Four of us met this morning in the chapel at St. Thomas for Morning Prayer and a conversation about the practice of the Daily Office.
The structure of the Office is bewildering at first, so we started with bookmarks so that we could all find the Daily Office lectionary, the Collects, the psalms, the table of canticles, and all the other material that the Office requires.
As we prayed through a sort of "Instructed Morning Prayer," we talked a bit about the shape of the Office:
The Invitatory and Psalter
The Lessons
The Prayers
All the page-turning back and forth through the Book of Common Prayer can obscure that relatively simple pattern -- praying psalms, reading portions of Scripture and responding with canticles, and praying the three Collects that give the flavor of each specific day.
Handouts and discussion may have helped; we'll see what everyone's experience is as they try Morning Prayer on their own this week.
Here's to the three plucky members of the Daily Office Support Group who are diving in to this new practice!
1 comment:
There is a real design challenge, though it is based on ecclesiastical -- even doctrinal -- issues. It's a direct result of having alternatives (traditional vs contemporary language, four versions of the Eucharistic prayer, at least three rites, depending on how you count those, etc.)
See the Lutheran prayer book both to see a more integrated graphic design approach and what might be possible if you had fewer alternatives. But then, that's not Anglican, is it?
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