Praying the Office
When I was made a Deacon in the Church of God, I and my colleagues were charged by the Bishop to pray the Daily Office (Morning and Evening Prayer). This is a charge that I have taken seriously.
I have prayed the Office in a variety of different locations: outdoors, on public transportation, in church, at home, to mention a few. I have prayed it by myself and with others. At theological college, the community prayed Morning Prayer before breakfast and evening prayer before dinner.
Prayer is part of my rhythm of life and I have noticed that if I don’t pray, which does happen, there is something missing from the day.
What I never expected, was to lead Morning Prayer via Facebook Live.
It is a different experience, as I have a recording studio set up in my temporary office on our dining room table. There is a computer with a microphone, teleprompter, and video editing software, amongst other items that have been cobbled together. All this for prayer! Before, all I needed was some quiet space where I could use my phone or the prayer book and a Bible.
It has been a learning experience. The first time I made the mistake of thinking that monitoring the feed that people were seeing would a good idea. It was not. I was reading the words on the teleprompter, speaking them, then hearing them back with a noticeable delay. Which was distracting from my time of prayer.
I am slowly getting used to having to push various buttons to get the technology to work, but always having a prayer book beside to grab if something goes awry. Which did happen a few days ago when I realized I did not have the Psalm in the teleprompter.
Throughout the time of leading morning prayer via Facebook Live I am always aware that I am praying and that others are praying, sometimes at the same time. I can see the reactions that people make, but for obvious reasons I am unable to respond in the moment.
The technology enables us to connect with each other as we pray.
Though that does not compare to the importance of spending time with God in daily prayer.
I encourage you to join us in prayer, you do not need a Facebook account to ‘watch’ the stream. We pray Monday through Saturday at 8 AM. Just go to our
Facebook
or our
website
just before 8 AM.
If do not wish to use Facebook, you can still join us in prayer, though it does require a little more work. The order of service we are using is
here
and the details of the days psalm and readings can be found
here
,
you will find the readings under the section “Daily Office and Daily Eucharistic Lectionary”, just select the relevant week.
We are physically separated at the moment, but we are all united in our faith in the Risen Christ. For that we give thanks and praise. Part of our response is prayer.
God bless
Tom +
