The following is from Bernard of Clairvaux’s 18th Sermon on the Song of Songs.

The man who is wise, therefore, will see his life as more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives; the reservoir retains the water till it is filled, then discharges the overflow without loss to itself. He knows that a curse is on the man who allows his own property to degenerate. And if you think my opinion worthless, then listen to one who is wiser than I: “The fool,” said Solomon, “comes out with all his feelings at once, but the wise man subdues and restrains them.” Today there are many in the Church who act like canals, the reservoirs are far too rare. So urgent is the charity of those through whom the streams of heavenly doctrine flow to us, that they want to pour it forth before they have been filled; they are more ready to speak than to listen, impatient to teach what they have not grasped, and full of presumption to govern others while they know not how to govern themselves.

I am convinced that no degree of the charity that leads to salvation may be preferred to that suggested by the Wise Man: “Have pity on your own soul, pleasing God.” If I have but a little oil, sufficient for my own anointing, do you suppose I should give it to you and be left with nothing? I am keeping it for myself, utterly unwilling to proffer it to anyone except at the Prophet’s bidding. And should any of you, thinking me to be better than I seem or than my words suggest, insist on asking for it, here is my answer to him: “There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves.” But charity, you reply, does not seek what is its own. And do you know why? It does not seek what is its own precisely because it has it. Who seeks for what he possesses? Charity never lacks what is her own, all that she needs for her own security. Not alone does she have it, she abounds with it. She wants this abundance for herself that she may share it with all; and she reserves enough for herself so that she disappoints nobody. For charity is perfect only when full.

4. But you, my brother, your salvation is not yet assured; your charity as yet is either non-existent or so meager and reed-like that it bends with every breeze, puts its trust in every spirit, and is carried along by every wind of doctrine; or it is so great that you transcend the limits of the commandment by loving your neighbor more than yourself, or yet again so unsound that, contrary to the commandment, it bows to flattery, flinches under fear, is upset by sadness, shriveled by avarice, entangled by ambition, disquieted by suspicions, tormented by insults, exhausted by anxieties, puffed up by honors, consumed by envy. If you discover this chaos in your own interior, what madness drives you to insinuate yourself into other people’s business? But listen to what a prudent and vigilant charity advises: “This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves: it is a question of balancing.” “Do not be over-virtuous.” It is enough that you love your neighbor as yourself; this is the balancing to which the Apostle refers. David says: “My soul will feast most richly, on my lips a song of joy and, in my mouth, praise.” To preclude a mere empty yawning, he wishes that infusion should precede the effusion, an infusion to the fullest capacity that gushes out. In this he shows prudence, his relieving of others does not embarrass himself; and he has a right intention, since he imitates him of whose fullness we have all received. You too must learn to await this fullness before pouring out your gifts, do not try to be more generous than God. The reservoir resembles the fountain that runs to form a stream or spreads to form a pool only when its own waters are brimming over. The reservoir is not ashamed to be no more lavish than the spring that fills it. And so, he who is the primal Fountain of life, full in himself and filled with himself, gushed forth and danced into the secret places of the heavens about him, to fill them all with his favors. And having endowed these remotest heights and recesses, he burst upon our earth, saving men and beasts through his munificence, multiplying his mercies everywhere. When he had first filled up the secret places, his teeming mercies billowed over; they poured upon the earth and drenched it, to multiply its riches. You must imitate this process. First be filled, and then control the outpouring. The charity that is benign and prudent does not flow outwards until it abounds within. “My son,” said Solomon, “do not let yourself drift away.” And the Apostle says: “We ought then to turn our minds more attentively than before to what we have been taught, so that we do not drift away.” See what is involved here. Are you holier than Paul, wiser than Solomon? Besides, I cannot see myself being enriched by your wasting of your powers. For if you are mean to yourself, to whom will you be good? Help me out of your abundance if you have it; if not, then spare yourself the trouble.

5. But I wish to remind you now of the principles necessary for our salvation and how to apply them, the truths that must be infused into us and their order of importance, before we can presume to pour ourselves out. Circumstances oblige me to be as brief as possible, for the time’s quick passage demands that I bring this sermon to a close. Just as a doctor comes to a wounded man, so the Holy Spirit comes to the soul. Is it possible to find any person whom the devil’s sword does not wound, even after the wound of original sin has been healed by the medicine of baptism? Therefore, when the Spirit draws near to a soul that says: “My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness,” what is the first thing he should do? Before all else he must amputate the ulcerous tumor that has grown upon the wound and prevents its healing. This ulcer, caused by inveterate bad habits, must be sliced away with the scalpel of piercing sorrow. The pain will be bitter, but it can be alleviated with the ointment of devotion which is nothing other than the joy born of the hope of pardon. This in turn springs from the power of self-control, from victory over sin. Soon the victor is pouring out words of thanks: “You have loosed my bonds, I will offer you the thanksgiving sacrifice.” He then applies the medicine of penance, a poultice of fastings, vigils, prayers, and other tasks that penitents perform. And as he toils he must be fed with the food of good works that he may not falter. We are not left in doubt about what the necessary food is: “My food,” said Christ, “is to do the will of my Father.” Hence works motivated by love, that are a sure source of strength, should accompany the performance of penances. For instance it is said: “Alms is a most effective offering for all those who give it in the presence of the Most High.” Food causes thirst, therefore one must drink, so let the food of good works be moistened with the beverage of prayer, that a work well done may rest quietly in the stomach of conscience and give pleasure to God. In prayer one drinks the wine that gladdens a man’s heart, the intoxicating wine of the Spirit that downs all memory of the pleasures of the flesh. It drenches anew the arid recesses of the conscience, stimulates digestion of the meats of good works, fills the faculties of the soul with a robust faith, a solid hope, a love that is living and true; it enriches all the actions of our life.

6. The sick man has had his food and drink; what should he do now but take his ease and let the sweat of his labors dry while he enjoys the quiet of contemplation? Falling asleep in the midst of his prayer he dreams of God; what he sees is a dim reflection in a mirror, not a vision face to face. However, although it be but a vague apprehension and not an actual vision, a fleeting glimpse of the sparkling glory as it passes, utterly delicate in its impact, yet he burns with love and says: “At night my soul longs for you and my spirit in me seeks for you.” A love like this is full of zeal; it is a love becoming the Bridegroom’s friend, the love that must inspire the faithful and prudent servant whom the Lord appoints over his household. It fills the soul’s capacity, grows heated and brims over, gushing with abandon into streamlets. This is the love that cries out: “Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is scandalized and I am not inflamed?” Let such a man preach, let him bear fruit, let him show new signs and do fresh wonders, for vanity can find no toehold in the man whom charity totally possesses. A total love is the law in all its fullness, it can effectively fill the heart’s capacity. Finally God himself is love, and nothing created can satisfy the man who is made to the image of God, except the God who is love, who alone is above all created natures. The man who has not yet attained to this love is promoted to office at the gravest risk to himself, no matter how distinguished he be with other virtues. Even if he knows everything, if he gives all his goods to the poor and lets his body be taken for burning, without charity he is worthless. See how precious the graces that must first be infused, so that when we venture to pour them out we may dispense them from a spirit that is filled rather than impoverished. We need first of all compunction of heart, then fervor of spirit; thirdly, the labor of penance; fourthly, works of charity; fifthly, zeal for prayer; sixthly, leisure for contemplation; seventhly, love in all its fullness. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, accomplished by the process called infusion; and, in so far as it has taken place those services called effusion can be truly and hence safely performed to the praise and glory of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the same Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Related posts

• Will You Forget Me Forever? (1)
• The Practicality of Theology (0)
• The Great Litany (part I) (0)
• Teach Us How to Pray (1)
• Opposition to Pre-Written Prayers Comes From the Spirit of the Age (Developing a Consistent Prayer Life Part 2) (3)

The CD is entitled “Alina” and is a five track disc with two of Pärt’s works, repeated interlocking each other (Spiegel im Spiegel three times, Fur Alina twice). Each time a piece is repeated it is an entirely different performance played with different nuances. The end result is work of exquisite beauty and simplicity. As I’ve listened to it at home, I feel such a stillness in my soul, an ability to dial down and connect with God. To me it is by far and away, the best CD for prayer/meditation/soaking I’ve ever heard.

The album cover below is linked to its respective page on Amazon.com for more info.

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Among Evangelical and Charismatic Christians, reactions to liturgical aspects of worship and prayer vary greatly from intrigue, to delight, to bewilderment, to straight up scoffing. This series will attempt to explain some of the reasons behind liturgical prayer aimed at people with little or no (positive) experience with it, though ideally it will also be an encouragement to those already versed in such tradition. I will give lists of reasons for various aspects with (hopefully) brief explanations. Today we’ll look at written prayers, pre-written prayers that is. Many people have a hard time seeing why someone would ever want to repeat pre-written prayers as a part or even a significant part of one’s devotional life. Here’s a few thoughts, though by no means exhaustive:

1) They teach us how to pray – most people learned to write by copying letters printed in a book, or even tracing over them. We learned math by repeating “times tables” over and over until they were automatic. Using written prayers works in the same way. We “trace over” the prayers of the Saints, and over time, they become a part of us.

2) They “prime the pump” – written prayers solve the dilemma of what to say while praying. Instead staring off into space or daydreaming during our prayer time, we can “prime the pump” using written prayers to get us started.

3) They remind us what “we ought to pray” – when left to our own devices we could easily pray only for that which immediately concerns us, kind of like a “tyranny of the urgent,” only in prayer. As C.S. Lewis says, “The crisis of the present moment will always loom largest. Isn’t there a danger that our great, permanent, objective necessities—often more important—may get crowded out?”

4) They infuse our prayer life with rich biblical and theological content – My own spontaneous prayer can only possibly be filled with whatever biblical content I have in retrievable memory and am able to string together into coherent sentences on the fly. On my own, lets count on that being rather limited and as C.S. Lewis remarked, in danger of quickly dispersing into “wide and shallow puddles.” Written prayers make instantly accessible a rich depth of content in prayer without requiring the least bit of ingenuity on my part.

5) They connect us to the wider church, both geographically and historically – I can pray in unity with believers all over the world and throughout history by praying the same words with them.

6) They are time-tested – of course not all are, but many written prayers in historic liturgies are over a thousand years old. These have stuck around for reasons that are well worth exploring.

7) They are short and stay focused – this helps people engage with them over against the rambling or “stream-of-consciousness” praying that so often occurs when one person prays for a long time. So many topics are covered in no organized or coherent fashion that it is nearly impossible to stay connected. The other people attempting to pray often zone out because they can’t keep track of what is going on. Written prayers are shorter and to the point. They are unified around a coherent theme and with a specific objective. This helps either an individual or a group connect and agree with them.

8 ) They spare us from narcissism (i.e., idolatrous idiosyncrasy) – we naturally gravitate around our pet doctrines, ideas, passions, and concerns. We are certainly entitled to them. However, when we only entertain and accept our own premises, we are moving into dangerous ground. If prayer only bears the mark of my uniqueness, it may keep me locked up in the bubble of that same uniqueness. Written prayers call us out beyond the confines of our limited understanding and perspective, to a participation in the thoughts, issues and concerns of the wider church.

9) They are easy and accessible – no spiritual acumen is needed, no special experience, talents, gifts, anointings, or education, simply the ability to read. You can be a complete novice in prayer, or a veteran believer who is overwhelmed with frustration concerning their prayer life, and instantly access an incredibly rich prayer life. Written prayers are for everyone and accessible immediately.

10) They are unifying – Because they are so easy and accessible, they can be immediately unifying for people of all different “levels” in experience of prayer. Everyone is on an equal playing field. There are no “prayer experts” who must lead the way as the “novices” sit in befuddled silence. All engage, all participate, all are one.

11) They help us relax – It is remarkable how much anxiety people have about what and how they pray and worship, especially in public. With written prayers, all you have to do is say the words that are already given to you, with no other expectations. In other words you can spend less time worrying about what you are going to say, what other people are going to think about it, how to have a really good prayer, etc., and focus your energy on actually praying and connecting with God.

12) They teach us grace – this is ironic considering the frequent accusations of written prayers being stiff and “religious.” Written prayers teach us that prayer is about God and not about our effort. Many people try so hard to have a prayer life and feel so defeated. The Church’s treasury of written and liturgical prayer is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. It is sheer grace that we can have such an easy entry-point into prayer of unspeakable wealth and depth. Thus prayer is not so much about how disciplined, spiritual, discerning, passionate, contemplative, etc. we are – it is about God’s grace freely given to us who are in such desperate need.

I think in conclusion it is more than appropriate to end with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, who pours out on all who desire it the spirit of grace and of supplication:  Deliver us, when we draw near to you, from coldness of heart and wanderings of mind, that with steadfast thoughts and kindled affections we may worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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• My Personal Prayer Action Plan (Developing a Consistent Prayer Life Part 3) (0)

My apologies – I meant to say, “how to develop an easy, consistent, diverse, deep, rich in content, broadly-biblical, non-idiosyncratic, Christ-centered, historically-rooted, well-rounded, manageable and profoundly moving prayer life,” but thought that title was at the same time unwieldy and immediately open to the charge of being outside the realm of possibility for the majority of normal Christians. Furthermore, if I said all those objectives (minus the “profoundly moving” part – that’s a little more involved) were achievable in less than a week’s time, I would fear my credibility to be even more so depreciated. Thus, the title to this post should be “How to establish an easy, consistent, diverse, deep, rich in content, broadly-biblical,  non-idiosyncratic, Christ-centered, historically-rooted, well-rounded, manageable and profoundly moving prayer life in less than one week** (**although the deeply moving may take some more time),” but for now, we’ll settle with the title “as-is.”

I’ve been heavily involved in the Prayer Movement for about 10 years and have worked at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City full-time for over five years, where our central (though not only) focus as a ministry is spending lots of time in prayer (we host prayer meetings 24/7 with attendance that never drops below 100), and equipping others to do the same. Yet I find it remarkable (though not really — I’ll explain why shortly), how frequently I talk to people here who do not pray that much. Yes, they read Christian books. Yes, they open the Bible periodically. Yes, they sing songs, sometimes with exuberance. Yes, they listen to sermons. Yes, they exhort others with reference to the value of prayer. But actually pray?

The surprising frequency with which people actually do not pray at a ministry devoted to prayer is not a phenomenon unique to us by any stretch of the imagination. If you’ve ever attempted to have a prayer life, you know what I’m talking about. You get a certain level of determination to pray and so decide to set aside 15, 30 minutes, maybe even an hour or two each day to pray. The first two minutes go great. You announce your noble intentions to be dedicated to God, thank him for all his mercies and ask him to strengthen you in your daily tasks. Then about twenty minutes later you shake yourself into cognizance realizing that the previous segment of time had been spent either sleeping, day dreaming, planning the rest of your day, worrying about this or that situation, thinking about what you’ll say to that last person who bugged/hurt/angered you, dusting the underside of your desk, or some combination of these. Then you spend the next minute or two apologizing to God or being frustrated with yourself, only 25 minutes later to repeat the same process. Oh Sweet Hour of Prayer!! Sweet indeed! Well…God thought it was endearing, but to the pray-er it was infuriating, demoralizing or both. Oh, by the way, I read about this in book.

Would it be a shock if I told you that today this is rarely my experience (I say rarely, not never)? Not only is this rarely my experience, but this ceased being my regular experience shortly after learning a very simple lesson. This lamentable scenario plays itself out over and over again in the lives of sincere and eager-hearted Christians largely (not only) because they come into the time of prayer with a very significant yet unspoken assumption. Wouldn’t you love to know what that is?

Before I get to that, I want to outline the above criteria. In seeking to cultivate my own practice of prayer, I’ve sought to find a method of prayer by which all of these characteristics can be true. I am maintaining this interlude because I want to subsequently show how my simple lesson enabled me to achieve all of these objectives rather quickly.

easy – the execution of this method cannot be excruciatingly laborious and constantly require all my mental, affective and bodily reserves. This would be impossible to maintain.

consistent - It must be sustainable. I would have to be able to do this method day in and day out – on good days and bad. My central method of prayer should not require or expect me to be in top form all of the time.

deep – in the name of being “easy,” it cannot overlook significantly important issues, questions, concerns, etc.. It has to address and speak to me at the level of my deep heart. Accessibility cannot be a ruse for what is in actual fact, shallow.

rich in content – this also would be an attempt to avoid the shallow – but now in terms of theological depth. This is rooted in the conviction that ultimately, it is true content about God and His world that moves the heart. Emotional experiences without content are shallow at best and fake at worse.

diverse – it would need to draw in many different topics, ideas, themes, emotions, modalities, etc. It can’t be the same every day – because  1)  God is diverse  2) Scripture is diverse and 3) monotony is very challenging for me.

well-rounded – I want my prayer life not simply to be diverse, but to be intentionally diverse – over time being thorough in scope, reach and coverage – to provide for me a balanced spiritual diet on a regular basis.

broadly-biblical – biblical verses are important but not enough to make something “biblical.” A concept can employ many “verses” in its defense but in fact be “unbiblical” if it uses those verses in a way that is incompatible with or unfaithful to the larger narrative of Scripture.  I want my practice of prayer to draw from from the breadth of Scripture in a way that the overarching drama Scripture is telling gets formed into my life over time.

Christ-centered – prayer fundamentally not anxiously fixated on problems or issues, but confidently centered on the redemptive acts of God in Christ – incarnation, life and ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, outpouring of the Holy Spirit and second coming.

non-idiosyncratic – I refuse to center my prayer life around my small collection of favorite verses, passages, ideas, pet-doctrines, etc. Of course I can have and cherish those, but my spiritually would become narrow-minded and limited if it only bore the marks of my “uniqueness.” Furthermore it would stink of individualism and and a pride insisting only I know and have the best way.

historically-rooted – it seems that the best way to avoid idiosyncrasy would be to draw on the riches of Christian and Jewish history. This would give me a “rooted-ness” that avoids forming my devotional practice on the basis of the “spirit of the age” even if I think somehow it hasn’t affected our modern forms of Christianity (it has – it’s inescapable…

manageable – the method of prayer would need to incorporate all of the above in way that I am not trying to swallow the entire depth, content, diversity and history of Biblical and Apostolic Christianity all at once. It must be capable of consumption in digestible pieces.

profoundly moving – of course my method of prayer must lead me to encounter God on a somewhat regular basis. Now, I am not one for the “myth of constant communion” where one feels the presence of God without ceasing, either throughout all of life, or even throughout an entire prayer time. It would be best if we put that myth to rest because while it is inspiring to a few people, it is utterly demoralizing to the other 98% of normal believers who have actually tried prayer. Nevertheless, I make it my objective to deeply connect to God on the heart level every day. Ultimately, if I am unmoved by all my ideas – I don’t actually believe them. So my method of prayer must serve this function of bringing me into deeper affective awareness of God’s heart for me and deeper expression of my heart to God.

Well…now that I’ve laid out all my criteria for a method of prayer I have been seeking, prospects for such a method may seem quite dismal (especially considering EASY and MANAGEABLE are amongst the criteria). However, I am happy to say that I have found a method that incorporates all of these criteria. The best part is that I didn’t make it up at all – I found it fully functioning and happily satisfying all of my criteria without my ingenuity.

I’ll talk about this more in an upcoming post, but for now I want to get back to that important yet unspoken assumption that many, many contemporary believers bring with them into their times of prayer that often renders their “Sweet Hour of Prayer” as, well, woefully lackluster. Interestingly enough, it is not an assumption that most Christians throughout history have shared. This assumption is that when praying, the words I say, will for the most part (or entirely), be drawn from my own inner spontaneous creativity. In other words, when I pray, I just close my eyes, start talking and expect to keep going for an hour (or more!) with an unceasing flow of inspiration and corresponding cascade of eloquent and moving language. How often does this actually happen? Why do we insist on believing that it will happen anytime soon? Why do we narcissistically maintain our illusion of feigned spiritual prowess and neurotically refuse to believe that we are all in fact novices in the school of prayer?

The opposite approach would be to use pre-written prayers as an aid to your own prayer. This could range from have a pre-written framework from which to add extemporaneous interjections to simply repeating the words of a prayer written by someone else. This one simple switch of mindset (that I don’t have to pull all the words I pray out of nowhere every time I pray) is essentially the key which enabled me to fulfill all of the above criteria in my prayer life. Evidently, simply using pre-written prayers and structures of prayer by itself did not enable this, but it was the key that unlocked the door. I’ll explain more on how this worked for me in subsequent posts. Now, this may be a little anti-climactic if you were hoping for a really great secret. The incredible thing is that this is not a secret at all – the majority of prayer meetings and prayer movements throughout Church history have employed pre-written prayers and prayer (liturgical) frameworks as the bedrock upon which their prayer lives were based. It is almost too easy of a solution.

I understand that there are significant objections to using pre-written prayers and I will address those in my next post. For now I simply want to lay out my initial criteria and show how they are impossible or exceedingly difficult to satisfy using the “pray only from my spontaneous internal creative resources” method.

easy – it is easy in the sense that you don’t have to plan or prepare. Try doing it for a while for extended periods of time and you will soon know it is not easy. It is really hard to come up with fresh language to pray for hours on end, day after day.

consistent - as C.S. Lewis has aptly noted, espousing this approach to prayer requires you to be on top form all the time. It commits the error of assuming that you can do all of the time what you can only do some of the time.

deep – as will be a common thread though many of these criteria – if prayer is only spontaneous, your prayer will essentially be drawn from what you already brought in with you. So…the depth of your prayer will correspond to the depth you already had – that’ll work for the veterans, but good luck for the neophytes!

rich in content – as with above, the content you already had and can spontaneously form into semi-coherent phrases will determine the content of your prayer. This does not bode well for those without 20 years of experience in prayer and the Word.

diverse – ironic as it seems, when prayer is only spontaneous, it often is lacking in diversity. This is because we tend to “spontaneously” gravitate to what is familiar and comfortable to us. Hence our “spontaneity” will only be what we already know and will be limited to our familiar (and predictable) ideas and patterns. Only by great effort does spontaneity actually sustain diversity (violating criteria #1 – EASY and #2 – CONSISTENT).

broadly-biblical – there is no way to ensure that an entirely spontaneous method of prayer will root you in a broad approach to Scripture. Rather the snippets of Scripture you have memorized will find expression in a spontaneously haphazard fashion.

Christ-centered – if the redemptive acts of God in Christ are central to everything you think about then this one will be easy. If you are like most of us and are attempting against many counter currents to form your life in a Christ-centered way, this one will be difficult on your own.

non-idiosyncratic – The very essence of spontaneity is that it is idiosyncratic. This is its main strength and weakness. Expressing yourself is valuable, but in exclusion is severely limited and bordering on narcissistic.

historically-rooted – once again, if you are already profoundly rooted in historic and apostolic Christianity, this one will be a snap (maybe). However, if you are still in the journey of prayer, considering yourself to not yet have arrived, there is no way this will happen on its own.

well-rounded – idiosyncratic prayer seems to necessarily lack being well-rounded.

manageable – perhaps it is manageable – however, I don’t consider the void of all the previous elements to be manageable. I find it depressing.

profoundly moving – I think we’ve already established that a solely spontaneous approach to prayer often yields mediocre results as described above. I find it odd that one of the central objections to using written forms in prayer is the accusation that they are dry and dull. This is a most ironic accusation, considering how awful the experience is of most Christians’ spontaneous attempts at prayer. In fact, it is such a ridiculous assertion that I will not even address it in my next post, in which I will deal with a more formidable objection to written prayers.

Well – I don’t want to end on a down note – so I’ll finish by saying that if you find yourself in the experience of prayer which spends exponentially more time staring at the wall and thinking about other things than actually praying, or perhaps you’ve had that experience and just gave up assuming that it wouldn’t work – there actually is another way – and it actually works – and it actually has been practiced by the majority of praying Christians throughout Church history, especially those who have dedicated their lives to prayer. If you are an expert in prayer, feel no need to continue listening to me. But if you have been longing for “help” in prayer (cf. Rom. 8:28) and have been asking God to “teach you how to pray,” there is help available. Much help. And it is remarkably more easy than you might think. More on this to come.

Related posts

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• Opposition to Pre-Written Prayers Comes From the Spirit of the Age (Developing a Consistent Prayer Life Part 2) (3)
• My Personal Prayer Action Plan (Developing a Consistent Prayer Life Part 3) (0)
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The often heard saying, “prayer doesn’t change God…it changes us” is an addage notoriously absent from the Bible.

As many of you may know, by occupation I am a full-time intercessor. This means my full-time job is primarily to pray as a staff member of the International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOP-KC). When I tell other Christians what I do with my life, I am frequently greeted with peculiar blinks, squints, head tilts, lip twitches and eyebrow crunches. I know, I know – who’s ever heard of someone whose main job is to pray? Unfortunately this response often betrays two facts:

1) Our historical and religious myopia – throughout history and even to the present day, many Christians have been employed as full-time intercessors. They were often called monks and nuns. Their central occupation was prayer, but they frequently also had additional tasks such as teaching, spiritual direction, evangelism, etc. (much like myself and other staff members at IHOP-KC). Granted, this is predominately part of the Roman Catholic tradition, though Eastern Orthodox and Anglican traditions also have significant monastic movements.

2) Our disbelief in the efficacy of prayer. Don’t be afraid to admit this – its almost universal. The sooner we admit it, the sooner we can rectify it. We who give ourselves full-time to prayer, also often have a hard time believing it. It is one thing to confess that prayer is important. It is entirely different to believe it actually makes a real difference in the world. My goal in a series of posts is to address this subject.

There are some Christians who believe that the concept of a ministry like IHOP or people being full-time intercessors is inherently a bad thing. They often preface their statements with something like, “well…I’m not against prayer, but…” and then go on to say how we should do something better or more useful with our time. I would like to respond by saying it is almost entirely irrelevant whether you are “for” or “against” prayer. Do you actually do it?  That is what matters. The Scripture never says “be in support of the idea of prayer,” but rather says “be devoted to prayer” (Col. 4:2), meaning – actually do it as a prioritized activity in your individual and communal life. Luke’s description of the apostolic church was not that they “held the concept of prayer in high esteem,” but that they “devoted themselves to the prayers” (Acts. 2:42). You will only do this to the extent that you believe prayer is in fact useful time spent.

In my opinion there are two extremely popular yet woefully unbiblical and inadequate understandings related to why one is to pray. It seems that both of these seriously curtail attempts to “be devoted to the prayers” after the model of the early apostolic church.

1) Prayer as self-help – this can be epitomized in the cliche quoted above, “prayer does not change God (or any circumstances for that matter), prayer changes us.” This perspective is rooted in a certain understanding of God’s sovereignty in which every detail of every event of all time has been perfectly pre-planned by God in an inviolable blueprint. Thus it would be ridiculous to suggest that we could alter that blueprint through our intercessory prayers. If then, asking for circumstances to change (intercessory prayer) does not actually change those circumstances, we must somehow account for the Biblical insistence on such types of prayers. The answer becomes that these prayers in fact, over time, change our desires and conform them to God’s will, so that we want what God already had planned to do.

2) Prayer as obedience – once one comes to the conclusion that praying about people and circumstances does not actually change them, but merely change us, one then often asks, why are these prayers necessary? Why are they so frequent in the Bible (say in the Psalms), why was the early church (Book of Acts) so eager in making them, and why does the New Testament regularly exhort us to make such prayer? The answer to these questions becomes “because God has commanded such.” The reason to pray (even though it doesn’t actually do or change anything that corresponds to what we are actually requesting) is because God said so and we as his servants are to be obedient.

I think almost every phrase of every sentence in the previous two paragraphs could be questioned and challenged from Biblical and theological perspectives. Instead of performing such a painful dissection, I have opted today merely to look at a few verses in which Paul talks about prayer (subsequently, I will look at other sections of Scripture as well). I want to make simple observations related to what he says and ask if they correspond to the two reasons to pray given above.

Romans 15:30-32 - Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by  the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,  31 that I may be  rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my  service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints;  32 so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.

1) First we might note that Paul urges the Romans to pray for him. There is a sense of urgency and gravity to this request.

2) Paul considers that when believers pray for him, they are joining with him in the apostolic labor. Prayer is not merely a “duty” or a “nice thought” but is in fact “striving together” with him. He believes the saints to be working and struggling with him as they pray for him.

3) Three purposes or outcomes of the prayers are listed, indicated by the term “that” or “so that:”  (a) being rescued from people in Judea; (b) his service proving acceptable to the saints; and (c) being able to visit the Romans and find refreshing and rest with them. Describing these three as purposes or outcomes of the prayers shows that Paul does not consider their occurrence to be inevitable apart from the Roman’s prayers. In other words, the prayers of the Romans will in some manner make it possible for these three desired outcomes to come into fruition.

2 Corinthians 1:10-11 – He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again,  11 as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

1) Paul considers his rescue to be conditional upon the Corinthian’s prayers – “he will rescue us again, as you also, join…”

2) Paul considers the prayers of the Corinthians to actually be helping him and his apostolic company. His concern was not that the prayers would help the pray-ers, but that the prayers of others would actually help him.

3) The phrase “so that” indicates that Paul sees the “blessing” to be either the purpose or result of the prayers.

4) He sees the blessing of rescue being “granted through the prayers.” In other words, the prayer was not to be a self-help mental technique, but was the actually means by which the deliverance would be granted to Paul.

5) The blessing is granted through the prayers of many. The prayers of many different people combine to contribute towards Paul’s deliverance.

Ephesians 6:18-19 – And take  the helmet of salvation, and the  sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel…

1) The primary observation I would like to make here is the frequency of the word “all:”  all prayer and petition, pray at all times, all perseverance, for all the saints. The urgency with which such an extravagant request is made gives an indication as to how Paul felt about prayer. It is difficult to conceive that such enormous amounts of prayer were needed and with such incessancy if the prayers were not in fact effecting something that would not be the same without the prayers.

2) Of additional note is that the call for this extraordinary quantity of prayer is in the midst of an extended warfare metaphor. Its seems as though this praying at all times is part of the “sword of the Spirit.” If prayer is part of a “spiritual sword,” then it seems self-evident that prayers do change actual circumstances and play a role in the defeat of the powers of darkness (cf. Eph. 6:12).

3) Paul asks the believers to pray so that he might preach with boldness. He sees that the purpose or outcome of the prayers is that something might be different than it would have been otherwise.

Philippians 1:18-19 – Yes, and I will rejoice,  19 for I know that this will turn out for my  deliverance  through your  prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ…

1) Paul expects his deliverance to happen through (by means of) the prayers of the saints.

2) There is a co-operation between the prayers and the “provision of the Spirit.” If the provision of the Spirit would have effected deliverance on its own, its seems unnecessary to have mentioned the “prayers.”

My apologies if this has been repetitive and pedantic. It may seem that these observations are a little obvious or asinine. Yet it is remarkable how easy it is as a Christian to come to the conclusion that prayer doesn’t actually do anything and then defend the notion theologically.

My hope is that intercessors will be emboldened and strengthened with the simple notion that prayer actually does something and that such an idea is profoundly biblical.. Paul seems to express over and over again his expectation that when the people of God pray, circumstances will in fact be different than if they had not. Whether you can spend 5 minutes or 5 hours a day devoted to prayer, know that every minute is time well spent.  Be assured that every 15 second prayer whispered throughout your day is mysteriously causing the future to unfold differently than it otherwise might have. In fellowship with the God of Hope, the God who envisions possibilities beyond all we could ask or imagine, we truly have the privilege, pleasure and glory of shaping the future of life on planet earth.

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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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Essentially, all we will be doing is putting ribbon book marks in your BCP to keep your places in the various sections of the Prayer Book. Implementing this system will entail a little bit of crafting, which I will now outline in detail.

This is my prayer book. It actually came with ribbons sewn into the binding. But I happen to be a ribbon-aholic. Once I found out how to add ribbon book marks to my BCP – I started adding them to all of my books. This Prayer Book happens to be a BCP and Hymnal combination, thus there is need for a LOT of ribbons. So I am adding more.

You will need to get your hands on ribbon like this – a different color for every bookmark you will need (or you will never be able to tell them apart!). You can get these for around 50-75 cents a spool at Wal-mart or Jo-Ann Fabrics.

Then get a 3 x 5 file card, fold it in half lengthwise and cut it down the middle. This card will get inserted into the little space between where the binding is sewn and the outside of the spine of the book. If you have a thin book, you may need to cut the card down to make it narrower.

To cut the ribbon, open your prayer book and lay the edge of the ribbon about an inch past the top in the middle of the book (as shown in the picture). Then extend it diagonally across the page 2-3 inches past the corner. Definitely make the ribbon longer than shorter – you can always cut them down later. It is important that you measure them across the page diagonally because if they are too short, you won’t be able to use them to turn pages.

Next, tape or glue the ribbons to the top of the file card. Make sure they are secure or they will rip off when you are using them. If you have a bunch of ribbons you may need to overlap them slightly.

Then insert the card between where the pages are sewn together and the outside of the spine — and you are done!

Now you can set your page markers. I recommend placing a ribbon in the following places:

Minimally:

-Orders for Daily Prayer (75ff.)
-Weekly Seasonal Collect (211ff.)
-Psalms (585ff.)
-Lectionary (936ff.)

My Ideal:

-Orders for Daily Prayer (75ff.)
-Canticles in Morning Prayer – for use during Morning and Evening Prayer (85ff.)
-Great Litany (148) (especially during Lent)
-Weekly Season Collect (211ff.)
-Holy Days Collects (237ff.)
-Psalms (585ff.)
-Prayers (810ff.)
-Lectionary (936ff.) – unless of course you use my Readings Booklets!

It is easiest to use the ribbon itself to turn the pages. Just grab the bottom of the ribbon, drag it around the book just past the bottom corner and then pull the book open using the ribbon. This is what makes using the ribbons superior to using standard book marks (plus they don’t fall out and get lost). As you move forward in the Psalms, Canticles, etc., just move the ribbon forward as you go to keep your place.

At the beginning I suggest taking another 3 x 5 card and write down which colors are for which section. Keeping your color-scheme consistent will make it easier over the long-term. Then stick the card in the cover of your Prayer Book so for the first while you can have it to help you remember which ribbon marks where. In a few weeks you won’t need the card any more – you’ll get the hang of it real soon.

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How often have you sat down to pray and have not known what to say? You may even care deeply about a specific topic, but after sixty to ninety seconds your creativity has run its course and you find yourself spending more energy and thought on determining what to say than actually relating to God. The expectation of such unimpeded flowing inspiration must be corrected by a practical realism if we indeed value prayer and believe it to be fundamentally efficacious. Few people have the ability continue long lengths of time in prayer out of their own spontaneous internal resources. Your own experience likely testifies to this. Yet if we believe prayer actually does something (a matter to which I’ll subsequently return), as in, whether one prays or stares blankly at the wall is more than a matter of having a good time or not, but rather makes a real difference in the lives of others – this is an issue we cannot avoid.

Apparently, this post is part of a series explaining how to use written prayers and structures as an aid in prayer. Many of my comments thus far have related to the irony of how a 100% spontaneous approach to prayer can be frustrating and dull while a structured prayer life can be much more dynamic. Ultimately however, we are not simply discussing how to have a better “quiet time.” If we truly believe prayer mysteriously affects the possible outcomes the future holds for real people’s lives, the issue of whether we are spending our prayer time staring at the wall, day-dreaming, thinking up what to say, or actually praying is of urgent importance.

If using written and structured prayer, such as that in the Daily Office, helps us to have a more focused and consistent, and thus enjoyable prayer life, it also means that we are making more of a difference in changing our world through prayer. This is far from incidental, because of we believe our Lord’s words concerning the efficacy of prayer, we are speaking concerning matters of life and death.

Before describing the final “Prayers” section of the Office, I’ll share one technique I’ve used in approaching this section that I’ve found helpful. For each day of the week I have specific “intentions,” a specific target for my prayers, which I carry through the entire Office, including the Psalms, Readings and Prayers. Many of the prayers in the Psalms and in the Office are intentionally general. Each day, I will focus these more general prayers on specific targets. For example, on Sunday, I focus on praying for my church. On Monday I pray for my students, on Tuesday I pray for the nations of Uganda and Rwanda, on Wednesday I pray for my family, and so forth.

After the first three sections of the Office, the Opening, the Psalms and the Readings, the Prayers begin on page 121.

When praying the Office by yourself, you can omit greetings and responses like this one.

The Lord’s Prayer is obviously the central Christian prayer, being given to us directly by Jesus himself.

Suffrages are responsive prayers. When praying individually, you will pray all the lines, but when praying with others they are said or sung antiphonally between a leader and the others assembled. One or both of the sets of suffrages can be used.

Suffrage set A draws its lines from various Psalms and includes prayer for the Church, nation and the world.

Suffrage set B is based on a litany for the sanctification of our life from the Eastern Orthodox liturgy, which dates back to the fourth century.

Here opportunity is given to commemorate a specific saint and remember those shining lights who have gone before as examples for us. If you don’t want to do that, just say “in the communion of all your saints”

A Collect is a short prayer, often one that is assigned to a specific day or season in the Christian Year.

The Collect of the Day is that which corresponds to the given week in the Church Year. The Collect for a given week in the Calendar is used every day during that week, beginning either on Sunday morning, or the evening before that Sunday.

The Collects for each week (and major holidays) are found beginning on Page 211. They are arranged chronologically beginning with Advent. Prayers for Holy Days on fixed dates (rather than according to the Seasons) begin on Page 237.

They are listed as “Contemporary” because the BCP provides duplicate prayers in both traditional (i.e., “King James”) and contemporary English.

Additionally, when I’m wanting a longer prayer time, I may also pray all of the Collects for a given Season. For example, if it was Advent, there is one Collect for each of the four weeks of Advent. On a given night in Advent, I may pray all four collects.

Additional prayers are given within the Order for Evening Prayer on the next three pages (pp. 123-5). Any or all of them can be used each evening.

You may be thinking that using just these ten fixed prayers (plus the variable Collect of the Day) may be limiting. If you find that to be the case, there are seventy additional prayers starting on Page 810, which cover a wide variety of topics. This page shows the beginning of the Table of Contents, to give a sampling of the topics included.

Another source within the Prayer Book for a more expanded time of intercession is The Great Litany. Published in 1544 and included in the 1549 BCP, The Great Litany, was first piece of liturgy ever composed in English. The current version is almost identical to that version, save a few minor changes. It is an urgent plea for God’s mercy over a wide range of topics. It generally takes 10-15 minutes to pray through in its entirety.

A further way times of prayer and intercession using the BCP can be expanded is to use each phrase in a Suffrage or the Litany, or each collect as a “bidding,” to which you would add 30-90 seconds of spontaneous prayer related to that theme or topic, possibly mentioning specific people or situations that relate. As soon as you don’t easily have something additional to pray on that theme, move on to the next phrase.

Any of these extra prayers or the Litany can be said here, where the rubric says “authorized intercessions and thanksgivings may follow.”

Other options at this point would include

–using prayers that you personally have written

–praying prayers from Scripture

–using prayers from other books

–following a prayer list

–free intercession

The Office begins to wrap up with a concluding prayer of thanksgiving, within which you can pause and mention specific items from the day you are thankful for.

After one more optional concluding prayer, comes the ancient closing versicle and response, “Let us Bless the Lord // Thanks be to God” and the Office is done!

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The Word of God does not simply give us information about religious truths. Rather the Word of God is the central medium through which we come to know and experience God (cf. Lk. 24:32). It is furthermore the central agency through which God accomplishes justice on earth in and through his people (cf. Isa. 55:7-13). The Word of God is unmistakably worthy of being thoroughly and ardently heard, read, marked, learned, inwardly digested and passionately “incarnated” through our lives. The “Readings” portion of the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer is one way in which this can happen in the life of a believer.

I am continuing today in my series in guiding you step-by-step in how to pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer. To review, the Daily Office from the BCP has four main sections, two of which we have already covered:

1) The Opening

2) The Psalms

3) The Readings

4) The Prayers

This page should look familiar from last time. We’ve already covered the Phos Hilaron and the Psalms.

Now we turn our attention to what is listed as “The Lessons.” This means a passage from the Bible (or other Christian literature) which is read out loud in a service. If you are praying the Office by yourself, you can read it silently or aloud.

While of course, every time Scripture is read, we garner new information, it is good to remember that this is first and foremost a time of prayer. I like to think of the Readings as mostly a time to hear from God. Studying the Bible is great, but that is done at a different time. Here, we primarily allow the Spirit of God to address us and speak to us through the Scripture Reading.

We saw this page briefly during the last section on the Psalms. It is a page from the Daily Office Lectionary. A Lectionary is a list of portions of the Bible to be read at appointed times, according to the Church Calendar. The Daily Office Lectionary lists the readings for the Daily Office as there is a different lectionary for use during the Eucharist.

It is arranged according to a two year cycle. Year One begins at Advent before an odd numbered year and Year Two begins at Advent before an even numbered year. The current year (2009) is Year One and began last December. This December we will move into Year Two.

During the two year cycle most of the Old Testament is read and the entire New Testament is covered each year.

Since the Church Calendar (for the most part) does not have fixed dates, neither does the Lectionary. This necessitates that you know where we are in the Christian Year  (check here for some guidance).

Three readings are listed for each day, one from the OT, one from the NT epistles and one from the Gospels. The rubrics mention that one or two lessons are read at Morning and Evening Prayer, but all of them may be read at one office. It is intended that all three are read each day, no matter how they are split up. Additionally, the OT lesson from the alternate year may be used for an additional OT lesson, if an OT lesson is desired at each office, or if you just want more readings in one office. In a section called “Additional Directions” (p. 142), rubrics explain that a reading from “non-biblical Christian literature” may follow the Scripture readings. Traditionally, the Daily Office contained readings from Christian writers in the earliest centuries of the Church.

I personally enjoy the practice of reading from each major section of the Bible every day. Even if in my study times I am focused in one area, it keeps me grounded in in regular direct contact with the words of Jesus, the apostles and the OT narrative. It also gets me reading passages of Scripture I wouldn’t necessarily gravitate towards, or haven’t ever been on my study plans.

To make completing the Readings section of the Office easier, I’ve developed a resource with all the readings for a given day collected together to be printed out in a booklet. Click here to download them.

The rubrics here explain that silence may be kept after each Reading. I like to use this time to offer a simple spontaneous prayer in response to the passage, usually along the lines of 1) thanking God for something mentioned in the text; 2) asking him to give me deeper revelation of something mentioned in the text; or 3) asking for grace to be faithful to an exhortation in the text.

After the silence, a “Canticle” is sung or said. A Canticle is a song or song-like passage from somewhere in the Bible other than the Psalms. These are sung as prayer-responses to the readings.

The two standard canticles sung at Evening Prayer are the “Magnificat” (Song of Mary) and the “Nunc Dimittis” (Song of Simeon), both of which are taken from Luke’s Gospel. Traditionally, the Magnificat is used at every Evening Prayer and the Nunc Dimittis is used daily at Compline. If you don’t say Compline, you can pray the Nunc Dimittis nightly at Evensong.

On page 145, there is a schedule you can use to rotate the canticles. The numbered canticles are found on pp. 85-95. They are part of the order for Morning Prayer, so the publishers opted not to reprint them in Evening Prayer.

I personally find it easier just to place a marker in the canticles section and proceed in number order while doing the Magnificat as the last canticle each night. On page 85, the first canticle is #8 (1-7 are in “King James” English). So I would do #8 after the first Reading, #9 after the second Reading and then the Magnificat after the third Reading. The next day I would do #10 after the first reading, and so forth. Upon reaching the last of the Canticles, I would start over again at #8 and cycle them.

The final response to the Readings is the recitation of the Apostle’s Creed. This summary of the Christian Faith is of great antiquity, being attested to in extant writings from the 4th century. From at least that time, it was ascribed to the 12 apostles themselves (though, of course, we have no way of knowing such with any certainty).

It is likely of an origin older than the Nicene Creed, which was first written in conjunction with the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. At that time, the central heresy being confronted was Arianism – the notion that Jesus was not truly God. While the Nicene Creed thoroughly asserts the truth of Jesus’ divinity, the Apostle’s Creed seems to focus on an earlier concern – that of Gnosticism. It upholds that Jesus himself was bodily born, suffered, crucified, died, buried and was raised. It also affirms the “resurrection of the body.”

By prayerfully reciting the creed, we unite with all Christians throughout the world and throughout history in affirming the central truths of the Christian faith.

Okay – only one more part left to go and we’ll have worked our way entirely through the BCP order for Evening Prayer!

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The Book of Psalms is an incredible gift of God to the Church. Regularly singing the entire book of Psalms is the spiritual practice I commend to people most frequently. Their uniqueness lies in while most of Scripture portrays the history of Israel from either a God’s-eye or birds-eye view, the Psalm give us the inside perspective of how Israel experienced their life before God, and simultaneously invites us into the personal experience of that very Story. Praying the entire book of Psalms is the core of the Daily Office and thus should never be downplayed, omitted or shortened.

Historically, the entire office developed from this nucleus of psalmody. Even as far back as the Desert Fathers and Mothers (4th century), it was common for a monk to pray the entire book of Psalms every single day. As St. Benedict established in the sixth century, it became standard practice for the Psalms to be recited once per week. To this kernel of Psalms were added Scriptural readings, prayers and chants which eventually grew into the formal structures of the Daily Office.  When Cranmer released the Book of Common Prayer in 1549, the entire Psalter was to be prayed each month. The 1979 edition makes provision for either a 7-week or one-month cycle.

Interestingly enough, my practice of praying the Daily Office began by praying the psalms. I heard somewhere that Martin Luther had the entire book of psalms memorized from singing it through every week as a monk. I don’t really know if the story is true, but I decided that I wanted the same to be true of me in 30 years. So I began singing through the Book of Psalms on a weekly basis. I’ll tell you, that when I did it the first time, I discovered how completely unfamiliar I was with the Psalms. Many passages, I felt like I had never heard or read before.

The Psalms are rather strange in the light of contemporary Christianity. Yet their incredible richness stems from a form of spirituality that is a marked alternative to the quasi-gnostic forms of spirituality that masquerade throughout the Church as Biblical. The Psalms represent to us the most concrete and expansive expression of a truly Biblical Spirituality. In contrast to a quasi-gnostic nihilism that might say “nothing in the world matters” or that history, the life of the body, circumstances, etc. all don’t matter because of Jesus (or something akin to that), the Psalmists seem to strongly believe that their lives on earth truly matter and truly matter to God. The Spirituality of the Psalms is not an “I’ll retreat into my inner life because there nothing in the world matters” but rather a much more risky partnership with the compassionate God who draws near to His people in the earthly life so unstable, unpredictable, full of calamity yet imbibed with meaning by virtue of the God who created it and continually chooses to acknowledge its worth. God’s constant intervention into earthly life (or the groan rising from the absence of God’s intervention) persistently affirms the value of an earthly, bodily, physical, sensory, historical, full-of-feeling existence which remains under the persistent threat of a nihilism seeking to render it meaningless. This spirituality, though very much full of hope (and indeed precisely because it is), never allows us to “soar above the vale of tears” but again and again brings us into a suffering resistance to the violence, evil, injustice and death that so marks our age.

OK – I’m trying just to teach you how to pray the Psalms, but sometimes I get really excited. I am really passionate about the Psalms and their Spirituality. Eventually (since I already have 4 or 5 series after this one already planned), I’ll come back and unpack this previous overly-long paragraph.

Back to the Prayerbook.

This page should look familiar from the last time.

Immediately after the Phos Hilaron, or any opening hymn/song/canticle, follows the “Psalms Appointed.” This means the Psalms that are appointed for the day, according to whatever schedule of Psalms you happen to be following (I’ll come back to this in a second). The rubrics say that the Gloria Patri (“Glory to the Father, and to the Son…”) is said at the end of the Psalms. This could be either after each Psalm (or section of Psalm 119, or other Psalm that is split up), or after all the Psalms prayed/sung at that time. I like to sing to the Gloria Patri after every Psalm because it helps me focus (and refocus) on praying to the actual persons of the Trinity, the overflowing community of self-giving love.

We’ve skipped a few pages now to # 585. The BCP contains the entire Book of Psalms.

“First Day: Morning Prayer” is the first of many indicators included right in the text of the Psalter that divides the Psalms into a 30-day schedule. If you pray both Morning and Evening Prayer, then you would pray them as divided for Morning and Evening. If you pray only one office per day, you would pray both the Morning and Evening psalms for each given day. If you want to sing the Psalter twice a month, use Days 1 and 2 on the first day, 3 and 4 on the second day, etc.

If you’re not using the BCP but just want to pray the Psalms out of your Bible, click here to download a schedule for dividing the Psalter into monthly, bi-monthly or weekly schedules.

Since it is a 30-day schedule, the “First Day” means the first day of the calendar month. On months with more than 30 days you can pick any day to repeat. In February (less than 30 days), you’ll just skip the days not in the month and start back again at the beginning on March 1.

We’ve skipped pages again – now we’re at 936.

This is the first page from the Daily Office Lectionary. A lectionary is a schedule of readings according to the Church Year.

I’ll explain how to navigate the lectionary more when I discuss the “Readings” section of the Office next time, but for now, notice how next to Sunday at the very top, there are the numbers “146, 147 * 111, 112, 113.“

These are Psalms for each day according to a 7-week schedule. The Psalms left of the asterisk are for Morning Prayer and right of the asterisk are for Evening Prayer. Again, if you pray one office daily, pray both sets of Psalms.

This schedule obviously does not move sequentially through the Psalms like the 30-day schedule. However, it is preferable if you have less time available to pray the Office.

An additional option for one with limited time would be to do a 60-day cycle through the Psalms – by praying the First Day: Morning Prayer Psalms on Day 1, then First Day Evening Prayer on Day 2, and so on.

That’s it! Having completed the Opening (section 1) and the Psalms (section 2), next time I’ll discuss the third major section of the Daily Office – the Readings.

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• How to Pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer (Part 6) – The Prayers (0)
• How to Pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer (Part 3) – The Opening (0)
• How to Pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer (Part 1) – Christian Year Overview (8)
• How to Pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer (2)