A Prayerbook review

My researches into historic, liturgical worship have led me to the practice of daily prayer, particularly the Daily Office. As a young pastor (back in the late 90’s), I would spend time researching into the liturgy of the denomination to which I belong to, The United Methodist Church. This led me to research into the liturgical practices other faith communities, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, and most especially the mother church of Methodism, the Church of England. Even if at that time I was assigned to a very small mission church, I wanted to do the liturgy right.

I was delighted with my discovery of the Daily Office because not only can I have liturgy on Sundays, I could have liturgy everyday, several times a day! The Daily Office is a practice among clergy and religious (monastics) to pray at certain hours of the day (hence the other name, the Liturgy of the Hours). Each “office” or “hour” is composed of hymns, psalms, antiphons, Scripture readings, and prayers. (God willing, I will write a review of the hours in the future.)

The 1979 Book of Common Prayer. With an iconic cross on the cover, the BCP must be the "default" prayer book used in Hollywood movies (especially weddings and funerals).

My first prayer book is The Book of Common Prayer (1979, Seabury Press, New York) of The Episcopal Church, USA. (How happy I was when I found a copy at a second-hand bookstore!) It contains orders for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Noonday Prayer, and Compline. The BCP contains a treasury of liturgical resources like Collects, Proper Liturgies, Prayers and Thanksgivings, lectionaries and more. I would use the Daily Lectionary at the back for my daily Scripture reading (three readings: Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospel; plus up to three psalms). I have come to be familiar with the prayers in the Daily Office, knowing them by heart. But the downside is that I cannot bring the BCP and a Bible when traveling. (However, I still use an electronic version of the BCP as a source of the Proper Collects for my Sunday liturgy. I also have a PDF version in my smart phone.)

My next prayer book was Christian Prayer: the Liturgy of the Hours, printed locally (here in the Philippines) by the Daughters of St. Paul. It’s an average sized volume with more than 1,700 pink-edged pages. Its main feature is the four-week psalter: The offices for everyday (for a cycle of four weeks) are all printed out—antiphons, hymns, psalms, Scripture readings, prayers—so there is ordinarily no need to flip from one part of the book to another. My copy became all scuffy from use. I use it to pray the Office on the long commute to and from school, to conferences and camps. The volume was complete: it has orders for Morning and Evening Prayer, the Little Offices, Compline, Propers and Commons for various festivals, and more. However, the thousand-page tome was too thick to be really portable.

I began to look for smaller prayer books: a breviary in the real sense of the word. I wanted it to be complete (that is, I wouldn’t need to juggle a prayer book and a Bible); at the same time, handy (that is, I could hold it with one hand). My first breviary was Panalangin ng mga Kristiyano sa Maghapon (1994, Ministry for Liturgical Affairs, Manila) (loose English translation: ‘Daily Prayer for Christians’). It was a very handy volume: about the size of my palm. It has the four-week psalter from the Liturgy of the Hours and Propers for Sundays, the liturgical year, and the sanctoral feasts. It has orders for Compline (Night Prayer), but it does not have orders for the Little Offices (sometimes I would like to snatch a few moments to rattle off a Little Office).

Another breviary I used was the 1953 Book of Common Prayer (Seabury Press, New York), again from The Episcopal Church, USA. This leather-bound volume is about half the size of the 1979 BCP. As an added bonus, the second half of the book is a hymnal (with musical scores!). However, the readings for the Daily Offices were not printed (however, the Gospel readings are printed out in full). But there is a daily lectionary, so I had make my readings from my mobile phone or from a pocket New Testament.

My researches into Christian liturgy have led my back to Jewish liturgy. I happened unto a couple of copies of Siddur Sim Shalom (1989, the Rabbinical Assembly of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, New York) at a second-hand bookstore. The copies were slightly damaged; I gave one to my equally crazy Judeophile cousin. At first I had difficultly navigating the seemingly convoluted Jewish liturgy and I find myself tripping over Hebrew prayers. But with practice, I could now manage to davven—maybe Christians would wonder what all that machine-gun rattling of Hebrew prayers is all about. One thing I like is excerpts of Torah readings (for Mondays and Thursdays, traditional days for study) in Hebrew at the “back” of the book (Hebrew is written from right to left, and their books are arranged from the “back” to the “front”.)

The current breviary I use is Shorter Christian Prayer (1988, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York). It is a slim, handy volume bound in supple red leatherette. It is an abridgement (a word related to the word “breviary”) of the Liturgy of the Hours. It has the four-week psalter all printed out. It also has Propers for Sundays, the liturgical calendar, sanctoral feasts, and a hymnal—all in a volume of less than half a inch thick.

The prayer book that I’m looking forward for is the fourth edition of The Book of Offices and Services (2012) of The Order of St. Luke, the religious order to which I belong to. The current BOAS I use is the third edition (1988, 1994, 2003, OSL Publications, Akron, OH). I came with the parcel which contained my certificate of membership and other documents related to the Order. It is a slim, blue volume with a wide left margin. It was made so that members can opt to have that side cut at a paper shop and have it ring-bound so that it could lie flat. It contains rituals for Morning and Evening Prayer, our services of Profession, Induction of Offices, and a Healing Service. At the time our newer members were professed, they did not receive BOAS because it was being revised at that time. From what I’ve been hearing on online discussions of my confreres, the new BOAS will have orders for the Daily Offices, the various services of our Order, and more. I am excited to get a copy of this new BOAS, and I hope to get one soon.

My confrere and I using the BOAS (3rd edition) to lead the service of profession for our local OSL association.