Inwardly Digest: The Prayer Book as Guide to a Spiritual Life by Derek Olsen I am delighted to review this wonderful book. For two reasons. One. I think there is something really precious in cradle-to-grave common prayer – the distilled traditions of daily prayer, a disciplined reading of the scriptures, the centrality of the Eucharist,…
I am passionate about Daily Prayer – using the Bible, particularly the Psalms, as a disciplined way of praying. If the Eucharist is the jewel in the crown – then Daily Prayer is its setting. From a scholarly point of view, there is the ‘cathedral’ tradition – a people’s office (another name for Daily Prayer),
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Yesterday, I was delighted to receive a tweet from Assistant Professor of Theology and Culture, David Taylor (Fuller Theological Seminary). He encouraged me to look at his his short film (above) documenting the friendship between Bono (of the band U2) and Eugene Peterson (author of contemporary-language Bible translation The Message) revolving around their common interest
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The Psalms form a sort of alphabet or primary vocabulary of our spiritual life. In them, we can find emotions from joy, through gratitude, to doubt, and despair. We can see them expressing different aspects of our spiritual journey. And we can use them to express our relationship with God. The Psalms are prayed daily
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Benedictine Daily Prayer: A Short Breviary by the Monks of Saint John’s Abbey (Author), Maxwell E. Johnson (Editor) Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota (2005; second edition 2015) 2088 pages; 6.2 x 4.4 x 1.9 inches; 5 ribbons included. I have been using Benedictine Daily Prayer (2005) for years now. Alongside Lauds (2 psalms & I then
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The Ecumenical Grail Psalter Paperback by Conception Abbey The Grail Psalter was published in 1963 – the translation was an attempt to replicate some of the rhythms of Hebrew poetry (found in the Psalms) into the English translation. This was revised in 1983 to make the translation more inclusive horizontally (that is, with reference to
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I was recently in an (Christian group) online discussion where one person said (wrote) “no one reads Psalms”. I was caught up short. That is the very opposite of my own personal experience. OK, occasionally I am caught out, and I don’t feel guilty about that, but normally my day begins with Morning Prayer with
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In a recent comment in response to the Old Testament not being used during the Easter Season, there was a pointing to the plenty of psalms in the lectionary. This made me wonder – how do different individuals and communities understand the psalms? Do you think of the psalms as readings? Certainly, the psalms (for
