Learning to Pray the Daily Offices

Prayers are given, too, in the layers of broken, pulverized pigments. Beauty is in the brokenness, not in what we can conceive as the perfections, not in the "finished" images but in the incomplete gestures.

Now, I await for my paintings to reveal themselves. Perhaps I will find myself rising through the ashes, through the beauty of such broken limitations.
Beauty without Regret, by Makoto Fujimura

Life is messy, and thus prayer can be messy too. And we need to recognize that cultivating a practice of prayer is a lifetime project of seeking the infinite personal God as our Father and Savior.

But I had long felt like my morning prayers were lacking in depth and an awareness of the pervading presence of God. They seemed disconnected from what I did later during the day. And, despite my aversion to written prayers (simply because I didn’t really know any), I found myself saying very much the same rote things every day. I didn’t realize the vast difference between written, and rote, prayers. And that there is no necessary connection between the two. “Spontaneous” prayers can tend towards being mechanical and unthinking routine or repetition just as readily as prescribed prayers.

So I would pray in the morning before I started my day in seeking God for the upcoming day, as I had always done, but would often feel frustrated with the experience because I lacked the language and framework not only to consciously bring me into God’s presence in the day, but also to consciously bring God’s presence in the day to me.

As Makoto says, “beauty is in the brokenness”, and sometimes it takes recovering an ancient practice to open us up in a new way to God, that he might be revealed as the painter that causes us to rise “through the ashes, through the beauty of such broken limitations.” This has been my experience these last three years. God is the original and ultimate artist, and his desire is to paint on the canvas of our days with his love and grace. We need to do what we can to give him the room to do that.

In early 2005 I started reading Scot McKnight’s blog, and it was there that I first encountered the practice of fixed hour prayer, also known as the “daily offices” or “divine offices.” I was intrigued by what he described and, after reading some of the prayers from prayer books that he posted on his blog, decided that this was something I should try. These prayers were beautiful, thoughtful, poetic, inspiring, and deep.

As a result of Scot’s blog postings that year, I purchased my own copy of a prayer book and started using it – albeit tentatively and very much as a novice/haltingly - to observe morning, noon, evening, and bedtime prayers each day. That prayer book three years ago was The Divine Hours, by Phyllis Tickle.

On Dec 8th 2005 I mentioned on my blog that it was my first day of praying the daily offices. Over the next 12 months I bought the other two books in the series and since then have continued to grow in this practice. These three books cover the entire year and together provide a framework for a lifetime of growing in the spiritual discipline of fixed hour prayer. Phyllis provides a very helpful introduction in each of the books that gives a history of the practice, description of how The Divine Hours prayer books came to be, and a good explanation of how to use these prayer books effectively.

For the last three years I have followed this discipline, often imperfectly, and sought to order my day around the prescribed prayers. We tend to try to “fit” prayer into our days, which is another way of saying that we order our prayer around our daily activities. Praying the offices turns this on its head, but providing a framework for ordering our daily activities around praying to God.

For example, every day I stop work as close to noon as I can, go to a private room (Matthew 6:6) and pray the prescribed Scripture readings and prayers of the noon office (Luke 11:2) for about 5-10 minutes. This is a difficult pattern to observe (and it never seems to get any easier), but it has transformed the way I view and experience the presence of God in my daily activities. I am constantly and regularly “resetting my compass” to God throughout the day and consciously inviting him into my work and leisure, interactions and tasks, joys and frustrations. And I find him to be there waiting for me every moment of the day. That quiet presence hidden just out of reach, yet ready to act in the situations I find myself in answer to my prayers.

If you are interested in practicing the daily offices but would like some good guidance on how to get started, or perhaps you are unsure if it is a valid spiritual practice, then you should read Scot McKnight’s excellent book Praying With the Church.

This book, written in Scot’s typical lucid and engaging style, provides a gentle, yet comprehensive, introduction to the biblical basis, history, diversity, and practical aspects of the daily offices. I recently purchased and read this book and found it to be very helpful in filling in gaps in my knowledge and experience, as well as making me aware of the many resources available for those who want to try prayer books from other Christian traditions.

As a result of reading Praying With the Church I decided to try observing Celtic prayers from the Northumbria Community for the offices using the Celtic Daily Prayer book. I loved the creational earthiness and spiritual awareness of the Celtic prayer, and enjoyed the freshness that came from learning new prayers that I could add to my observance when I so desire. This prayer book also has a wonderful treasury of prayers by Celtic spiritual leaders that I have found to be very encouraging and inspiring.

The Concluding Prayer of the Church – Thursday, Second Week of Advent

Open Lord, my eyes that I may see.
Open Lord, my ears that I may hear.
Open Lord, my heart and my mind that I may understand.
So shall I turn to you and be healed.

Traditional (from The Divine Hours, p. 343)

May God bring more Christians into the joy of this practice of following in the steps of Jesus and the early Christians through observing fixed hours of prayer. As we open our daily lives to being ordered around prayer may God more readily indwell our daily moments more that we may see his beauty in the incomplete gestures that fill our days.

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