Morning Prayer Sources
I continue to work on my online prayer book, using various sources. It’s rather wonderful to access this via my iPod and to use that as a prayerbook - no matter where I am. Yes, I’ve crossed the streams: I’m a Liturgical Hunter/Gatherer, a Palaeolithic Liturgy Geek. I weave a healthy dose of the Book of Common Prayer with Byzantine liturgy and modern, inclusive language as well as my own personal devotions and even non-Christian sources. I refer to it as a Commonplace Prayerbook - in the sense of collecting things that I like into one place. This is an essay on the sources I’ve used for Morning Prayer.
Morning Prayer opens with the Easter-time opening collect from Common Worship, the Church of England’s most recent revised liturgy. I think its theme is appropriate year-round.
The next section of prayers comes from the Eastern Orthodox daily office. It is called the Trisagion Prayers because of the central position of the “Holy God, Holy Mighty” prayer. It is used in all offices as an opening.
Following the Lord’s prayer (in the language used by St Gregory of Nyssa parish in San Francisco) are three troparia or verses from Eastern Orthodoxy’s morning prayers.
Then comes a prayer written by Erasmus, also used in St Gregory of Nyssa Parish. I think it most clearly expresses my desire to “follow God in the way of Jesus”.
Then the Apostles Creed.
And the “general intercession” taken from an Orthodox Prayerbook. The language has been modernised as well as adjusted in several places: I removed the traditional claims of Orthodox exclusivism as well as several references to non-Christians in what I would consider most non-Christian (Triumphalistic) language. I also changes several references to secular power that seemed to be overtly and anachronistically related to Pre-revolutionary Russia. It is traditional to do a deep bow or even prostration (in Lent, etc) after each paragraph of this prayer.
This prayer contains my personal intercession list: edit as you need!
The prayer “Lord give me the Grace…” is attributed to Metropolitan Philaret. I find it to be a wonderful way to start the day.
If you are communing from the reserved sacrament, do it here.
The next passage is from the Prophet Baruch. It is used as the post-communion prayer at St Gregory of Nyssa parish.
The line repeated 3 times, plus the following psalm are from Eastern Orthodoxy’s post communion rite. The psalter used here (and throughout) is that of the New Skete Monks. Their translation was an attempt to produce a text within the Orthodox tradition using modern American English.
To continue to create an abyss between prayer and the language natural to us in this era is not only artificial, misleading, and arbitrary, but bound from the outset to foster fragmentation and alienation. Older and obscure English forms and styles lack clarity even for experts. They lead to confusion and error, and not to enlightenment. Yet they are often advocated under the guise of solemnity, beauty, liturgical propriety, or even divine will.
That quote amply expresses why all of these prayers are rendered to a modern standard.
The final blessing I like to say before going out into the world: it is the first blessing of the day at St Gregory’s church, used before the sacred ministers plan out the day’s liturgy.
From “Glory to you” to the Blessing and Amen is a traditional dismissal from the Eastern Orthodox daily office.
Kevin says:
I have the habit of morning prayer in group and use the 1979 prayer book. Overtimeour small group has modified the standard slightly. While its comfortable for us, I am amazed when I attend morning prayer elsewhere that even the slightest changes come to the forefront of my mind very quickly. This is a good experience, rather than an interuption, allowing me to think through traditions. I am a proponent of updating the prayer books more frequently than every 50-years or so. Its seems that the body of the faithful is going to stray always to more modern framework and practices. Fifty year updates seem to me a half-hearted compromise between a 2000 year old tradition and a real-time world.
14 May 2008 - 10 אייר 5768 at 1:12 pm
Huw says:
I kinda waffle. I like the MP liturgy in the BCP (and in The Monastic Diurnal) but it is certainly liturgy - IE, the public work of the Church. But somehow I don’t feel like I’ve done my “prayer duty” after reading it… it’s hard to describe. So this collection of morning prayers is more like private devotions. You’ll notice there is a link to the C of E’s Morning Prayer rite at the bottom of the page. Doing both has come to me as a possibility: both being public liturgy & private devotions.
15 May 2008 - 11 אייר 5768 at 9:35 am
The young fogey says:
In general, why not? Rules about rite cover what’s done in church; at home prayer is prayer.
I say Met. Philaret’s prayer every day too.
Unsurprisingly I say no to mandatory regular revisions but Kevin more or less describes why different rites and different versions of the same rite exist! Gradual tweaking over time: the local, organic, glacial-pace way of liturgical change. Traditional Catholicism isn’t uniform/monolithic.
In the second comment you describe why private devotions exist.
The Diurnal is wonderful - I was given an original copy recently - and cranking out those psalms is the heart of the Western office but I agree it can be a bit dry. I think it only seems out of balance to those of us who don’t do Matins with its substantial readings.
16 May 2008 - 12 אייר 5768 at 7:34 pm