Called to Pray

The Lord be with you.

   And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.

Book of Common Prayer

As we seek to know and to love Christ more, we are guided by the Book of Common Prayer. Written in 1549 so that ordinary, everyday Christians in England could worship in English rather than in Latin, the Book of Common Prayer includes the Psalms, lessons from both the Old and New Testaments, a calendar for reading through the entire Bible, and a collection of beautiful and useful prayers.

It also contains scripts for dignified, reverent services celebrating the Lord’s Supper, baptism, marriage and important occasions in the life of Christ and our shared life as believers.

Here, too, are the forms for the Morning Prayer and the Evening Prayer services, which many use at home in private devotions. These aren’t flimsy, but solidly built on thanksgiving, confession, petition, intercession, and blessing. The poetic prayers of these services are loaded with deep meaning; these are prayers from a time when we understood a right relationship to God.

We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and the hope of glory…

No longer the “common” language, the language of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer that we use at St. Michael’s is challenging, but worth the effort. In the prayer book we find doctrine that teaches us, grounds us, forms us. A tool for deepening our spiritual life, it is rich with meaning and history; great literature as well as one of the great documents of faith.

Using an old text to guide our prayers doesn’t mean that we are outdated; we stay connected by texts and email, sharing prayer requests and thanksgivings through the week.

At CommonPrayer.org you may read the 1928 Book of Common Prayer online. At Deus Publications you may purchase a copy for yourself.

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