We corresponded recently when I incorrectly attributed an icon to him. He didn’t know who wrote it.

You can see more samples of his work at aidanharticons.com.

Regularity does benefit us, though, and so does repetition. For me, the Noonday service asks God to bless us at work and help us make it through till quitting time. Compline calms and centers us, thanking God before we go to bed.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Josh

In the U.S. Prayer Book a person can memorize Noonday because in fact it doesn’t change. So the point is what to do when you find yourself thinking of God at lunchtime.

You won’t find any excitement in these services, but you will always be better for saying them. They’re very brief; you’re soon to go to lunch or you’re about to go to bed.

Evangelical visitors sometimes complain about having canned prayers; they’ve been taught that one’s own poor effusions are somehow better than written and service-tested prayers because extemporaneous praying is “from the heart” and written prayers are not. This is nonsense, unless you think that reciting the Lord’s Own Prayer is a waste of time; it is, after all, written down in Matthew and Luke. Jesus taught us how to pray by giving us a sublime text. Does repetition of it bore you, or do you recognize in it a summation of all we need to know in approaching God?

God enjoys both the canned and the spontaneous. One leads to the other; both are necessary. What the catholic religion provides in the lesser services of the Daily Office is a framework to get you started when you don’t know what to say. And it gives us a discipline, sorely lacking in those who only pray when moved “from the heart,” for engaging the Divine whether we feel like it or not.

The Daily Office is about a schedule. That’s why we say it’s a discipline. The word comes from “disciple,” you know.

When I was at General Seminary 35 years ago as a layman, the 1928 Prayer Book provided very few variations; only two services, Morning and Evening, just a one-year cycle of Psalms and Lessons, and only four approved Canticles. In evening we said the Magnificat and the Nunc every time. Same old same old? (The 1979 Book has a two-year cycle of Bible reading, a 50% increase, and far more Canticles, all of which serve to allay boredom.) And yet the effect of singing the same songs every night back then in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd only deepened my faith. The Songs of Mary and Simeon got into my body, my muscles and bones, brain and heart from repetition, so that I could begin to understand and love them.

Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace, *
according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, *
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, *
and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

I learned to love the Nunc of Simeon by singing it every night.

So if you’re bored by the repetition of great faith, it might be time to examine your attention span. Faith is not TV.

If you want scripture day by day, do Morning and Evening Prayer; if you need maximum discipleing (and don’t we all), do Midday and Compline too. The Office is about the passage of time; that is, turning frequently to God whether we feel like it or not.

It doesn’t take many hours to turn us away from God, or much effort to turn us back to the Holy One. All we have to do is mind the clock, and God will refresh our soul every time.

From this discipline comes the effusions of the heart. Neglect it and all you have are occasional impulses whenever they happen to arrive.++