New To Morning Prayers? Why, Resources, and Opening

(This is a summary of the video by the same name though Stefanie can never stick to a script!)

Morning Prayer offers a structure of prayer and praise. It takes the guess work out of how to structure your devotional time with the Lord each day. By praying it daily you will read all of the Psalms either on a 7 week rotation or a 30 day rotation, as well as much of the rest of scripture over the course of two years. This can take out some of the angst about what to read each day and the constant searching for the next devotional book to fill the void after you’ve finished with the last one. It doesn’t remove the need for you to engage each prayer, reading, Psalm or canticle. You still have to give your heart and mind to it in order for it to shape you into Christlikeness.

But the mere fact that you commit to praying Morning Prayer removes one of the biggest hurdles in our relationship with Jesus which is simply not knowing what to do. We want to know more about the Bible, we want to pray more, but we simple don’t know where to begin. We have lots of starts and stops that can leave us feeling defeated. Committing to this removes that barrier. And in a time of uncertainty, you have something solid to rely on. You can supplement this with any Christian book you are reading, and as we go through each piece of Morning Prayer in these videos I’ll share my suggestions with you about pausing, reflecting, journaling, adding extemporaneous prayers, and such so that your time isn’t just reading words on a page, but a time of encounter, listening, and formation. A time to meet with the God of the universe who created you and delights in you. I don’t know about you, but I want more of that!

So a couple notes about options for your personal use:

We have been using the 1979 BCP.

There is both a Rite 1 and a Rite 2. At the risk of oversimplification, Rite 1 uses older traditional language and Rite 2 more contemporary. However, there are things that one Rite includes or omits that the other does not or different prayers they make use of at different times. We have been praying Rite 2, and I find for most people who are unfamiliar with some of the traditional language of the liturgy Rite 2 is an easier place to begin than Rite 1.

The new ACNA Texts for Common Prayer includes Morning Prayer with just one option, and I find the layout much easier to follow. They’ve done a good job designing it so you know what do read, pray, or do (such as kneeling) easily. That is an option if you are interested.

There is also an app that I have on my phone that I find helpful called “Electronic Common Prayer.” It has the offices as well as the readings together. Once you find your way around the app it is easy to navigate, and it is nice to be able to use it if you don’t want to travel with a lot.

There are also books which have the office and the readings combined. This can save some of the time you might have spent looking up the readings first in the BCP and then in the Bible. We’ll talk about the benefits of each of those in later videos.

I want to share one more book as a resource for you: Inwardly Digest: The Prayer Book as Guide to a Spiritual Life by Derek Olsen. This takes a deeper dive into these topics without becoming too heady or scholarly. If you are interested, this can be a very helpful companion read and has informed a lot of what I’ll share.

So now let’s turn to the opening of Morning Prayer:

-There are two options. You can begin with the invitatory sentences and confessions, which we do when we pray together as a group. Or you can begin with the Invitatory and Psalter “Lord, open our lips….and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.”

To begin with the opening sentences is a great way to ground your prayer time in the Christian calendar. There are different opening sentences depending on the season. Starting with one of these helps keep the season in mind as you pray which can be really fruitful to bring out connections you might normally miss. This is followed by the confession. Since Morning Prayer forms our weekly worship, I find it important to keep the confession and absolution as part of our worship time. If you are praying on your own each day, it is up to you if you want to include this or not.

If you skip the opening sentence and confession you begin with, “Lord open our lips…” This is a great way to begin your day. Imagine the first time you speak in the morning is a request for God to open your lips so that we may praise God seeking his glory not our own. Even if you begin Morning Prayer with the opening sentence and confession, don’t let this request pass you by.

Our time spent with the Lord in prayer, praise, and scripture reading all serve to shape us into Christlikeness. Find a spot that you can focus for a time, somewhere that you are comfortable enough to not be distracted but not so comfortable you fall asleep—I am saying from experience. Grab your morning coffee or tea and begin in whichever way you choose with expectation that you are joining in prayer with Christians around the world and through the ages in a dynamic and loving conversation with our most gracious God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

#anglican #morningprayers #pray #jesus #priest