Evening Prayer

 

Look here, you heathen, it's important to read, mark and inwardly digest the Word of God because His Word informs our word, the thoughts of our hearts. And this means, in the first instance, making the actual effort to read the, you know, Bible.

Good job, we've got this far, but how to do it, what's the training program? Try this, Morning and Evening Prayer in which you're taken through the Old and New Testaments, canticles, psalms, epistles and gospels and on, and all within the framework of a daily discipline of prayer.

Maybe this seems boring to you, as in "prayer, how very boring." Think again. If you want to confront and fight evil, gear up for the higher battle, against the demonic powers of the air, of evil in high places. And you can do all of this, or part of it, in the Daily Office. 

I like the 1928 BCP form and you might too. I tell you, give it a spin and you'll be rewarded. Not kidding. Say the Office.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Retreat!

 

I know, "retreat" sounds bad, like some kind of defeat, but this was good, a retreat  with the local chapter of the SSC (Society of the Holy Cross) at Camp Crucis, just outside Granbury. It's a fun drive if you take the country roads, 22 and 144 through Whitney, Meridian, Walnut Springs and Glen Rose, with long stretches of empty two lane highway running through the hills.

Not so long ago this was bandit country, the notorious haunt of outlaws and bootleggers and it still has, I always think, a frontier feel. You can imagine Indians on the hills and sure enough they were there, but now Granbury's home to marauding hordes of tourists instead of Commanche war bands and the camp's pleasantly distant from that.

Our schedule was simple, Morning Prayer, Low Mass, Evensong, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and a series of meditations on the priesthood. Plenty of time to have fun with fellow clergy too, all united in a common love of the Faith. And no, there weren't any priestesses performing transing liturgical dance to the beat of a unicorn's hooves. That's not allowed. 

Then, all too soon, it was time to head back to the Compound, uplifted in spirit. It was good to get away.

God bless,

LSP

The Office - A Short Wednesday Homily

 

The Office? No, not the excellent British comedy series which was hard to watch on account of its cringe making realism but rather the daily duty of prayer. St. Benedict of Nursia broke this up into eight periods: Matins or Vigils, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline, thus sanctifying the day on into the night.

In the Anglican world, the wicked if skillful liturgist Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, conflated these into the twofold Office of Morning and Evening Prayer. It's solid stuff, especially in the language of the old prayer book (1928) as opposed to the horrific, banal, unsayable modern language variants cooked up by expert liturgists in the 1970s and beyond.

SSH Chapel, my old place

That said, consider the benefit of a set order of prayer, canticles, and readings from the psalms and the Old and New Testaments; every day, morning and evening. Not only does this free the person at prayer from having to cook it all up themselves, which tends to mean they don't, but also unites them to the common, daily, prayer of the Church.

Back to Cranmer, who was burned at the stake in Oxford for being a wicked heretic. Perhaps he was, but I'd argue he did a masterful work of making Benedict's Monastic Office accessible to the laity. Bold call: Look here, laic, you too can sanctify the day as well as priests and religious, provided of course that you can read. 

SSH High Altar, well done RW for bringing it back and so much more

And that's just it, provided you can read. This, punters, is at something of a premium right about now and forces the question: As we sink into barbarism, and we are, will the Church keep the light of civilization burning in the encroaching darkness? She's done so before and I'll wager she'll do so again.

We had five souls at Evening Prayer today in this small garrison style Mission we call the Compound, and there we were, praying with the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, Mystici Corporis Christi, and you know what? The gates of hell shall not prevail.

God bless you all,

LSP

A Short Advent Sermon

 

You're perhaps staring in baffled, slack-jawed consternation as our country descends into banana republicdom, with all the risks therein. Or maybe you're wondering why Texas is wet and freezing, like Aberystwyth in July.

Whatever the case, here's something different, a sermon for the first Sunday of Advent in the form of the season's governing Collect:

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

And for all those who like to say the Divine Office from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, and even for those who don't, here's a link. 

Say your prayers, kids, and sanctify the day. It's important.

God bless,

LSP