Morning and Evening Prayer

[Tsume Tsuyu]

Taking up Merseysider's suggestion (and comments made by Benevenio) in the 'Glory to God' thread, I've begun a new thread to talk about non-eucharistic services.

We have Morning Prayer at 7 am every Tuesday in our Parish. It started several years ago when our Diocese suggested that Morning Prayer be said during Advent one year. We began then, and we haven't stopped since although we decided that every day was a bit too much! There is a core of around 8 of us who attend regularly including a couple who are not Catholic and worship at a different church. 5 of us rotate responsibility for leading and the format is quite simple - opening sentence or response, psalm, scripture reading, Benedictus, intercessions and a closing prayer/blessing. Mostly it's all said but, occasionally, we sing the psalm or Benedictus, unaccompanied. And there are lots of silences!

I love it! Apart from anything else, I have learnt so much. I have come across bits of the Bible I'd never read before; I am now much more familiar with the psalms, and the intercessions give an opportunity to focus prayer on problems close to home in the local community as well as praying for solutions to bigger, world-wide, problems.

It's a wonderful way to clear one's head of all the clutter and start the day afresh. Attendance is probably the only thing that's disappointing. From time to time, others join us but, usually, we number just 7 or 8. But then 7 am doesn't suit everyone. The older folk like to come to daily Mass a bit later.

I'm sure I'd appreciate Evening Prayer just as much, but Morning Prayer, time-wise, is much better for me. Most evenings are taken up already with meetings, practices etc., not to mention general family life.

I do appreciate the opportunity to come together with other Christians to focus on scripture and prayer. Sometimes, Mass seems too cluttered, especially when I am involved with singing in the choir, reading etc. and it is good to have an opportunity to reflect and pray in a quiet, focused way.

TT

[contrabordun]

I don´t want to start some sterile debate about Ch.Eve - which I wasn´t seriously suggesting introducing - but I would like to put a different argument to Gwyn´s...(which for convenience I´ve copied complete, as it´s on another thread)

You only have to look at Evensong in the vast majority of anglican parish churches, with seven old dears in the congregation and a choir made up of one tenor, an alto and maybe three or four sopranos with a thyrotoxic warble to realise that you're on a hiding to nowhere with that. Most vicars would like to see it die (unless they're on some sort of nostalgia trip!!).

To draw a comaprison, we have a local chapel which has a Welsh service at 3 pm once monthly on a Sunday afternoon; the 'worshippers' (all five) arrive at 2.59 "just to keep it going for future generations" Few if any of them derive any spiritual sustenance from from the ramblings of the visiting aged Parchedig. It's a wholly mind-numbing experience. I've played the organ for it a few times, losing the will to live in the process - and you lot whinge about latin??? You should try Welsh!

From the age of 16 years to 24 years of age I lived life as an anglican (I was nothing in particular prior to that). Please don't inflict Cranmer's Stew as a regular item on the spiritual menu.

Evensong has much to offer as a novelty item but God preserve me from having to endure it any more frequently than every five years if that.

Minorities have spiritual needs and likes and dislikes, too, which don´t go away just because one´s own tastes differ. I know plenty of places in the Birmingham area where Evensong draws perfectly respectable congregations, and enthusastic choirs. I also know people - I happen to be one of them - for whom this service is powerful and moving.

You find a particular service uninspiring, and conclude (probably correctly) that most of the the others there do too. Don´t go. By all means wonder out loud why they do. But what´s better, a chapel with five people and an aged Parchedig in it or a locked and empty one? A full one would be best of all, but is that really what would happen if the Welsh service were discontinued? The fact that only five people attend is only an argument for changing it if you have some evidence that a completely different form of service, which for some strong reason couldn´t be scheduled at another time, would attract more. These five may not derive any spiritual sustenance from the experience, but they obviously have some reason for continuing to attend, and if the building would otherwise be empty they´re not actually doing any harm to anything or anybody.

On a Sunday morning, I want to participate in a worshipping community and to praise God, and the Mass, which seems to me an essentially extrovert and communal form of prayer achieves this. Often, on a Sunday evening, I need peace and space, to reflect on my (often tenuous) faith, or to gather my thoughts for the week ahead. Evensong is one way in which I personally find I am able to do this and I know plenty of others for whom this is true. And whilst I object to modern translators adopting anachronistic language and idiom for today´s new prayers or translations (see posts passim), I see nothing wrong in those people who wish to do so continuing to use Cramner´s prayers and translations. Doubtless they are meaningless for many people, but does that matter? We should be able, across the board, to ´cater for everybody´, (different from attempting to provide everything, every week everywhere).

The general point, which I have finally (sorry) reached, is that Evensong / Evening Prayer offers its attendees something different than the Mass, and can accommodate a much greater variety of form and content, whether that be Farrell, Cramner Taizé or silence. Anyway, seems worth canvassing to see what people have tried, what works, and why.

[presbyter]

The value of MP and EP - and the rest of the Office, come to that - is well documented in the General Instruction thereon - but, I suggest, it is only a value that can be learned through the experience of praying the Office.

Have a read of "Spiritus et Sponsa" too.

[Chris]

). The general point, which I have finally (sorry) reached, is that Evensong / Evening Prayer offers its attendees something different than the Mass, and can accommodate a much greater variety of form and content, whether that be Farrell, Cramner Taizé or silence. Anyway, seems worth canvassing to see what people have tried, what works, and why.

Yes, indeed Prayer offices do indeed offer something different from what we experience at Mass. In terms of your question about what works and why, perhaps I can offer a little insight from liturgical history which may lead to an understanding of form and content.

Fourth century evidence shows that daily prayer consisted of basically two different forms.

Firstly the Cathedral office, which was prayed in the city morning and evening, inheriting the Jewish prayer form of praise (singing of psalms) and intercession. The two main things to note about this form of prayer was that it was ecclesiological (i.e. prayer was an outward activity, for the whole church) and that its format was relatively unchanging (i.e. the same psalms were used each day etc.) Thus this form of prayer actively encouraged full participation from the assembly.

Contrasting this was the prayer of the Desert monastics (those who fled to the desert as they felt a deeper call to prayer.) Desert prayer was principally an inward form, the monk spending much time in meditation and prayer primarily to save his own soul. Prayer was instinctively a personal, not corporate affair.

An example of how the city and desert praying differed liturgically can be found in the use of psalms. Desert monastics sang psalms sequentially and in great quantity as it was their belief that god like to hear psalms - city prayer on the other hand, limited themselves to a handful of psalms which were generally appropriate to the time of day in which they were prayed. What also differed was how they responded to the psalms. In city prayer a cantor would sing verses of the psalm, and the congregation would reply with a refrain verse (just like our modern responsorial psalms.) On the other hand, monastics would listen to the cantor sing the psalm and then meditate is silence as their response. I.e., the city prayer was a corporate response, the monastic a private response. This also existed in terms of ritual. Cathedral prayer featured different bodily postures, singing, incense, processions etc. Monastic did not feature this.

So, I would make three suggestions in the light of this background

1) Repeated form and content will breed familiarity. Following the lead of the 4th Century cathedral office, it might be best to select 2/3 psalms appropriate to the hour of your celebration and use them on a regular basis.
2) Stress the communitarian aspect of your celebration. Common posture, singing, processions will go some way towards this. remind those praying that they do so as part of the body of Christ, both those here on earth and those in the heavens!
3) Work towards a balance of praise and intercession.

I apologise for the length of the post, but I do think it is important to understand the two different forms of praying, and how they can help influence out thinking today.

Chris

[Gabriel]

If I may offer a fourth suggestions to Chris's 3:

4. Use of Light & Incense.

Also recommend Paul Bradshaw's "Two ways of praying" as an exploration of what the effects of these two understandings have been and implications for worship today.

Gabriel

[sidvicius]

Fantastic - I agree with just about everything everyone has said above. On a simpler level, I think any activity which keeps church buildings open and active to the public is good.
Catholically speaking, I get the impression that we have (for reasons known and unknown) generally reduced ourselves to mass once a week, and nothing else, which kind of starves us in sense of spirit and community,and makes others see us in a very dim light - "Is that all you lot do?"
It would be good to think of a revival in other forms of worship to such an extent that they become familiar to the non-catholic world. The more we try to accommodate other christian ideas (e.g. Alpha), the more tolerant and inclusive we will appear. If Evening prayer is Evensong to a non-catholic, surely life is too short to argue the toss over what form is the 'most correct'? However, I would agree with Presbyter:

it is only a value that can be learned through the experience of praying the Office.

Yes - we need to get used to - and deepen - our other forms of prayer and worship, make a point of 'spending more time in church' if you like, so that they become as normal (to catholics at least) as sunday mass. This should not be to the detriment of our other duties of course; soup kitchens don't run without people. But if prayer is what you do best, maybe you could do more of it, more publicly, with your community - and it doesn't even require a priest.
The documentation, such as Spi&Spo should be referred to when we want to obtain more from these forms of worship. I'm not sure if similar instruction exists for people wishing to deepen their experience of Evensong, so we should be grateful that it is there for us.
(Apologies for another badly constructed post. I hope something here makes sense to readers. Here's hoping post no. 2000 will be better.)

[presbyter]

One of the possible explanations I've read somewhere for the origin of the Rosary (or the Angelus as well I guess) is that it was a way for the ordinary (illiterate and non-latin speaking) faithful to join with the Prayer of the Church (150 psalms - 150 Hail Mary) - and I do know some Irish families who continue the tradition of the family Rosary today. (Indeed, we have a public Rosary in church here on a Saturday and in my previous parish it was recited daily - before the daily Mass.)

But if the Rosary seemed to have "gone out with Vatican II" - I suppose it could also be said that nothing came in to replace it. What morning and evening prayers were those younger than myself in this forum taught? Do many people under 45 possess a Prayer Book these days, I wonder?

The General Instruction on the Office allows for simplifying the rite but we do not have an official, less complex form published which people could use easily.

I'm rambling........ Question: what does the daily prayer life of the faithful consist of these days?

(Asks he - having got his ribbons in a twist this morning because it's the 17th December - grrrr - the American edition of the Office is set out so much more conveniently and in four, not three, volumes)

BTW - that a group of 7 or 8 can come to church in the early morning and Prayer Morning Prayer is wonderful! (still in private recitation where I live now and if you know where that is - it's a shame don't you think? Mind you - we have done a peoples sung EP on Sundays in Advent - see other thread)

[Sonoqui]

As a life long Catholic, I have always thought it a great pity that we do not have more services that are not Mass.

Earlier this year, we had our Deanery Visitation and the opening service was sung Evening Prayer. It was, quite simply, the most moving thing I had heard for a long time. I came out on a real spiritual high which lasted for several days.

For many, Morning Prayer at 7am may not be convenient. When I was still worked, I was already on the M1 by then; now that I'm not working ...... well, you know how it is - is there such a time as 7 in the morning?

And, whatever happened to Benediction? Have I missed something and it's gone out of favour?