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,…
Following yesterday’s post, and the helpful comment, I thought (in the digital practice of “Throwback Thursday” but for Year B rather than C) to adapt a previous blog post. The church’s new year begins on Advent Sunday, December 3. In the three year lectionary, the focus is on St Mark’s Gospel. In your community, and
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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I pray Daily Prayer. It is also called the Divine Office, the Breviary, the Liturgy of the Hours, Morning and Evening Prayer, Matins and Evensong, and Compline, Lauds, Vespers, and so on and so on… This discipline of praying psalms, reading a passage(s) from the scriptures, and interceding and giving thanks… this discipline that is
The Brief Rule of St. Romuald (b. 953 – d. June 19, 1027) Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms – never leave it. If you have
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I have written previously that intense prayer, reflection, and action in regard to our relationship with the environment are needed now more than ever. Revival of re-imaged, contemporary, contextual Rogation practices could be part of that. Rogation (from the Latin rogare ‘ask’) is a solemn supplication. Rogation days appear to go back to about the
October 7 was the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and October is, traditionally, the month of the Rosary. The 150 recitations of the Hail Mary was, obviously, connected to the monastic praying of the 150 psalms (especially for those without books or who could not read). The recent addition of another 50 Hail
God has no gender. The Persons of the Holy Trinity have no gender. The Christian tradition of praying to the First Person, in and through the Second Person, in the unity and power of the Third Person of the Trinity is able to be done in a gender-inclusive way; even in a complementary-language way. This
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Many people focus on creation during the month of September – a “creation season” concluding on the feast of St Francis on October 4. By this is not meant some tiresome, month-long preaching against evolution, but an examination of how we humans live within this created world, and a recommitment to living appropriately, as God
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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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