How to Pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer (Part 8) – Morning Prayer
After having gone through the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) order for Evening Prayer in some detail, I will now show some of the unique aspects of Morning Prayer. Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer are very similar. They both have the same four part general structure I outlined previously:
1) The Opening
2) The Psalms
3) The Readings
4) The Prayers
In fact, Parts 2 and 3 (the most lengthy parts of the Office) are nearly identical in each order.
The first difference is at the beginning. While Evening Prayer has Opening Sentences that correspond to the time of day (evening), Morning Prayer uses Opening Sentences that correspond to the season of the Church Year. This helps set the themes of that season in your mind from the very beginning of the prayer time.
The next difference is in the Opening Versicles, which here are taken from Psalm 51:15, rather than from Psalm 70:1 in Evening Prayer.
Probably the biggest difference between Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer is the hymn that follows the Opening Versicles. Evening Prayer uses the ancient Greek hymn, Phos Hilaron (O Gracious Light). Morning Prayer uses what is called an Invitatory Psalm. They are called such because the texts of the Psalms used literally “invite” the people to praise the Lord (Come, let us sing to the Lord; Be joyful in God all you lands, etc.). It serves as a “call to worship” of sorts.
The Invitatory Psalms in the BCP are Psalm 95 and Psalm 100.
The Invitatory Psalms use what are called Antiphons. Antiphons are short sentences, usually from or derived from Scripture, which are sung with a Psalm or canticle, either before and after it or as a refrain in between verses. The antiphon used with the Invitatory Psalm corresponds with the season or day in the Church Year.
Each time there is a paragraph break in the Psalm, the antiphon may be repeated as a refrain.
The Psalms in Morning Prayer are done exactly in the same manner as in Evening Prayer.
Likewise, the Readings are done in the same way, with the exception that the Suggested Canticles are different.
Suffrages set B is different than in Evening Prayer, but still works the same way.
Also, the Collects are different.
That’s it! Basically, Morning Prayer works exactly the same as Evening Prayer, just with the few differences outlined above.
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