The Book of Common Prayer for a Ragamuffin
The primary positive attraction for me to Anglicanism was The Book of Common Prayer. It provides a form for worshiping God every Sunday that is reverent, saturated with the Bible, gives words (which still must be prayed from the heart) for full and balanced prayer, is deeply rooted in the history of the church and its worship, moves with rational development from open to close, and is a vehicle for a profound encounter with the Triune God. I love it.
The other appreciation for the Book is its provision for daily devotion through its resources, especially Morning Prayer. I do not have to wing it. I do not have to keep calling my attention back to what I am doing. I do not have to invent my own personal daily worship. It is all right there for me in Morning Prayer, if I will use it with a focused mind and open heart. At the same time it provides ample opportunities of personalizing as I read the Scriptures and and say the Prayers. My own use of Daily Prayer is through a phone app called ipray, which uses the traditional service and provides services for Morning Prayer, Noon Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline. I use Morning Prayer, unless for some reason I miss it, in which case I say Evening Prayer.
Lately Morning Prayer has been a special opportunity for me to experience God's comfort and peace. If I miss it, I miss what my soul most greatly needs. Yet I find myself hesitating. When I wake up in the morning, I am groggy, so it takes a few cups of coffee and looking around at news sites till I am alert enough to devote myself to Morning Prayer. Yet, even then, I linger, finding one thing after another to postpone engaging God. "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Yet once I give myself to Morning Prayer I do not regret is.
There are almost endless places to personalize the service for one's own circumstances. In the Prayer of Confession, I often change, "Restore thou them that are penitent" to "Restore thou me as thou enablest me to be penitent." In the Absolution I almost always grab onto, after the pardon itself, "Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit..."
I love the way the Coverdale translation puts Psalm 56 which was read this morning: "Nevertheless, though sometime I am afraid, yet put I my trust in thee. I will comfort myself in God's word; yea, I will hope in God." Sometimes, yes often I am afraid, but the Psalmist was, also, at least sometimes, and he chose to put his trust in God at such times, something I need to learn more how to do.
In addition to several Psalms there are always two additional readings, one from the Old Testament, one from the New, and opportunities to meditate on them and turn them into sentence prayers. There are two places where we sinners can ask God to deliver us from sin. In the Te Deum Laudamus, where we join in holy praise along with the angels, the prophets and apostles, and the church throughout the world, we do not close except we pray, "Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin." In the third collect,"for grace," we pray that God will "grant that this day we fall into no sin."
Daily we pray for peace, for the graces for protection and guidance through the day, for the President and civil government, for God's blessing upon all clergy and people (and here I can pray especially for my Bishop, Dan Morse, and my colleagues in ministry). We also pray for "all conditions of men" that they may know God's salvation, for the church, that all who call themselves Christians may live as Christians, and finally "we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those who are in anyway afflicted, or distressed, in mind, body, or estate; that it may please thee to comfort and deliver them, according to their several necessities; giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions" (here there is opportunity to plug in petitions and intercessions for the needs of others).
Before we conclude the Prayer Book gives us a wonderful prayer for something many of us struggle with - thanksgiving - where we may, if we wish, name our many and personal blessings. We do not end without the ancient Prayer of St. Chrysostom, where we both express confidence in God's grace and power to answer our prayers and also acknowledge God's freedom to answer them according to what he judges is most expedient for us. We pray above all that in this world we may have knowledge of God's truth and in the world to come everlasting life. We leave with the apostolic blessing upon our hearts, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost."
I have learned to appreciate when I get in bed at night an abbreviated form of Evening Prayer found in the section of our Prayer Book called Family Prayer. There is the Lord's Prayer (already used twice during Morning Prayer), the collect of the day, a prayer for confession, contrition, and pardon with a prayer added that, if we fall into sin, we may reform and grow better in the future. There is an intercession in which we pray that the nations may have the light of the Gospel and for every member of Christ's church, as well as for those in authority.We pray for our relations, friends, and neighbors, and for our enemies. We ask God's mercy on all who are in any kind of trouble. Once again we have an excellent prayer for thanksgiving at the end of the day. Finally we pray for protection during the night. The part that I find most difficult to pray is what we may be given "grace always to live in such state that we may never be afraid to die; so that, living and dying, we may be thine, through the merits and satisfaction of thy dear Son Christ Jesus." As with Morning Prayer, so in the evening, we end with the Trinitarian blessing upon our hearts.
There are other prayers with which we may supplement family Evening Prayer. Among my favorites are two prayers "At Night," the prayers for "Quiet Confidence," "For Guidance," "For Trustfulness," "For the Absent," and "For Those We Love." There is something of peace and comfort for me in ending my day in this way.
This is what I do now. I offer it not as an example to be followed. There are a great many excellent examples from church history and the Anglican tradition. What I write is not that of a spiritual guide or a spiritual man. It is simply the testimony of a perpetual Christian ragamuffin of how God is currently blessing him through The Book of Common Prayer. If it provides any encouragement to other ragamuffins, then I will be gratified. If it helps no one, I am happy to offer it simply as a testimony of God's current mercy to this ragamuffin through this ancient Christian resource.
There are almost endless places to personalize the service for one's own circumstances. In the Prayer of Confession, I often change, "Restore thou them that are penitent" to "Restore thou me as thou enablest me to be penitent." In the Absolution I almost always grab onto, after the pardon itself, "Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit..."
I love the way the Coverdale translation puts Psalm 56 which was read this morning: "Nevertheless, though sometime I am afraid, yet put I my trust in thee. I will comfort myself in God's word; yea, I will hope in God." Sometimes, yes often I am afraid, but the Psalmist was, also, at least sometimes, and he chose to put his trust in God at such times, something I need to learn more how to do.
In addition to several Psalms there are always two additional readings, one from the Old Testament, one from the New, and opportunities to meditate on them and turn them into sentence prayers. There are two places where we sinners can ask God to deliver us from sin. In the Te Deum Laudamus, where we join in holy praise along with the angels, the prophets and apostles, and the church throughout the world, we do not close except we pray, "Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin." In the third collect,"for grace," we pray that God will "grant that this day we fall into no sin."
Daily we pray for peace, for the graces for protection and guidance through the day, for the President and civil government, for God's blessing upon all clergy and people (and here I can pray especially for my Bishop, Dan Morse, and my colleagues in ministry). We also pray for "all conditions of men" that they may know God's salvation, for the church, that all who call themselves Christians may live as Christians, and finally "we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those who are in anyway afflicted, or distressed, in mind, body, or estate; that it may please thee to comfort and deliver them, according to their several necessities; giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions" (here there is opportunity to plug in petitions and intercessions for the needs of others).
Before we conclude the Prayer Book gives us a wonderful prayer for something many of us struggle with - thanksgiving - where we may, if we wish, name our many and personal blessings. We do not end without the ancient Prayer of St. Chrysostom, where we both express confidence in God's grace and power to answer our prayers and also acknowledge God's freedom to answer them according to what he judges is most expedient for us. We pray above all that in this world we may have knowledge of God's truth and in the world to come everlasting life. We leave with the apostolic blessing upon our hearts, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost."
I have learned to appreciate when I get in bed at night an abbreviated form of Evening Prayer found in the section of our Prayer Book called Family Prayer. There is the Lord's Prayer (already used twice during Morning Prayer), the collect of the day, a prayer for confession, contrition, and pardon with a prayer added that, if we fall into sin, we may reform and grow better in the future. There is an intercession in which we pray that the nations may have the light of the Gospel and for every member of Christ's church, as well as for those in authority.We pray for our relations, friends, and neighbors, and for our enemies. We ask God's mercy on all who are in any kind of trouble. Once again we have an excellent prayer for thanksgiving at the end of the day. Finally we pray for protection during the night. The part that I find most difficult to pray is what we may be given "grace always to live in such state that we may never be afraid to die; so that, living and dying, we may be thine, through the merits and satisfaction of thy dear Son Christ Jesus." As with Morning Prayer, so in the evening, we end with the Trinitarian blessing upon our hearts.
There are other prayers with which we may supplement family Evening Prayer. Among my favorites are two prayers "At Night," the prayers for "Quiet Confidence," "For Guidance," "For Trustfulness," "For the Absent," and "For Those We Love." There is something of peace and comfort for me in ending my day in this way.
This is what I do now. I offer it not as an example to be followed. There are a great many excellent examples from church history and the Anglican tradition. What I write is not that of a spiritual guide or a spiritual man. It is simply the testimony of a perpetual Christian ragamuffin of how God is currently blessing him through The Book of Common Prayer. If it provides any encouragement to other ragamuffins, then I will be gratified. If it helps no one, I am happy to offer it simply as a testimony of God's current mercy to this ragamuffin through this ancient Christian resource.
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