Morning Prayer Livestreams
As an experiment in shared prayer, I am offering a brief Facebook livestream of Morning Prayer daily, (usually, schedule permitting) starting around 8:00am, on the Our Savior’s Facebook page. Jennifer and I have made this ancient pattern of prayer part of our own daily devotion for some time, and we would like to open it to the wider congregation.
The service lasts only about fifteen minutes and consists of structured prayer, the reading of Scripture, canticles, and the praying of the Psalms. It belongs to a larger tradition known as the Daily Office. The Daily Office is a set of prayer services distributed throughout the day that grew out of the monastic practice of praying the Psalms at regular hours. Today, they make up a system daily prayer that joins Scripture, praise, confession, and intercession in a simple, repeatable form.
The principal offices are:
Morning Prayer (also called Matins) – prayed in the morning and centered on praise, the reading of Scripture, and the Psalms.
Evening Prayer (also called Vespers) – prayed in the late afternoon or early evening, again drawing on the Psalms and Scripture, with a tone of thanksgiving at the close of the day.
Compline – the final office of the night, a short service of quiet reflection, confession, and trustful commendation of ourselves to God before sleep.
Together these services form a “prayer rhythm” that can shape the whole day without requiring long periods of time.
As a congregation, we are already familiar with some of these services:
When we pray “Holden Evening Prayer” in Advent and Lent, that is a musical setting of Evening Prayer or Vespers.
Our high school students gather during the school year on Wednesday nights to pray the service of Compline before our Bible study.
Each livestream will follow the same simple order used in the Lutheran Book of Worship, with the appointed texts being drawn from For All The Saints, a devotional book published by the pan-Lutheran American Lutheran Publicity Bureau. No special preparation is needed; you may simply watch, listen, and pray along from wherever you are. If the response is good, Jennifer and I hope to continue offering Morning Prayer regularly and may explore adding an occasional evening service as well.
We believe that praying together can strengthen our common life in Christ. We hope you will join us when you are able.
