The Daily Office: Readings from the Early Church

One spiritual practice that I adopted some time ago, is to read a passage from Saint Benedict's Rule prior to saying Compline.  This gives me a time of reflection from something grounded in tradition, non-Biblical of course.  Recently, I accidently left my copy of The Rule at my brother's house whilst on a family trip and so I turned to my book shelf to find something suitable as a replacement.

I quickly located my copy of Bob Wright's classic, Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church (New York: Church Publishing, 1991) and his supplemental They Still Speak:  Readings for the Lesser Feasts (New York: Church Publishing, 1993).

Those who know this giant scholar, priest, and historian in The Episcopal Church know that these two volumes represent sound research, a faithful translation of the texts, and shaped according to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer Daily Office calendar.

J. Robert Wright is the Saint Mark's Church in the Bowery Professor of Ecclesiastical History at The General Theological Seminary in New York.  He was awarded the St. Augustine's Cross by the Archbishop of Canterbury for his contributions to the wider Anglican Communion.  Friends of mine who have had him as a teacher in seminary speak reverently about him.

While the publishing date may seem old to some, these texts still "speak."  The readings are arranged daily and contain sermons and writings from the early Church Mothers and Fathers.  He has included works from Dame Julian of Norwich as a move to be broader.  Wright offers in the preface his task of compiling the readings and dealing with issues of sexual inclusion in language.

A good example of how these two texts bear relevancy with the Daily Office. The Old Testaments readings for Morning Prayer, recently, have been covering the Jacob v. Esau story.  Wright paired these with a sermon by Irenaeus who brought a Christian interpretation to these texts from Genesis.  It was fascinating, for me, to have incorporated this insight from the Patristic era into my daily prayer life.  It was then that I was sold on using these texts with my Daily Office readings.

Those of my brothers and sisters who fancy The Anglican Breviary will already know of a similar incorporation of Patristic sermons and texts which are combined in the breviary.

I commend any practice of incorporating these additional non-Biblical readings from the early Church into our corporate opus dei.

Remember! Blessed Charles, King and Martyr Part 2

Upon further investigation, I wanted to confirm that Blessed Charles was added to the Kalendar in the 1980 Alternative Service Book in the Church of England as well as the Anglican Church of Canada's The Book of Alternative Services (1985).  No collect contained in either.  However, a new collect was added in the CoE's Common Worship and is cited below.

King of kings and Lord of lords,

whose faithful servant Charles

prayed for those who persecuted him

and died in the living hope of your eternal kingdom:

grant us by your grace so to follow his example

that we may love and bless our enemies,

through the intercession of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Remember! Blessed Charles, King and Martyr

It is as natural that the Church of England should keep this day as it is that Christ's universal Church should keep Saint Stephen's martyrdom.

John Keble, in a sermon on the Feast of Blessed Charles 

On January 30, 1649, the "White King," Charles I of England was led to a scaffold outside of the palace of Whitehall in London to be executed.  He was later buried inside St. George's Chapel within the grounds of Windsor where he rests in peace to this day.

One cannot boast membership in the Society of King Charles the Martyr and neglect his feast day in the blogosphere.  Sadly, I'm away from Sewanee this weekend and unable to attend the Commemoration Mass for Charles.  Perhaps an elucidation of Charles may serve as my penance...

Charles I, the martyred King of England, is remembered today in some parts of the Anglican Communion--depending on one's slant towards monarchy and high churchmanship.  When the monarchy was restored under Charles II, the martyred king was added to the Kalendar for commemoration and stood firm on January 30th until the reign of Queen Victoria, when the Commons had petitioned the Queen for his removal.

Charles has never been officially canonized, at least in the Roman sense, in the Anglican Communion simply because there is no known process of creating saints--a relic of the Reformation for sure.  Thus, Charles receives the title, "Blessed Charles."  According to John Moorman in his work, A History of the Church of England, Charles stood, "as a symbol of the patient sufferer who lays down his life for his creed and for his Church."  Charles was a firm believer in the Divine Right of Kings and could be accredited, if for nothing else, for the appointment of William Laud to be Archbishop of Canterbury.  Charles was not a savvy politician, his policies of enforcing the Prayer Book on the Scots proved disastrous.  The effects could be easily sensed even in 2009 when I stepped inside St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh!  

Whether or not you agree with Charles and the succeeding history surrounding his cause for inclusion on the Kalendar, he died a martyr's death, and certainly won the hearts of many of his countrymen.

Today, the Society of King Charles the Martyr exists 1) to pray for the Anglican Communion; 2) to promote a wide observance of 30th of January as the Feast day for this martyr; and 3) to work towards the reinstatement of Blessed Charles on the Kalendar of the Book of Common Prayer throughout the Anglican Communion.

According to the scholarly source, Wiki-pedia, The Church of England added Charles in the 1980 Alternative Service Book as well as a collect included in Common Worship.  He is not contained in the Episcopal Church's Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

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Icon of Charles, King and Martyr, 2009.  

Acrylic on Wood.  Author's private collection.

Retreat Prayers

Silence.  The deserted wilderness.  The furnace of transformation.  Abiding love.  Wooing of the Spirit.  These were some of the many themes that kept surfacing during my vigil retreat in preparation for taking vows.  To synthesize these themes, I wrote several prayers dedicated to our patron, Abba Anthony the Great.  You'll most likely see the repetition of the themes throughout, but I wanted to share these with you.

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O Christ, draw near me.  Woo my soul to the desert where I may be transformed in the furnace of silence.  Abba Anthony guide me; your life to Christ is my daystar and your faith is my hope.  Help me learn to stand before God in silence, to be still, and listen with the ear of my heart.  Amen.

A More Typical Prayer Book Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, instill in my heart your transforming silence; whereby your servant Anthony the Great witnessed the solitary life of faith to show the abundance of your grace and love; bid us in quietude to be still and to know that you are our God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Come Holy Spirit and woo me to the deep, fiery wellsprings of your love.
Lead me through the desert and into your light, never leave me.
Come breathe in me the strength and courage to stand and walk
today, so that I may witness your love and truth.
Come, may I abide in your peace.  Amen.