Progress Report

 Third Friday of Easter

Lectionary Texts;

Ezekiel 34:1-10

1 Peter 2:1-10

Some of you may have forgotten about The Daily Office Project or at least wondered what has happened with it. I will readily admit that progress has been slower than I anticipated. 

Some things have come together in my mind. I'm looking to make this an improvement in some ways over the Daily Offices currently in use. Here are some specific areas of improvement.

1. This is the most important. There will be a different Daily Office Morning Prayer service for each day of the year. It will truly be Daily. The initial book will be entirely Morning Prayer services, more than 365. Since the seasons of Epiphany and Pentecost vary in length, there will be services for the longest possible Epiphany and longest possible Pentecost.  Single services for other times of the day will be included.

2. There will be a Daily Office Rite 1 and a Daily Office Rite 2. The Principal difference between the two will be length. Rite 1 will be the full office. It will take about 30 minutes to pray. Rite 2 will be a shorter office. It will take about 15 minutes to pray.

3. This Daily Office will be written specifically for individual or couples use, not group use, and generally not for family use.

4. The Daily Office will include many saints days and special observances with special prayers for those days. 

5. Words for hymns will be fully written out. They may be said or sung. 

6. There will be suggestions for spiritual readings overall but not for each specific day. 

7. There will be brief interpretations of each lectionary reading. These will be in a separate section or book. 

I still have quite a lot of research to do before I begin writing anything. I will very much need your help as we go along. Specifically I will need your comments and suggestions on everything, including this post.

 

I know that some of you are still puzzled as to exactly what The Daily Office is. In next Friday's blog, I'll put out a one day example for us. 

 

I will endeavor to make every day original and insightful and to avoid the trite and trivial. I will also endeavor to explain everything I'm doing and why I'm doing it, as we go along.

 

Let's close with this prayer from the Order of St. Luke Morning Prayer service for last week:

 

Alleluia! Great God of Power and Love,

We thank you for abiding with us in Jesus through Word and Sacrament

We thank you for the joy of sharing the festal shout as we commune at his table.

In the intimacy of the spirit we plead:

    dance in your church...

    embrace the suffering...

    defend the oppressed...

    forgive the guilty...

    release the prisoner...

    guide the powerful...

    center the distracted... 

    strengthen the tempted...

    hear the needy...

    welcome the dying...

    complete what is lacking in me (us)...

    all for your love's sake. Alleluia! Amen.

Faithfully,

Christian