Psalm 5
[NOTE: Although I prefer the NASB, unless otherwise noted whenever I quote from the Bible I use the ESV translation, the one mostly used by St. Andrew’s.]
O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. (v. 3) This verse opened my eyes to the importance of morning prayer. Our Book of Common Prayer has daily “Morning Prayer” rites embraced by many Anglicans, but not a pattern in my life. I recall my childhood when our Catholic school was on the church grounds and we would often see the priest wearing his biretta and reading his “Divine Office” from a book in his hand, no doubt with various Psalms included in those daily readings.
I looked further online and found this website: https://www.dailyoffice2019.com/church_year/2021-2022/, our ACNA “Daily Office” for our current (2021-2022) church year. Click, then slide down and you will see morning devotions (and midday and evening and compline) for every day of our church year. Not surprisingly the Psalms are part of every devotional. I’ll leave it at that!
Thanks for sharing, Fred! I looked at all four offices for today – tons of psalms as well as lectionary readings and prayers. To me, sort of overwhelming, too much to focus on because they jump around. There is also a short family midday office for each day with short psalm, readings, and prayers. Starting my morning with that could be a huge step for me! RTB for me is more studying and meditating than starting the day, as long as I don’t get distracted with the day’s activities!
I have been using a set of books by Phyllis Tickle named “Daily Hours” which have shorter Morning Office, Midday Office, Vespers, and Compline. It is nondenominational but most of the prayers and readings are from the Book of Common Prayer with the New Jerusalem Bible (Catholic) used for most translations. The books were published 20 years ago but are generic for each year (you have to know when to start the Lent/Easter section for example). I wish I could say I keep up with all 4 readings daily, but in reality I usually just get in 1-2 readings per day.
Here is a site from Anglican Church calendar which has morning and evening prayers and two readings for each. Not so overwhelming.
https://liturgical-calendar.com/en/ACNA/