“But as for me, O LORD, I cry to you for help;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.” —Psalm 88:14.
A spiritual discipline that many people use is beginning and sometimes ending the day reading and meditating on Holy Scripture. Many denominations follow a daily lectionary of Scripture readings so that over a certain period of time the reader has studied major parts of the whole Bible. In the Episcopal tradition, the Book of Common Prayer lists a two-year cycle of daily Lessons taken from the Psalms, the Hebrew Scriptures, a New Testament letter, and one of the Gospels for each morning and evening. By the end of each seven-week period, the reader has digested the entire Book of Psalms. After the two-year cycle, the reader has been exposed twice to all of the books of the New Testament and once to pertinent portions of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Scripture readings can also be done as part of a structured morning and evening prayer service read alone or with others. These Daily Offices provide a contemplative framework for regular use as well as offering a pattern for regular reading of the Bible. Some people use a book of daily meditations that also contains Scripture readings; others use publications such as the Methodist The Upper Room, the Episcopal Forward Day By Day, and Catholic resources The Catholic Moment, The Word Among Us, and Being Catholic. Some of these meditations are available online for reading or listening.
The Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer are also online at many sites. One of the most popular office sites is The Mission of St. Clare www.missionstclare.com. I use the Daily Office online from the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis: dailyoffice.wordpress.com.
I hope to hear from many others about their use of other daily meditations and ways of structuring daily Scripture readings.
Joanna joannaseibert.com