daily office

One aspect of the Book of Common Prayer that has always been important to me is the Daily Office. When Thomas Cramner created the original Prayer Book, he reduced the offices or prayers of hours throughout the day to morning prayer and evening prayer. The American 1979 prayer book added liturgies for noontime and compline.

If the Sunday liturgy points to where we are collectively in the liturgical season, and the week, the Daily Office also points us to the time of day, the rising and setting of the sun, the beginning of a day and its ending.

These liturgies used to be prevalent in Anglican worship. I like the idea that people gather to pray and offer thanksgiving, whether its done at one's desk,using a prayer book or the on-line link also listed at my blog roll, or with a few folk in a chapel, or in a choral evensong at a cathedral in England.

It reminds us that there are many events and things in life that are out of our control. So we pray. When I read the references in the Psalms for praying for the peace of Jerusalem, I am reminded at how longterm the anguish is among people, whether we are talking about the physical city of Jerusalem, or the neighborhood where we live.

Some of the blogging folk I link to have shared recently serious problems or concerns, and while I don't want to embarrass or unduly point them out through links, I did want to say that you are in my prayers.