DAILY OFFICE, (2d line) A Book of Hours for Daily Prayer.
The Daily Office is a set of prayers, with some propers, some ordinaries, for different hours of the day. True contemplatives, i.e. folks whose vocation is a life of prayer, pray all the hours each day. I rarely get more than Morning Prayer. Most commonly prayed are Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. The complete list of hours is:
Evening Prayer (Vespers or Evensong)
Compline (Night Prayer)
Vigil (Mid-Night Matins)
Morning Prayer (Lauds)
Mid-morning Prayer (Terce)
Mid-Day Prayer (Sext)
Mid-Afternoon Prayer (None)
The Daily Office was created by St. Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century AD for the Holy Order he founded. The Daily Office is prayed in Western Churches (Catholic and Anglican). The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) contains a version of The Daily Office. There are a number of other Daily Offices out there. In the late 20th centuries, as Protestant fear of Catholicism has diminished, there has been more and more Protestant interest in The Daily Office. In 2010, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Christian Radicals was published. It contains only Morning Prayer. To my knowledge it is the first Protestant and Catholic Daily Offfice. Other Daily offices have been published by the late Phyllis Tickle (Episcopal), entitled The Book of Hours, and another by the Northumbria Community (Celtic). If I pursue this project, I will do more research on and prayer in other Daily Offices.
Here is an outline of the O.S.L. Morning Prayer service:
Call to Praise and Prayer
Hymn (may be sung or read)
Prayer for the Morning
Invitatory and Psalter
Gloria
Scripture Readings (Lectionary)
Canticle of Zechariah
Readings for Meditation and Reflection (Spiritual Readings)
Silent Prayer and Selected Prayers
Collects
Concluding Collect
The Lord's Prayer
Hymn
Blessing
The service normally takes about 15-20 minutes.
The word Collect refers to collected prayers touching on different subjects. The term is a little misleading. It is a brief prayer, and sometimes on just one subject.
I'm not sure why I'm feeling led to start this project. I don't expect it to be published. There won't be a timeline. We're just in the thinking and praying process now.
God of the Hours,
Teach us to pray.
In the name of Jesus, who taught his disciples to pray like this, "Our Father,..."
Amen.
Faithfully,
Christian
1 comment:
I always wondered why they called something in the service the Collect. I thought the offering was the collect - it has the collection plates and you're collecting something. Perhaps, in a child's mind, Jesus has collections? Like stamps or toy trains?
I love the Daily Office project! Protestants could stand to do more contemplative things. I hope you can introduce Protestant Prayer Beads into this. Kristen Vincent https://www.kristenevincent.com/ writes books, leads retreats and does lots of videos on using prayer beads among other things. My mom is leading a Lenten Spiritual Group for her church, and we did prayer beads this week. They are a lot of fun. A good way to focus on something concrete to make it easier to settle into contemplation.
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