Making the Daily Office part of your practice
the ancient cycle of prayer
…a way by which we keep ourselves in constant awareness of the divine order; an order of love and justice which embraces and underlies all order - John Macquarrie
During the Saint Benedict Cycle of Shaping the Parish we offer a pathway for those who would like to make the Office part of their rule of life. I want to offer that way of trying out that ancient cycle to those reading A Wonderful and Sacred Mystery.
Learning to say the Daily Office on your own
Four options:
1) Identify a parish or cathedral that says the Office on Zoom or Livestream daily. A few possibilities: Grace Cathedral, San Francisco MP 9:00 am, EP 5:30 pm ; St. Michael and All Angels MP 8:00 am Albuquerque; Atonement, Chicago MP 8:30 am; St. John the Divine, NYC MP 8:30 am
2) Identify a parish in your area that does it daily in person and join them.
3) Use one of the web based programs, for example, The Daily Office app
4) Partner with a friend or two and try it together.
Learning process:
1) Commit to doing it daily for two weeks. That’s enough time to begin to get a sense of the rhythm of the Office.
2) Read a few short pieces on the office, e.g., The Daily Office – For your reflection, a number of quotes highlighting aspects of the Office, Daily Office Synergy – making the Office sustainable in a parish church. You can also do a “Daily Office” search on A Wonderful and Sacred Mystery. It will generate a number of related articles.
As we said the daily offices day by day, we became more and more aware of the living reality of the invisible 'communion of saints' - of the beloved community at home who were saying the offices too, of the ones gathered around a near-distant throne in heaven-who blend with theirs our faltering songs of prayer and praise. With them, with black men and white men, with all of life, in Him Whose Name is above all the names that the races and nations shout, whose Name is Itself the Song Which fulfills and 'ends' all songs, we are indelibly, unspeakably ONE. - Jonathan Daniels, writing shortly before his death
This abides,
Brother Robert, OA
The Feast of Scholastica, Monastic, 543