Celebration of the First Book of Common Prayer, 1549
In one form or another, we have had The Book of Common Prayer for 472 years. It has been revised, updated and changed a number of times over the years, but it remains. And, as my late wife Jane would say, “Thanks be to God forever!” She came to love The Book of Common Prayer, and much of her personal daily devotional life took place with the Prayer Book in her hands. Her BCP is very well worn (and it is a treasure to me).
In contrast, I came to know the Prayer Book when I was four and five years of age. Many an evening, I would sit on the floor with my mother in her chair. She would read to me out of it. She would read from the Daily Offices, and the services of Baptism, Marriage and Funerals. A Psalm would be read most of the time, and we would always conclude with the Prayers and Thanksgivings (pp. 814-841). I think especially of the Prayer for the Evening (p. 833) and the Prayer for our Country (p. 820).
Do you know this part of the Prayer Book–the Prayers and Thanksgivings? As you spend time in the mornings, reading this or that, being quiet or still, and listening for that ‘still small voice,’ I would invite you to make The Book of Common Prayer part of your quiet/prayer time–specially the prayers. I would never suggest these written prayers should ever take the place of what we need to pray from our own heart. These prayers can, however, provide a place from which to begin. Reading them and praying them for ourselves helps bring to birth those words within us that we need to pray.
Thanks be to God for The Book of Common Prayer and the people in common (together) say “Amen.”
