Advice – Page 8 – The Saint Aelfric Customary

Posted on February 12, 2020February 7, 2020 by Fr. Brench

Learning the Daily Office – part 5 of 12

So you’ve heard about the Daily Office, specifically the Anglican tradition of daily prayer and scripture reading, and you want to enter into this beautiful and formative tradition? Great, grab a prayer book and go! Except, maybe someone already said that and you don’t know where to start… or worse, you did try it and it was just too much? The length of the Office was overwhelming and the contents too complicated to navigate when you’ve got no experience with liturgy. We understand, we’ve all been at that place before! Some just don’t remember it as well as others.

Diving into the full Prayer Book life of worship doesn’t work for everyone; sometimes you have to work your way up toward that discipline, adding one piece at a time as you grow comfortable with each feature and learn how to “do” them all. This post series is basically a twelve-step program to help you advance in the life of disciplined prayer from zero to super-Anglican. The pace is up to you – the goal of this sort of spiritual discipline is consistency, not “how much” you do.

Step One: Pray a Psalm followed by the Lord’s Prayer.
Step Two: Add a Scripture Reading
Step Three: Add more Psalms and Lessons
Step Four: Add the Apostles’ Creed

Step Five: Add Canticles

In terms of content and outline, you’ve already reached a distinctly historic Christian pattern of worship. This step adds in “Canticles”, which are occasionally Psalms but usually Psalm-like texts from other parts of the Bible, to be read after each Scripture Lesson. This is where you really start entering into the liturgical history of the Church!

Functionally, this step does not introduce anything new; you started with learning to pray the psalms, and the Canticles work exactly the same way. Experientially this is purely a matter of logistics: all the Psalms Appointed for the morning or evening are prayed together, then you get the Lessons, both of which are followed by a Canticle.

In Morning Prayer, find your canticles starting on page 17 – you’ll see two choices (Te Deum laudamus and Benedictus es, Domine) for the first one and the Benedictus for the second. In Evening Prayer, find your canticles starting on page 45 – the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis. There are also Supplemental Canticles for Worship starting on page 79 and I do have a guide to choosing among them, but it’s simplest to stick with the primary ones provided in the Morning and Evening Office liturgies and get used to them first. The supplemental canticles are just that – supplemental.

Summary

Your Morning & Evening Offices are now looking like this:

The Psalm(s) Appointed
Old Testament Lesson (occasionally the first lesson is from the NT instead)
First Canticle
New Testament Lesson
Second Canticle
The Apostles’ Creed (consider standing up for this!)
The Lord’s Prayer

This makes your recitation of the Daily Office about ten to fifteen minutes in length each morning and evening. You are now also engaging with four different places in the Prayer Book: the middle of the Morning Prayer liturgy, the middle of the Evening Prayer liturgy, the Psalter, and the Daily Office Lectionary.

Once you get used to this, you’ll be well-positioned to fill out the rest of the Daily Office liturgies. Chances are that the next couple steps will progress quickly.

Posted on February 4, 2020January 13, 2020 by Fr. Brench

Learning the Daily Office – part 4 of 12

Step One: Pray a Psalm followed by the Lord’s Prayer.
Step Two: Add a Scripture Reading
Step Three: Add more Psalms and Lessons

Step Four: Add the Apostles’ Creed

This is a small step, logistically speaking, but it’s a milestone in your development of the discipline of the Daily Office. This is your first not-from-the-Bible ingredient in your prayer life, and this may be especially foreign or challenging for you depending upon your background.

As Anglicans we emphasize our adherence to creedal orthodoxy; that is, we look to the great Creeds (in our case three of them) to summarize the dogmas of the Christian faith – dogma being that which must be believed. When we include a Creed in a worship service, it is for multiple reasons.

It is a formation tool, helping us to internalize the basics of the faith.
It is a teaching tool, helping us to understand what we read in the Bible.
It is a particular form of prayer: a confession of faith.

Although none of the Psalms literally say “I believe ___”, there are many confessions of faith found within the psalms – proclaiming God’s goodness, or mercy, or love. The reciting of a Creed is a development of that form of prayer, stating more explicitly a number of key points of doctrine regarding God, the person of Jesus, the Gospel, the Holy Spirit, and the Church.

Furthermore, we use the Apostles’ Creed in the Daily Office not only because it’s the shortest creed but because it was historically associated with the rite of holy baptism – this Creed (as best we can tell) was formed as the summary of the faith that was proclaimed in the Early Church when someone was getting baptized. So as we confess our faith with this creed in Morning and Evening Prayer we are essentially re-affirming our baptismal vows, recommitting ourselves to God and his Church and his Gospel.

It’s a small thing to add, but it’s a major addition to take in!

The Apostles’ Creed can be found on page 20 of the Prayer Book, shortly before the Lord’s Prayer in the liturgy. For now, you will be now praying the Creed immediately before the Lord’s Prayer. Some wise logistics, as a result, should be that you make a point of saving one of appointed Psalms to follow the first Lesson and a second Psalm to follow the second Lesson, in order to separate the Bible-reading from the Creed-reciting. Not every morning and evening will provide enough Psalms to accomplish this, so don’t sweat it if you run out. This isn’t the end of the road, after all, and the next step in this series will “solve” that problem anyway.

Summary

Your Morning & Evening Offices are now looking like this:

Psalm(s) to pray
Old Testament Lesson (occasionally the first lesson is from the NT instead)
Psalm to pray
New Testament Lesson
Psalm to pray (usually)
The Apostles’ Creed (consider standing up for this!)
The Lord’s Prayer

The length of time to do all this is still probably about five minutes, maybe as many as ten if the readings are particularly long and you’re reading them out loud. Same with the Psalms – praying them means reading them aloud – and sometimes they can be a little lengthy too.

Posted on January 31, 2020January 30, 2020 by Fr. Brench · 1 Comment

Filling in the blank: 1 Esdras

One of the interesting features of Anglican liturgical tradition is that one of our foundational documents (the 39 Articles of Religion) lists the canonical books of the Bible along with “the other books which the church doth read…” yet some of those other books are not actually covered in our lectionaries. One such book is 1 Esdras.

You can learn more about this modest little book in some previous posts here, and even a video: The Least-read book of the Bible?

I bring it up now because in this Customary’s Supplemental Midday Prayer Lectionary we are starting in on 1 Esdras today. If you’ve never read this book before and want to catch up on what you’ve been missing, now’s your chance to read a long, bit by bit, during Midday Prayer. It’s only 9 chapters long, but several of them are quite lengthy so it’s spread out through 3 weeks so you don’t have to get drowned in too many long readings.

Though, if you’re already familiar with 2 Chronicles and Ezra, then you’ll already be familiar with the majority of this book!

Posted on January 30, 2020January 29, 2020 by Fr. Brench

Commemorating King Charles the Martyr

January 30th is the commemoration of King Charles the Martyr. In the 1662 Prayer Book (though later removed) this day was one of special devotion and fasting. A particular set of Collects, Scripture readings, Psalms, both for the Daily Offices and the Communion of the Day, and even a unique anthem in place of the usual Invitatory Psalm was prescribed. I suppose it was deemed to nationalistic or something, as it has since disappeared from that book. And with its heavy pro-monarchy language, it’s no wonder that it didn’t proliferate even into the “black letter day” commemorations of the American Prayer Book until (as far as I know) 2019.

I have written about the Martyrdom of Charles I before, once on my pastor’s blog and once on here last year, and I commend those to you if you want or need an introduction to his commemoration from an historical perspective. You can also get it straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were, and check out the actual 1662 prayer book material. Just scroll to the bottom and click on “Form of Prayer for the 30th Day of January.”

This entry, today, here and now, is turning instead to the question of how one can commemorate King Charles I in accordance with the 2019 Prayer Book.

The simplest approach would be to celebrate Communion or Antecommunion using the Propers For a Martyr as set forth int eh 2019 Prayer Book. But if you want to get fancier…

The Collect of the Day

This Collect is one of the two presented in the 1662 Prayer Book. Although it is not explicitly authorized in the 2019 Prayer Book, its use can be justified because it is an authentic piece of prior Prayer Book tradition (only “translated” to modern English) and because the ACNA is preparing a Lesser Feasts & Fasts book which will most likely put forth a Collect for this and other commemorations.

Blessed Lord, in whose sight the death of your saints is precious; We magnify your name for the abundant grace bestowed upon the martyred King, Charles the First; by which he was enabled so cheerfully to follow the steps of his blessed Master and Savior, in a constant meek suffering of all barbarous indignities, and at last resisting unto blood; and even then, according to the same pattern, praying for his murderers. Let his memory, O Lord, be ever blessed among us; that we may follow the example of his courage and constancy, his meekness and patience, and great charity: and all for Jesus Christ’s sake, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

The Lessons at Holy Communion

The Epistle and Gospel here are those appointed in the 1662 Prayer Book. The Old Testament lesson is from the same book’s Morning Prayer Office for this day, and the Psalm, likewise, is a part of the Psalms Appointed for the Morning of that day.

2 Samuel 1; Psalm 10:1-12; 1 Peter 2:13-22; Matthew 21:33-41.

Midday Prayer

The Supplemental Midday Prayer Lectionary provided here appoints 2 Samuel 1 as the commemorative reading for today. But if you are reading it for Communion or Antecommunion today, then read a different option from the 1662 book, like Jeremiah 12.

Posted on January 28, 2020January 13, 2020 by Fr. Brench · 3 Comments

Learning the Daily Office – part 3 of 12

Step One: Pray a Psalm followed by the Lord’s Prayer.
Step Two: Add a Scripture Reading

Step Three: Add more Psalms and Lessons

If all’s going well, your twice-daily round of praying a psalm and reading a scripture lesson has increased your appetite for both. Individuals may well find more comfort and affinity with one of those over the other, but as you grow into the Daily Office tradition there’s still more of both to add. When you’re consistently covering one Psalm and Lesson each morning and evening, it’s time to add a second Lesson and additional Psalms to each Office. You will be reading all the Lessons in the Daily Office Lectionary, and it’s probably time also to upgrade from the 60-day Psalter to the Anglican standard monthly psalter.

The monthly psalter is outlined in a table that is provided on page 735, just before the Daily Office Lectionary begins, but the Psalms themselves are also in the Prayer Book, on starting on page 270. If you weren’t before, it’s time to start using the Prayer Book Psalter. Even though you’re reading from a Bible, there are a few reasons to prefer the Prayer Book for the Psalms:

The Prayer Book Psalter clearly marks out where the psalms for each Office begin (every morning and evening for each day of the month, read sequentially).
The Prayer Book Psalter translation is intentionally poetic and beautiful, which cannot be said about any mainstream Bible translation. The ESV or NASB may be the best translations for study, but we’re here to pray the psalms, not analyze them. (Not that you can’t study the psalms of course, it’s just that the Office is time of prayer.)
Using the Prayer Book is a useful skill that you will be developing bit by bit from here on.

Logistically, what you probably want to do at this point is different from how the Office in its full form will work. Ultimately, all these Psalms will be prayed in a row before the Lessons, and there will be different things after each reading. But for now, start in the psalms for the morning and evening and save the last one or two to pray between the two Lessons, or perhaps after both Lessons.

The point of interspersing the Psalms with the Lessons is to provide a little distance between the two readings. In the Daily Office Lectionary the readings are just moving sequentially through the Bible independently of one another, so by stopping to pray a Psalm after the first lesson you “clear your mind” a little bit before reading the next lesson. You don’t want to conflate them in your head and attempt to link them together artifically; that’s not how a Daily lectionary works. Taking a moment to pray a Psalm after each Lesson also helps keep your reading in a context of prayer, cutting down on the “study” mentality and enhancing the “worship” mentality. Again, this is not to say that studying the Bible is bad, but that such should not interrupt the course of worship. At most, make a highlight or note in your Bible or on a book mark so you can return to it when the prayer time is concluded.

Summary

Your Morning & Evening Offices are now looking like this:

Psalm(s) to pray
Old Testament Lesson (occasionally the first lesson is from the NT instead)
Psalm to pray
New Testament Lesson
Psalm to pray (maybe)
The Lord’s Prayer

The length of time to do all this is probably about five minutes, maybe as many as ten if the readings are particularly long and you’re reading them out loud. Same with the Psalms – praying them means reading them aloud – and sometimes they can be a little lengthy too.

Posted on January 27, 2020January 26, 2020 by Fr. Brench

Planning Prayers & Readings Review 1/27

On Monday, most weeks these days, we’re looking at the liturgical schedule to highlight the propers, prayers and scripture readings, that we’re holding in common according to the 2019 Prayer Book.

Communion Propers

Yesterday was the 3rd Sunday of Epiphany, so the first traditional prayer book option for a weekday Eucharist is to repeat yesterday’s Collect and Lessons. Another good option would be to use the traditional Collect and Lessons for Epiphany 3, which deal with the healing of a leper and an epileptic. Because of the missional tone that the modern lectionary brings to the fore in this season, good second choice for a weekday Eucharist is For the Mission of the Church, noted on page 733, using the propers for World Mission Sunday.

On Thursday the 30th, one of our commemorations is for King Charles I, who was martyred in 1649. The 1662 Prayer Book actually had a special set of liturgical material for his commemoration initially – I’m not sure when it was removed. In line with that particular honor, it is the recommendation of the Saint Aelfric Customary to treat his commemoration as a de facto holy day. Read a Collect for his day as the Collect of the Day at the Offices, and if there’s a eucharist service that, observe his commemoration!

Apart from that, some other commemorations to consider are Sts. Lydia, Dorcas, and Phoebe on Monday the 27th, St. Thomas Aquinas on Tuesday, and St. Brigid of Kildare on Saturday.

And make sure ready ready for the feast of The Presentation on Sunday!

Readings Review

Last week: Genesis 19-24, John 9-13, Jeremiah 18-24, 1 Corinthians 3-9
This week: Genesis 25-31, John 13-16, Jeremiah 25-31, 1 Corinthians 10-15:34

The chapters we’re reading from John’s Gospel this week are the “Upper Room Discourse” – the final teachings of our Lord before his crucifixion. Much of it is about the then-future gift of the Holy Spirit, earning these chapters a prominent role as the Gospel readings at the Sunday Communion services in the later weeks of Eastertide as Pentecost approaches. But also keep in mind the signs/glory demarcation of this book. Last week finished up the first “half” of the book focusing on the signs that point to the glory of Christ, and now we’re in the half of the book that focuses on the glory of Christ being revealed. These teachings from the upper room are among the most theologically significant statements we have from our Lord – much of what we know and say about the Trinity, the two natures of Christ, the relationship between the Father and the Son, the person of the Holy Spirit, come from chapters 14-17. So while reading these chapters leading up to Pentecost and Trinity Sunday give us one level of emphasis and help uncover one stratum of meaning, there is plenty more to pick up here outside of that context, such as now.

Posted on January 22, 2020January 21, 2020 by Fr. Brench · 1 Comment

Preparing for Candlemas

Coming up in a couple weeks is one of those lovely opportunities to celebrate one of the Holy Days, or “red letter days” with the whole church on a Sunday: the feast of the Presentation of our Lord, or, the Purification of Mary. It’s on February 2nd, which is about two Sundays away now.

First of all, if you need to freshen up your memory on the meaning and significance of this holiday, click here for my introduction from a previous year. There you’ll get a run-down of several scripture readings, a collect, and a canticle that are associated with this celebration.

For many 1979-prayer-book-users, it is a hard adjustment realizing that we are “allowed” to celebrate holy days like this on Sundays. It cannot be emphasized enough that before 1979 it was universal practice to observe holy days that land on Sundays outside of Lent/Easter/Pentecost, and Advent. Be glad to reclaim another piece of our heritage! Plus, holy days like these also help “break up” the predictability of the Sundays of the year somewhat, providing moments of something different.

Although in the case of this feast day, it’s not really that much of an interruption, because the Presentation of Christ in the Temple has strong connections to Christmas and Epiphany. February 2nd is “the 40th day of Christmas“, matching the timing of the historical presentation in the Temple; and one of the key lines in the Gospel story of this holiday identifies Jesus as “a light to lighten the gentiles”, playing perfectly into one of the themes of Epiphanytide. So it would really be a crying shame not to observe this day a couple Sundays from now.

One of the “extra things” that make this holiday stand out is the tradition of blessing candles for the church and the congregation. There is a brief rite for this in A Manual for Priests in the American Church which I have adapted to our contemporary-language prayer book style, below. Note that this is from a book that assumes a high churchmanship which many of you who read this may not be prepared (or even desirous) to implement. But the ceremonial can always be simplified for your context, should you choose to do something like this at the beginning of the liturgy.

The Blessing and Distribution of Candles on February 2

This ancient blessing, symbolic of Christ the True Light of the world, should take place immediately before the principle Mass on the Feast of the Purification of Mary (Presentation of Christ). In many places it is customary to bless the year’s supply of candles together with the candles which are to be given to the people at this service.

The candles to be blessed and distributed are usually placed at the Epistle side of the Sanctuary, near the Altar. The Altar should be vested in white. The Priest who is to celebrate, vested in amice, alb, girdle, white stole and cope (if no cope is available the chasuble may be worn), having arrived at the Altar, goes to the Epistle side. Without turning to the people, he begins the office of blessing, singing or saying:

The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, who as on this day did present your only-begotten Son in your holy temple to be received in the arms of blessed Simeon: We humbly entreat your mercy, that you would condescend to +bless, +hallow, and kindle with the light of your heavenly benediction these candles which we your servants desire to receive and to carry, lighted in honor of your holy Name. By offering them to you, our Lord and God, may we be inflamed with the fire of your love, and made worthy to be presented in the holy temple of your glory; through the same your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, world without end. Amen.

Then the Priest [after putting incense into the thurible and blessing it] will thrice sprinkle the candles with holy water, saying once only,

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

[Then he censes them thrice.]

If another Priest is present, he gives a candle to the celebrant, who does not kneel.

Other clergy and acolytes receive their candles kneeling at the footpace; the people kneel at the Altar Rail.

During the distribution it is customary to sing the Nunc Dimittis, in the following manner:

Antiphon: A light to lighten the Gentiles: and the glory of your people Israel.

Lord, now let your servant depart in peace * according to your word.

Antiphon.

For my eyes have seen * your salvation,

Antiphon.

Which you have prepared * before the face of all people;

Antiphon.

To be a light to lighten the Gentiles * and to be the glory of your people Israel.

Antiphon.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son * and to the Holy Spirit;

Antiphon.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be * world without end.

Antiphon.

When all have received their candles, and returned to their places, the candles which the people are carrying should be lighted. The light may be given by acolytes or ushers.

As soon as the anthem is finished, the Priest shall sing or say: Let us pray.

We beseech you, O Lord, mercifully to hear the prayers of your people; and grant that by this service which year by year we offer to you, we may, in the light of your grace, attain to the hidden things of your glory; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then the Procession is formed. [And first the Priest puts incense in the censer and blesses it.] Turning to the people, he sings,

Let us go forth in peace.
In the Name of Christ. Amen.

During the Procession, all carry lighted candles, and appropriate hymns and anthems should be sung. The Procession ended, the Priest lays aside his cope, and puts on the chasuble for the Mass of the feast. It is an ancient custom for all to hold lighted candles during the reading of the Gospel, and from the Consecration to the Communion.

Posted on January 21, 2020January 13, 2020 by Fr. Brench

Learning the Daily Office – part 2 of 12

Step One: Pray a Psalm followed by the Lord’s Prayer.

Step Two: Add a Scripture Reading

With the daily rounds of psalm-praying every morning and evening in place, it is time to start reading the Bible too. The Evangelical mentality may balk at this order – why not start with bible-readings and then add prayers? This can be answered in a couple different ways:

The Psalms are from the Bible, as is the Lord’s Prayer, so Step One was already completely biblical.
Historically, most people didn’t learn to read, so Bible-reading was never really an option; instead they relied on what they could memorize – psalms to sing!
The daily office is, first, a discipline of prayer. We need to focus on the prayer before we move on to include “study”.

So once your psalm-praying is consistently in place, it’s time to put in a Lesson (a reading from the Bible) between that Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer. Since you’re working toward the daily office tradition, you should start with a part of the Daily Office Lectionary. Pick one reading “track” for Morning Prayer and one for Evening Prayer and stick to them. It’d be best to make sure that one is Old Testament and the other is New Testament. Eventually you’ll be reading from both the OT and the NT in both morning and evening, but you’re pacing yourself. Get used to one reading first. Depending upon your background and experience you may find some of our Lessons (especially from the Old Testament) to be rather longer than you’re used to.

You may be tempted, as you read, to look up what individual words mean, or who individual people are, or whatnot. Resist such interruptions. Finish the reading, round it off with the Lord’s Prayer to complete the Office, and then go look things up if you need to. The Daily Office is not a Bible Study, it’s a time of devotion and prayer; the reading of Scripture in the Office is not (historically) followed up by an expository sermon, preaching usually lands in a different liturgical context. Rather, these scripture lessons are first for exposure and second for familiarity. If you endeavor to study everything you read, from the very start of your devotional-reading journey, then you may get lost in the details and end up swamped and discouraged. Receive what you understand and pass along by what you don’t understand. It may be that you will find the answer to your question in the next chapter, or in another part of the Bible. Honestly it takes a couple read-throughs of the Bible to begin to develop a memorable sense of its scope and contents, so it isn’t fair to put too much pressure on yourself too soon.

Summary

It’s only step two and you’ve already got an identifiable “Office of Prayer” in place: pray a psalm, read a scripture lesson, and close with the Lord’s Prayer. In a sense, everything that follows from here is an expansion upon this basic kernel.

Posted on January 20, 2020January 19, 2020 by Fr. Brench

Planning Prayers & Readings Review 1/20

Communion Propers

Yesterday was the 2nd Sunday of Epiphany, so the first traditional prayer book option for a weekday Eucharist is to repeat yesterday’s Collect and Lessons. Another good option would be to use the traditional Collect and Lessons for Epiphany 2, which deal with the wedding at Cana. Because of the missional tone that the modern lectionary brings to the fore in this season, good second choice for a weekday Eucharist is For the Mission of the Church, noted on page 733, using the propers for World Mission Sunday.

And, of course, Saturday is a major feast day, so be sure to observe the Conversion of St. Paul – the Collect for that Day beginning at Evening Prayer on Friday, and carrying through Saturday evening.

Apart from that, some commemorations to consider are St. Fabian today (Monday the 20th), St. Agnes tomorrow, and St. Vincent of Saragossa on Wednesday the 22nd.

Readings Review

Last week: Genesis 12-18, John 6-8, Jeremiah 11-17, 1 Thessalonians 4-5, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians 1-2
This week: Genesis 19-24, John 9-13, Jeremiah 18-24, 1 Corinthians 3-9

Special reading for the Conversion of St. Paul on Saturday morning: Acts 9:1-22. This is not one of the lessons appointed for the Communion service that day, but it is similar – the reading in the place of the Epistle is Acts 26:9-21, which is one of St. Paul’s re-tellings of his conversion on the road to Damascus, whereas the morning’s reading from Acts 9 is the initial account of that event in this book.

Our readings from John’s Gospel complete the “Book of Signs”, or, the first half of the book. For the most part this is a forward-looking section of the book, anticipating the “glorification” of Jesus which is to take place on the Cross. If you search this book for the words glory and glorify and glorification you’ll find a massive concentration of them in chapter 12, where the book makes its turning point – “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified!” The last supper follows, and does his final discourse before his arrest, trials, suffering, and death. That is the “Book of Glory” where all the “signs” finally pay off.

Posted on January 14, 2020January 13, 2020 by Fr. Brench · 4 Comments

Learning the Daily Office – part 1 of 12

Step One: Pray a Psalm followed by the Lord’s Prayer.

Every morning and evening do two things: pray one Psalm (or perhaps part of one, if it’s really long), and follow it up with the Lord’s Prayer. If you’ve been a Christian for a while, you’ve probably memorized the latter, but if you haven’t, use it in the 2019 Prayer Book on page 21. The Lord’s Prayer was taught by Jesus (hence the name the Lord’s prayer), and is a pretty straight-forward thing to pray. There is much about it that can be studied deeply, analyzing its words and structure, just like any other biblical text, but it’s also just readily understandable and easy to pray as your own prayer.

What may be more challenging is praying the psalms. While this is a basic spiritual practice going back thousands of years, it is a tragically lost art for many (if not most) Protestant Christians today. People “know” that the psalms are song-prayers, but actually praying them is a foreign concept. If we are to be faithful to the Scriptures, though, we must pray the psalms, rather than simply read or study them. They were written to be prayed, individually and corporately, so failure to do so is failure to receive the authoritative scriptures in their fullness.

So how does one learn to pray the psalms?

Read the Psalm(s) out loud.
Once you’re used to the content of the Psalm(s) in question, imagine you and Jesus are reading them together.
Imagine you and Jesus are reading them together to God the Father.
Imagine you and Jesus and the entire Church are reading them together to God the Father.

The key realizations that will click over time (not necessarily in this order) are:

that sometimes the content of the psalm will give voice to the cry of your own heart and sometimes it will not
that there are many “voices” in the Psalms, and if it isn’t yours personally it may be those of Jesus, or of the Church, or of the martyrs, etc.
that the psalms are incredibly influential in the writing of many other prayers, collects, suffrages, litanies, and so forth.

Perhaps even your own extemporaneous prayers will start to use psalm-like language; but remember the goal is not memorization. If some of that happens along the way, that’s awesome. But the goal is to be familiar with the psalms so they can work through your heart as you read them, not just process their information like in a bible study.

As for which psalms to pray, it may be best to start out with following the “60 Day Psalter” provided in our Daily Office Lectionary on pages 738-763. For sake of getting used to this practice, I’d recommend you invest in using the Prayer Book’s psalter, but we’ll revisit that subject later.

Summary

So if you’re learning the Daily Office from scratch, start by praying a Psalm (out loud!) every morning and evening, followed by the Lord’s Prayer. Then, if you have other requests or thanksgivings to offer to God, add them in your own words.

It may take a while to get used to praying the psalms, so make sure you’re comfortable with this before moving on to Step Two.