It was just five years ago (doesn’t it seem longer?) when the Covid-19 pandemic shut the world down. The Church didn’t know what to do in March of 2020. People weren’t allowed to congregate, and so the sacraments couldn’t be safely administered. It was both a horrible and a confounding time. But even in those harrowing few months in the spring of 2020, there were moments of grace. And one grace-filled legacy of that horrible time of pandemic was a recovery of interest in the Daily Office. Churches couldn’t legitimately celebrate the Eucharist online (the sacramental life requires people being present in person with each other). So, during the lockdown, most churches resorted to the Daily Office (Morning and Evening Prayer) as a way of worshipping and praying together.
Even while the doors of Good Shepherd were closed on weekdays and opened only for Mass on Sundays, we revived the Daily Office on weekdays in August of 2020, although it was prayed via livestream. While online participation is not the same as in-person attendance, the Daily Office can be more meaningfully prayed online. And to this day, there are a handful of persons who regularly pray Morning and Evening Prayer with us through our livestream.
In last week’s message, I referred to the Church’s traditional threefold “rule” of prayer: the Mass, the Daily Office, and private prayer. It’s worth spending some time reflecting on the value of the Daily Office, especially as we seek to enrich our prayer lives with greater intentionality this Lent. Our prayer book classifies the Daily Office as one of “the regular services appointed for public worship in the Church” (13), along with the Eucharist. The Daily Office is one of the most effective ways of sanctifying time in the Anglican tradition. Indeed, at the time of the English Reformation, the monastic hours (seven times of prayer during the day observed in the monasteries) were the sole provision of those monasteries. But Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) brilliantly condensed that sevenfold “office” to a twofold one, and the Daily Office became more commonplace in the parish church. This is one of the loveliest gifts of the English Reformation.
And so, it has been the custom in parish churches within the Anglican tradition (and especially in Anglo-Catholic parishes) to pray Morning and Evening Prayer with regularity. At Good Shepherd, each Office begins with the Angelus, a Marian devotion of the Incarnation, reminding us that in this world, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Monday through Friday, Morning Prayer is prayed at 9 a.m. and Evening Prayer at 5:30 p.m. On Saturdays, Morning Prayer is prayed at 9 a.m. While at times, the Daily Office could seem rote and tedious, its real beauty lies in the marking of time. God’s kairos time is layered onto our chronos time. No matter what chaos is happening in the world, the church doors are opened, and prayer is offered at 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. When the world seems to be going off the rails, the Church’s rhythm of prayer never ceases.
But beyond the mere setting apart of “hours” for prayer, the Daily Office finds its center in the Book of Psalms. In the appointed cycle of readings for the Daily Office, one prays nearly the entire Book of Psalms (150!) over the course of about seven weeks. At Good Shepherd, the psalms are usually recited antiphonally (from side to side of the Choir), and we take brief pauses at the asterisk of each psalm. These pauses slow us down in our busy lives. They allow us to reflect and breathe. This rhythm of antiphonal recitation of the psalms is soothing and comforting to me.
We don’t avoid difficult psalms either. Some of the psalms are, in fact, grotesque. The psalmists pray for the death of their enemies, for unspeakable horrors to be visited upon others, and at times, such as in Psalm 88, the psalmist appears almost to have given up on God. In my opinion, we should be praying these psalms, not in the spirit of vengeance of the original authors but as a way of keeping ourselves honest. I would be dishonest with myself if I couldn’t locate within my heart (if unspoken) some of the terrifying emotions to which the psalmists give voice. As I pray the psalms in Morning or Evening Prayer, I’m reminded of the ways in which I want to make God in my own image, but in a spirit of repentance, I can turn to God and give thanks that God isn’t like us in such a fickle, emotional way.
The Daily Office also gives us an opportunity to swim in the waters of Scripture. We read in their entirety many books of the Old Testament that we would never hear at Mass. We hear the central stories of our faith. And again, we recall how our own sinfulness is reflected in the vicissitudes of very human people trying to figure out their own relationship with a God who ultimately eludes their grasp until Christ gives humanity the perfect image of God.
I’m always amazed at how the Spirit will speak a word to me, unbidden, at the Office. Sometimes a phrase lights up for me, like Psalm 18:20: “he rescued me because he delighted in me” or Psalm 37:9: “do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.” On some occasions, I’ve found humor. In another parish, I once observed a man living on the streets in a pre-Office verbal tussle with a parishioner, and upon reciting the words of the Lord’s Prayer, the man raised his voice quite visibly at the words “as we forgive those who trespass against us”! On that day, and hopefully in a spirit of repentance, that man needed those particular words (as perhaps did his interlocutor). While some appointed readings for the Office might leave us flat on a given day, more often than not, there’s a compelling word to hear.
At Good Shepherd, we conclude the Office with specific prayers, for the world, the nation, the local community, the sick, the departed, and the parish. We pray through our parish cycle of prayers, remembering by name those who worship here regularly. And we pray for our beloved Friends of the parish. One of my favorite prayers is for those whom we don’t yet know but whom God will draw to this parish for a deeper relationship with Christ. We ask God to send such people to the fold of this parish, but ultimately, who comes and when they come are in the hands of God.
If the Christian life is about reshaping and reprioritizing our lives, then praying the Daily Office is one way to do that. It takes great intention to devote a period of time each day for prayer, but it’s well worth the effort. This Sunday, we all have the opportunity to experience Evening Prayer in its glorious sung form, Choral Evensong, a hallmark of the Anglican tradition. Come and let the beauty of Scripture and sung prayer wash over you. And then revel in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in Benediction. Have a bite to eat after Sung Mass and the Lenten reading group, and then return to the church to rest in the presence of God at 3 p.m. this Sunday.
When our day is structured intentionally around God in praying the Daily Office, Scripture becomes our language for a time. The quotidian realities of daily existence intersect with God’s loving, timeless initiative, which enfolds us in unending compassion and mercy. We no longer see our lives as something into which God intrudes when we need him. When we pray without ceasing, God is our life, and everything else is oriented around God. And as Scripture rightly tells us, in him, we live and move and have our being.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle