Daily Prayer Practice

Tickle: Daily Prayer Practices

Canticle: A Song of Pilgrimage 

“Before I ventured forth,
even while I was very young,*
I sought wisdom openly in my prayer.
In the forecourts of the temple I asked for her,*
and I will seek her to the end.
From first blossom to early fruit,*
she has been the delight of my heart.
My foot has kept firmly to the true path,*
diligently from my youth have I pursued her.
I inclined my ear a little and received her;*
I found for myself much wisdom and became adept in her.
To the one who gives me wisdom will I give glory,*
for I have resolved to live according to her way.
From the beginning I gained courage from her,*
therefore I will not be forsaken.
In my inmost being I have been stirred to seek her,*
therefore have I gained a good possession.
As my reward the Almighty has given me the gift of language,*
and with it will I offer praise to God.”—Ecclesiasticus 51:13-16, 20b-22.

This “Song of Pilgrimage from Ecclesiasticus” is one of the Canticles offered for Morning and Evening Prayer in Enriching Our Worship 1, one of the early alternative Canticles for the Book of Common Prayer.

Christians inherited a pattern of daily prayer from the Jews, who set aside specific times for worship three times a day. More diligent Christians later took to heart the Psalm 119:164 verse, “Seven times a day do I praise you.”

By the Middle Ages, monks had developed a tradition of seven daily prayer times: Matins before dawn and Lauds at daybreak, combined into one service. Then, at sunrise, midmorning, noon, and midafternoon came Prime, Terce, Sext, and None; Vespers was observed at sundown and Compline at bedtime. Monks and nuns in monasteries faithfully kept this schedule over the centuries. Lay people could come when possible.

In 1549, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, in the first English Book of Common Prayer, developed the structure to enable ordinary people to follow a prayer schedule and praise God at the beginning and end of each day through two services: Morning and Evening Prayer. The 1979 BCP, as it stands today, restored Noonday Prayers and Compline. (See A User’s Guide to Morning Prayer and Baptism by Christopher Webber.)

Phyllis Tickle, the theologian, writer, and founding Religion Editor of Publishers Weekly, reintroduced a shorter version of daily observation of the Divine Hours in a series of books that many now follow. There is a pocket edition for easy carry. Her shorter versions of morning, noon, evening (Vespers), and bedtime (Compline) prayers, readings, and Scripture offer a way to pause our work and reconnect with God frequently during the day and evening.

The readings are also online at http://www.explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/hours.php and http://annarborvineyard.org/tdh/tdh.cfm.

Consider observing at least one of the daily offices. Noonday prayers are offered on St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Little Rock’s Facebook page. Morning Prayer is offered on weekdays in the chapel.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Kairos Time

Kairos Time

“Music helps us ‘keep time’ in the sense of keeping us in touch with time, not just time as an ever-flowing stream that bears all of us away at last, but time also as a stream that every once in a while slows down and becomes transparent enough for us to see down to the streambed the way, at a wedding, say, or watching the sunrise, past, present, and future are so caught up in a single moment that we catch a glimpse of the mystery that, at its deepest place, time is timeless.”—Frederic Buechner in Beyond Words.

Buechner writes that artists who paint work with space, while time is the medium for musicians, as the changing sound of one note follows another in different time intervals. I hear each bird singing outside my window with an identifying rhythm. Even the silent wind makes a variable sound as it moves through nearby trees.

The rain also sounds at regular and irregular beats on our bedroom roof, often like an alarm clock in the early morning. Our grandchildren once loved to lie in our bed and listen to the sound of rain beating on our roof as we watched movies together.

Each day, we awaken to a new gift of time. Buechner goes further to say that the movements of a symphony teach us about the movements of our daily lives, streaming from one sound, one instrument to another, often in repetition. Our favorite musicians and nature’s constant sounds help us keep time for these movements to flow through our lives.

Sometimes, this stream of music in our lives slows down just enough for us to see clearly the bottom of the stream and live in the present moment at sunsets, graduations, births of our children, weddings, funerals, and sacred liturgies. We realize the mystery of how time is timeless. This is living is Kairos time, God’s time, eternity.

I had a similar experience while writing my last book, Letters from My Grandfather, as I responded to letters from my grandfather written fifty and sixty years ago. I experienced an absence of linear time and sensed a timelessness between us. Here, it was not music but writing where time became timeless.  

Joanna joannaseibert.com https://www.joannaseibert.com/

First Steps on a Spiritual Journey

The First Step

“The heroic first step of the journey is out of, or over the edge of, your boundaries, and it often must be taken before you know that you will be supported. The hero’s journey has been compared to a birth; it starts out warm and snug in a safe place; then comes a signal, growing more insistent, that it is time to leave. To stay beyond your time is to putrefy. Without the blood and searing and pain, there is no new life.”—Diane Osbon in A Joseph Campbell Companion (N. Y.: HarperCollins, 1995).

People sometimes seek spiritual direction as they take that first step toward becoming the person God created them to be. It is a fork in the road, and they are always on the road less traveled. Sometimes, the path is so undeveloped or un-cared for that it is overgrown. Someone who has traveled that way before can only see a recognizable path. Therefore, we look for and need spiritual friends along the way.

Sometimes, someone may need to hold our hand just to get us started. At other times, we see the way after just minimal help. Sometimes, we need a companion for a greater distance until we become familiar with the path and adjust to its twists and turns. The journey and the first step is a birth, offering a multitude of opportunities for rebirth. Before hearing our new voice, we can always count on labor pains and a messy experience. Friends and family may have difficulty accepting our change, our new birth, and the unique path we are now on.

Treasuring the journey instead of focusing on a goal can always keep us from wandering off the path.

Thank you for supporting our camp and conference center, Camp Mitchell, on top of Petit Jean Mountain, by buying this book in the daily series of writings for the liturgical year, A Daily Spiritual Rx for Ordinary Time: Readings from Pentecost to Advent. All proceeds from the sale of the books will go to Camp Mitchell. If you enjoy this book, could you please take a moment to write a brief recommendation on its Amazon page? https://smile.amazon.com/Daily-Spiritual-Ordinary-Time-Pentecost/dp/B08JLTZYGH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=joanna+seibert+books&qid=1621104335&sr=8-1

 More thank-you’s than we can say!!!

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/