Our Faith Stories

Boy Scouts and adult volunteers from Honpa Hongwanj Troop 49, after painting the “new” parish hall at St. Stephen’s, Wahiawa, Hawaii, spring 2013. (Fr. Gregory Johnson)

Hands-on human touch is something that can come only from local Christian parish community. So we need to be mindful of the importance of encouraging people to find, join and participate actively in a good local church. – Tom A.

From the Vicar’s Inbox
edited for privacy

I wanted to thank you and all who give the offering of The Daily Office. I have recently started dialysis, and pray the daily office during my exchanges. Tonight I found this incredible site, and feel as if i my community has increased! God’s overwhelming Peace!

Jill M.
March 24, 2011

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Your site enables me to easily celebrate morning prayer every weekday morning with others at St. Peter’s, where my wife and I are members. Being disabled, I am not always able to make it to church every weekday morning, but I always try to deliver, via email, a pre-formatted AM prayer service that those attending can use.

Ours is an “older” congregation. My wife and I are considered the “kids”, and we’re over 60 years old! Flipping through the BCP, and the Bible is tough for some of the elderly, so being able to put together an entire AM prayer service on 6 – 8 printed pages follows your example of “simplification”. As soon as I started doing this over a year ago, our attendance at weekday morning prayer increased. All anyone has to do is just “show up”. Couldn’t get much easier than that, and I remain extremely grateful to you for that.

Being a veteran, I also appreciate “They Have Names” on Tuesdays. Goes hand-in-hand with Tuesday’s collect for Peace. Thank you very much.

Clint G.
March 25, 2011

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From a Sermon for All Saints’ Sunday
Trinity Church, Shelburne, Vermont
November 6, 2011

There’s a man up in Lafayette, Indiana, named Josh Thomas. He’s a captain in the Church Army. For us Anglicans that’s a sort of cross between the Salvation Army and a monastic order.

I know Josh via the internet. He runs a web site dedicated to helping people throughout the world say daily offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, as provided by the Book of Common Prayer. All you have to do to say the office is to open up his web site and start reading. It’s all there for each day of the church year.

Josh has been doing this now for seven years and he has thousands of people – worldwide – reading the office from his site. It’s his mission in life.

(snip)

Some of you may not be familiar with the daily offices, with Morning and Evening Prayer as found in the prayer book. They consist of lessons from holy scripture, canticles (biblical songs) and prayers. They use a two year cycle of readings that cover all of the New Testament and a great deal of the Old.

Clergy have traditionally been expected to say the daily office for at least three reasons: first, to be offering a constant chorus of worship to God; second, to be formed by reading and meditating on the lessons and prayers; and, third, to be united one to the other as a body of servants of the church.

Lay people, however, can join in this chorus. And, in particular, I suggest that at least some of you should take up the habit, or perhaps just part of it, just one lesson and some prayers each day – for the reasons I have already mentioned.

But today I want to emphasize the second reason – the habitual reading of scripture and meditating on it is a means of filling our imaginations and minds in such a way as to guide into ordinary sanctity, into ordinary seeking to do the will of God.

I recommend that some of you look on the internet at Josh Thomas’s web site. Its internet address is very direct and simple. It’s dailyoffice.org. dailyoffice – one word – dot, org. And I pray that some of you join in Josh’s worldwide community of daily office sayers.

The Rev. Warner White

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Thank you very much for your collection of recovery-related prayers.

I was only looking for the Daily Office online when I discovered your blog- but, as a recovering addict, was delighted to find these prayers too!

What a blessing! Thank you for your mission and your ministry.

Micheal S.
November 11, 2011

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I make use of https://dailyoffice.wordpress.com for the daily office. It is very user-friendly.

Ginny
The Rev. Canon Ginny Rex Day
Diocese of Bethlehem, retired
November 26, 2011

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Thanks for gift of The Daily Office.org. I use your site to read morning prayer and appreciate its use of Holy Women and Holy Men, and the inclusion of various bits and pieces from around the Church – as well as knowing that I am reading this with others, even if I am myself alone. Thank you – You are a gift!

Thanks too for the opportunity to share in the ministry through your capital campaign. I just contributed on paypal.

Blessings for this transition and for the growth these changes will bring!

Mary Gray-Reeves
Bishop of El Camino Real
January 17, 2012

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Kudos to the Subdeacon in charge of artwork. The selections illustrating each day’s Daily Office are always interesting, usually quite enlightening, and sometimes riveting and thought-provoking. You’re doing something right (again).

Many thanx,

Mike
January 18, 2012

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When I first decided to pray some of daily offices in June of this year, I found three websites that offered the offices from the Book of Common Prayer. (I preferred using the websites over the prayer book for the convenience of having the readings and collects pulled in for me).

Each of them had features I liked, so I spent time using each. I’ve ultimately settled on using the Daily Office site because it is the only one where I truly feel part of a community. I really appreciate the connection aspect from being part of the Facebook page. Once I subscribed to receive e-mails, the frequency of which I “found” time for evening prayer has increased. I had been fairly consistent with morning prayer and compline prior to that.

Thank you for providing this service and I look forward to its evolution.

Blessings,

Mary-Elise
January 18, 2012

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With joy and gratitude, I just donated to the Daily Office via Paypal. Thank you for your wonderful ministry! As a priest with 3 young children, I am constantly trying to balance the demanding realities of family life and ministry with the necessity for daily prayer. Your emails to me of Morning and Evening Prayer have greatly increased my ability to pray the office and to feel part of an extended praying community. It feels like I have a personal Chaplain who has taken the time to prepare the service by selecting canticles and collects appropriate to the day. The emails come straight to my smart phone, so I am able to pray the offices almost anywhere, and I have done so!

Julie+
Diocese of Los Angeles
January 19, 2012

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I am very thankful for the office bring available every day in this form that is so easy to use. You have blessed me in many ways. Just wanted to say THANKS.

Carolyn
January 20, 2012

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Each morning I boot up my computer and share in this manner of Morning Prayer with my virtual community. Thank you for providing this. If I need to read the gospel then I just pick up my Daily Office book and read it. It’s easy enough to look up. Thanks for the nudge about Evening Prayer.

With gratitude for the service you provide,

Debra
January 20, 2012

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Thank you for including today’s Gospel and for your explanation.

Keep up the good work our faithful brother: in you we are well pleased.

In Christ,
Ann, Interim Rector
January 20, 2012

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I am not really a blogger or facebooker, etc. but I did want you to know how much I appreciate getting the daily office in my email everyday. I had taken on the discipline of morning and evening prayer but was having a hard time putting it together, finding the right readings, etc. Your email puts me in the groove each day and I am so thankful for it.

**By way of letting you know who reads and subscribes to your website….I am the wife of 40 years of a former Roman Catholic priest….both of us Episcopal and my husband a priest in the Newark Diocese for 40 years.

Susan
January 24, 2012

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I admire what you’ve done at dailyoffice.org, and I know it has required enormous labors to build and maintain; bless you for that, I’m sure a great many people find it very helpful. I don’t check it every day or every week but it’s awfully nice to turn to when I do have occasion to use it.

I call myself an Episcopalian-on-hold. I’m living in a seceded diocese here in a rural, homophobic Texas county, so even the comfort of the Eucharist is denied me. It’s not that I couldn’t go to the local parish church and receive it; but I refuse to support even with my mere presence any outfit that is allied with the murderous forces of evil in places like Uganda and Nigeria. Which has been hard, but I get along on my own and God knows where I live; we talk every day.

Russ
March 2, 2012

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Thanks for the amazing flower pictures. I reposted one on Pinterest, and have had about 200 folks “like” it.

You guys are amazing in bringing the beauty and the pain of the world to us each day. I’m in year 4 of regular reading–I travel a lot, and having the Office available on my laptop is so helpful.

Martha
March 22, 2012

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I am an Episcopalian born and raised from the Philippines and it was good to learn more about Bp. Charles Henry Brent. Enjoyed the attached pictures that go along with the readings or prayers.

Jolly
March 27, 2012

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have so been enjoying your homemade advent prayers.
thanks for all you are & all you do!

advent blessings —

mary beth
December 14, 2012

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Thanks for adding the lovely photo of the verger, Luke [the Vicar’s dog], today. I really love the feeling you give to the website that makes it feel as if we are all together, even though miles and miles apart. Adding Luke just made it all that more personal.

As I said the lovely prayer for the animals this morning, I had around me my two cavalier dogs and two cats beside me so I could pray that prayer with them. It has made my day.

Thanks so much once again for this wonderful website and I cannot fully express what it means to me each day and evening.

God is blessing you richly.

Jan
Melbourne, Australia
February 7, 2013

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We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your wonderful work with the Daily Office West.  We read it as a family every morning and it is such a light and anchor to our souls.

If you are ever in NYC we’d love to meet you.  Do you have any plans to come out here?  We attend St Thomas on 5th Ave, perhaps we could attend a service and then have a bite to eat together.

Ira, Andrea, and Rye
February 14, 2013

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I travel for business and today, Palm Sunday, am home with a bad cold. My loyal Episcopal cats, Gilda and DC and I pray with you each day. Our gratitude abounds. Blessings, peace and joy!!

Patricia
March 24, 2013

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I visit your site daily and find it wonderful. Thanks for the ministry. I even found the Eastern site when I was in Afghanistan – yeah!

Lisa+
Major the Reverend
Canadian Armed Forces Chaplaincy
April 20, 2013

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Your emphasis on developing a community of prayerful people sounds a lot like the kind of things Justin Welby has been saying in recent statements and sermons.

One very important thing that I think we need to keep in mind:  Dailyoffice.org is not an adequate substitute for a local parish church where one can go to receive the sacraments and be part of a living Christian community. I appreciated very much being part of the dailyoffice.org prayer list as I was preparing for my surgery, while I was in hospital, etc. But two live lay people from St. Peter’s Erindale spent the day of my surgery with J–, and one of them spent almost as much time with me in hospital as J– did. And one of our parish priests brought me communion when I was unable to go to church the Sunday after I got out of hospital. That kind of hands-on human touch is something that can come only from local Christian parish community. So we need to be mindful of the importance of encouraging people to find, join and participate actively in a good local church.Tom A.
Toronto
August 9, 2013***We had our first Episcopal Church booth at Ventura Co. Pride in CA this year and many churches were present or represented across Ventura, LA and Santa Barbara Counties. A bit of goofy fun and majorly sharing God’s love to the hurting.Peace,
Melissa Campbell-Langdell+
All Santos, Oxnard, CA
August 25, 2013

Ventura County Pride, 8.24.13

Dear Vicar,

God’s Peace and blessings to you.  As St. Aidan’s Feast Day is coming up this Saturday, I thought I’d pass along a miniature icon that I did of St. Aidan a while back.  It is part of a celtic triptych I did of Sts. Brendan, Columba, and Aidan.  The two smaller icons of the triptych (of which Aidan is one) are only 2.5″ x 4″ in size.  Attached are jpgs of Aidan and the full triptych if you’d like to use them for Saturday.  Thanks for the great ministry you provide.  God’s Peace.

Silentio Coram Deo,

Br. Kenneth Hosley, O.P.C.

Order of St. Anthony the Great

St. Aidan, part of the Celtic Triptych by Br. Kenneth Hosley, OPC

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Thanks for the reflection about the church in Wahiawa, Hawaii. I grew up in that Diocese, my parish was St. Andrew’s Cathedral. My husband, sons and I spent another 28 years in ministry in the Diocese until he was called to Missouri. I thank God for years and years in the middle of the Pacific ocean amongst diverse cultures and peoples, and for the opportunity to experience the beauty of creation that is uniquely the Hawaiian Islands.

Beverly

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Thanks – I got to meet a modern day Saint who was imprisoned in China in solitary confinement for 7 years, he kept his sanity by reciting, as best he could the Divine Office.

Liza Rhodes-Reese
September 19, 2013

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Just a quick note of thanks for your site! I come to it often as well as your Facebook page and I’m just so thankful for what you all do.

I really  need to start interacting with the folks here (as you’ve recommended on your About page) because as someone who is committed to the Daily Office, it can be lonely sometimes. I am a bit of an evangelist for The Daily Office for folks because I’ve seen the effect it has made in my life as well as others. Spending time God in this way is transforming!

Tim
Charlottesville, Virginia
October 29, 2013

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First of all, may 2014 be a good year for you.

This is an excellent website and you are really doing Anglicans (and not just Anglicans) the world over a real service by giving us the Daily Office online. And the photographs and music are marvellous.

A wonderful, welcoming website.

Jane Smith
Pretoria, South Africa

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All the photos, videos and stories add interest and variety to daily prayer and open our eyes to see that we are part of a greater community in the world today and throughout history. Wonderful! One of the recent references I looked up later and really liked was the story about the banner art in the SF cathedral. Very nice.

Cara
Woodland Hills, CA
1/20/14

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Watched and listened to Video Evening Prayer on Saturday Evening. Lovely service, Josh. And glad you liked my Abide with Me suggestion. And, I was quite touched that we are such a close congregation that immediately when you mentioned “clouds” Gwen said it was too bad I wasn’t there. We really know and love each other; we are a real congregation, not a virtual congregation, and we are real friends, not just cyber friends. I also loved seeing Yvonne so lost in the music. It must’ve been especially poignant for her, having just returned from Lafayette’s memorial service. I love you all. And would’ve been with you, but I was having fellowship with my other congregation.

Katrina
Orange County, CA
3/22/15

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I found that website around 2009, when I was working overnight shifts as a chaplain here in Chicago. I found I could pray through the evening prayers Josh posted, center myself in just a few minutes, and then be ready to go—for whatever was needed. Could be a patient actively dying in ICU, a page from the Emergency Department, or a critical call from Labor and Delivery. (Those were just about the worst. Never a good emergency page from L & D.)

Chaplain Eliza
matterofprayerblog.wordpress.com
Morton Grove, IL
8/2/15

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Praying the Daily Office using your excellent format and amazingly informative resourses is a delight.

Freda Iverson
5/21/16