Morning Prayer continues to be prayed Monday through Friday mornings at the church. I have been joined in this ministry by Kenneth Quandt, who attends the service and acts as reader. I want to express my sincere thanks to Kenneth for this service. It is enriching and meaningful to have an additional voice at the service.
If you are interested in being a reader at Morning Prayer, please email kenneth.quandt@att.net. You would not be required to attend all of the Morning Prayer services and we could work out a flexible schedule to meet your availability.
While we are on the subject of Morning Prayer, it is interesting to examine the Daily Office Lectionary. There are appointed readings for each day of the year. The readings are organized in a two-year cycle, Year One and Year Two. We are currently in Year One. The Daily Office Lectionary begins on page 934 of The Book of Common Prayer.
For each day, except Holy Days, there are two sets of appointed Psalms, morning and evening, and three lessons. These include a lesson from the Old Testament (or Apocrypha), an Epistle or the Book of Acts, and one of the Gospels. The Psalms are ordered in a cycle that is repeated every seven weeks, with the exceptions of 4 Advent through 1 Epiphany and Palm Sunday through 2 Easter.
The Psalms are listed in two sections, the first for morning and the second for evening. However, the officiant is allowed to use either set of Psalms for either service. As the Psalms are repeated seven times during each year, I occasionally use the Evening Prayer Psalms for Morning Prayer in order to ensure that all the Psalms are read during the year. There is one item that needs special attention. As the pattern of the Psalms does not change during Lent, there is an occasional Psalm that contains the word “Hallelujah”. During Lent, this word is omitted.
In arranging the Daily Office Lectionary, the readings are ordered in what is known as “in course” readings. This means that large sections of the bible are read in the order found in the Bible. Little attention is paid to matching texts to seasons of the year. For example, our current Week of 2 Lent (page 952) prescribes reading sections of Jeremiah, Paul’s letter to the Romans, and the Gospel of John in verse order. You may notice that the Epistle and Gospel reading for Sunday do not follow this order. Special care has been taken to use creation and paschal deliverance themes for Sunday offices.
I hope you find Morning Prayer a refreshing and spiritual way to start your day. It is an honor to pray with you, knowing that, although there may be few of us inside the church, we all join our voices together in the praise of God and prayers of the church. God bless you and keep you safe.