The Daily Office is an ancient way to pray. It marks the passage of time by offering Morning and Evening Prayer as written in the Book of Common Prayer of The Episcopal Church. Each service features psalms, one or two Bible readings and prayers.
This blog version reproduces most of the content of our main site, dailyoffice.org, while enabling two features not found there: Comments and RSS feeds.
Welcome!
Greetings!
I was wondering how to activate RSS feed from this blog. I did not see any xml or atom button on the blog site to request feed activation. Any instructions?
Thanks!
Ian
Ian, There used to be a big button, but I don’t see it anymore. (My “management tools” say it’s selected and visible…
Instead what I have in my browser (Firefox) is a little orange icon in the bottom right; when I click that it gives me the choice of subscribing to RSS or Atom.
Hope this helps; I invite anyone who’s knowledgable to post more about it.
Josh,
I wanted to thank you for bringing discussion of Centering Prayer to your main Daily Office site.
I’ve been practicing CP since October last year, and will be teaching a class on it at St Helena’s Episcopal in Boerne, TX during Lent, using Thomas Keating’s “Open Mind, Open Heart.” During these few months, I’ve become absolutely convinced of the huge spiritual and psychological benefits of this when maintained as a regular practice in a chaotic and stress-filled world. It’s such a simple way to kick-start your spiritual practice, and to learn God’s first language, which is silence! My particular joy with it is the freedom from language and reason (words, words, words), to a place of simply being with God — that, right there, is a spectacular form of bliss.
Do you plan to bring a Centering Prayer thread over onto your blog, so that like-minded, CP-ing Episcopalians can share?
Sara
Sara, I’m not sure what you have in mind when you ask about bringing a Centering Prayer thread here. What do you suggest I do differently?
I am so new at it that I hesitate to even discuss it. I am no expert whatsoever, but sometimes people see me as some kind of authority. I’m not, I’m a layman from an Indiana cornfield.
I must add that I envy the people at St. Helena’s, Boerne for the opportunity to attend your class. I have “Open Mind, Open Heart,” lent to me by my pastoral counselor, but I got stuck early on when Fr. Keating talked about the guy doing the breath work who died because he forgot to keep breathing. Then he talks about some guy levitating. What?
The writer in me says that’s no way to start a book, with bizarre and scary thoughts. I know Keating is thought to be a great master, but he just lost me. Tell me about prayer, Father, what it can do for me, what I should expect, why I should try this different way of approaching the Holy One. I don’t want to levitate, I just want to get closer to God and invite him to direct my life, because he’s better at it than I am.
You can see I would probably benefit from your course! But I do have Pastor Tom, whom I’ll see again tomorrow.
By all means, please feel free to share with us what you know.
I am impressed and amazed by the faithfulness of our site visitors. They really are a wonderful bunch. Of course we’re all sinners here, but the Office sites (and some Christian/Episcopal blogs) are showing me more and more about the Family of God. Because the internet facilitates comment and conversation, I’m getting to know more real Christians than ever (and it’s not for me to judge who’s real and who’s not). If I only knew the people next to me in the pews, just think what their quiet witness might be!
I think we often feel alone—but we’re not! And it’s my failing, I suppose, that I never before realized that “the great cloud of witnesses who surround us”—the saints—live right down the street and go to my church and read the same newspaper and watch the same ballgames and pray, just like I do, maybe even “better.”
There used to be at one time such a variety of reasons that people went to church; it was expected, it was socially advantageous, it was a way to network for business reasons/money. Those reasons are gone now. The people left in the pews have all decided, have all committed themselves in some quietly dramatic way to the Carpenter’s Son. They are people I need to be with. Several have shown me in the last few hours that they are my sisters and my brothers. They have accepted me and welcomed me and cared for me; they have even protected me from attacking archbishops.
I don’t want to let them down. God has allowed me to perceive the Christ in them and man, the Christ is beautiful!
Alleluia, sing to Jesus…
Josh,
I was just interested in whether you had any thought to start a discussion thread on Centering Prayer in another area of your site (an area devoted to CP), since you had begun describing your experiences with it. But I’m sure you’re already busy enough!
I think Thomas Keating moved into his discussion of strange psychic and paranormal phenomena while he was making the case for what this kind of prayer is most definitely not. His examples were perhaps extreme but memorable foils for the definitely not odd and definitely not frightening nature of CP. I’m sorry you were put off and hope Pastor Tom helps allay your concerns.
Thanks for everything you do - I’m so glad you’re getting support from both friends and strangers at this difficult time. You certainly have mine and my prayers.
Sara
A postscript to other readers: Does anyone know of another discussion place for Episcopalians practicing and teaching Centering Prayer? I’d be grateful. I do recognize the ecumenical nature of CP, but am interested in the success or otherwise people are having introducing this predominantly Catholic practice to Episcopal circles.
Josh:
The pictures are of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, but the feast today is of Ignatius of Antioch, 2nd century martyr
Dang! You mean Google isn’t God?
I’m sorry for the mistake, thanks for pointing it out. If Google isn’t God, who does that leave us with?
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord…”
Christmas blessings on this wonderful blog and sites from a site that is attempting similar resourcing in spirituality and liturgy: http://www.liturgy.co.nz
I would be interested in exchanging links.
Not just to the main page,
but I’m developing a “Liturgy of the Hours” section at
http://www.liturgy.co.nz/ofthehours/resources.html
God bless your venture
Bosco Peters
http://www.liturgy.co.nz
Bosco: We happily add you to our links. God bless the Church in New Zealand! You have no idea how dear you are to us. We stretch out our hands across the seas to grasp your island hands in the love of Christ.
Unless I’m mistaken, I don’t see a prayer of confession in your published liturgy. I’m curious as to why you omit this.
Because, Thomas Wilson, it’s optional and not historically included. Read your rubrics.
We include the Confession daily in Lent and on Fridays during Ordinary Time and Advent. We’ll give you every chance to confess your heart out. God knows we all need it.
I am a Baptist minister and PhD student who is moving into the Episcopal Church. I have found this blog to be an important part of my daily office. Thank you for publishing the daily liturgy!
Glad to do it, J.C. Welcome to the Episcopal Church and good luck with your studies!
I noticed this in the Daily office prayers: “Begin with awareness that you are praying with others around the world; this is the Common Prayer of the Church.”
This amazing, awe-inspiring truth is what has driven me to moving toward fixed-hour prayer/daily offices. I’ve not totally arrived, but I am taking step by faltering step!
My friend Cory (www.baldmanblogging.com) first introduced me to Phyllis Tickle’s book, “The Divine Hours”.
Thanks for ministering to people who want to pray with the Church.
Dear Blended,
Phyllis Tickle has inspired a lot of people to pray the hours, so I know you’re in good company. She also writes many prayers that people find meaningful.
As for my opening line, “Begin with awareness that you are praying with others…” I’m glad it helps you. I felt a need to add that reminder to the Prayer Book Office for an internet audience. People have always prayed the Daily Office by themselves, but it’s never been a mere one-to-one event, “just me and God.” When we pray online it seems like a completely solitary experience, and yet it’s not. We can’t see the other people, but indeed we are part of the whole gathered Church as we pray.
An illustration: I went on retreat at Holy Cross Monastery last September and attended most of the monks’ services throughout the morning, afternoon and evening. They have monasteries in South Africa, Ontario, New York and California, so they’re always thinking of their brothers in those places. When it’s 7 a.m. and time for Matins in Ontario and New York, the brothers in South Africa prayed the same service six hours earlier, and the brothers in California have another three hours before they do it. But that’s just one order; at any given moment, monasteries all over the world are praying the Office; churches are praying, individuals are praying, it never stops.
So we may be praying the Office one by one in front of our computers (handhelds, mobile phones), but to God we’re one big congregation. It does help us to remember that.
The marvelous thing is that God hears us both collectively and individually, because God resides inside each one of us.
Great blog. I had a daily prayer blog up for a while, using materials from Lutheran resources, but it got shot down because of copyright issues. I will write my own form of prayer, drawing on BCP with some Lutheran influences, but I haven’t the time right now. I love that the BCP is public domain - truly COMMON prayer, not proprietary prayer.
Anyway, have you considered offering email subscriptions? RSS is pretty good, but an email list would be magnificent. You can have daily emails sent using Feedburner (www.feedburner.com). Might be difficult with the scheduling of the email delivery and making available two prayer offices, but give it a look if you can.
Thanks!
Chris,
You point out a very important point; the Book of Common Prayer has never been copyrighted. There have been times when Anglicans regretted that, but mostly we support the idea that anyone who wants to use our prayers ought to be free to do so. Prayer should be free.
I have’t thought about e-mail subscriptions. It sounds like more work, and we’ve got plenty already! But I will go to Feedburner and see what’s up. Thanks for the idea.
Josh
Thank you for all your work on this site. I wondered where the daily collects are taken from, particularly the ones that are topical (Afghanistan, etc.). Is there an official Episcopal/Anglican site with suggested collects for each day (besides the more generic ones in the BCP)?
Robert,
I write topical prayers from time to time, including the one about Afghanistan. It is not officially approved by anyone, while the rest of the service is.
For collects of the day, we incorporate those from a second official liturgical book for the Episcopal Church called “Lesser Feasts and Fasts.” There is no official book that contains 365 different collects, one for every day, although certain Episcopal monasteries (Holy Cross, for instance) have their own books which are more elaborate and suited to their needs.
Also see the Anglican Breviary at http://www.anglicanbreviary.net/
We choose to stick with the official texts for simplicity’s sake and in order to offer what is officially approved by The Episcopal Church—except for my additions!
Great question, thanks for asking. Come back and see us again.