Let’s pray.

There are a lot of books on prayer, many ways to implement daily prayer. But as Episcopalians and Anglicans we have this ancient and rich resource by which we can, together, pray and hear God’s word on a insistent basis. The Daily Offices of Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer and Compline already provide us a way to pray together even when we are apart.

Of course there are many other tools we can use to help us in our prayer time. You may have a favorite of your own. On the blog I will focus on the Daily Office from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (BCP) and the lectionary (which determines what scripture is read for each office) which accompanies it. I would ask you to especially focus on the Psalms assigned for each day. Reading through the Psalms is an ancient practice of the church, and the Psalms cover every gamut of life we experience.

The BCP of course has the structure for Morning or Evening Prayer (or Compline or Noon day prayers) which you can use, choosing recommended Canticles and using the lectionary for the readings. But if you are online (and you must be if you are reading this), there are several ways to use a website or an app on your phone that makes saying the office quite easy. Here are some you may want to check out:

A Daily Office tutorial:

https://stgeorgesardmore.wordpress.com/the-daily-office-tutorial/

http://dailyoffice.org/  – an online community which you can join with “live” and participate with them or use the text on the site to say the office yourself at your convenience. Click the “About” link to find out how it works.

http://www.missionstclare.com/english/ Has probably been around the longest and is really excellent. Both Morning and Evening Prayer are included, and you can click on hymns for each day (and sing along).

Forward Day by Day, the Forward Movement folks who publish the Fwd Day by Day booklets, provides an online Daily Prayer site also which includes all the daily offices. You can use this page to go to the readings for any day. You can also, on their prayer site, read the Forward Day by Day meditation for each day.   http://prayer.forwardmovement.org/daily_prayer_anytime.php

Here is a link to a review of several mobile apps, but I can attest that the Mission St. Clare app is excellent. I use it almost every day. This app is available for iPhone and Android. The reviews: http://livingchurch.org/covenant/?p=4991

Check them out and find what works best for you.