On The Gridiron

Stories from the Gridiron... The Chicago Bears roasted the New Orleans Saints on the gridiron yesterday, 39-14. Coincidentally, we celebrate the feast today of St. Vincent, Deacon of Saragossa, who was literally roasted on a gridiron in the year 304. Ouch.

People think I'm joking when I tell them I'm editing a new Breviary, but it's true. I think that Morning and Evening Prayer (M&EP) is not a sufficient devotion, while something like the Anglican Breviary (see link on this site, to the right) is too complex. I'm looking for something that adds richness to M&EP while still being accessible to normal folks. That is, to people without a choir.

So I'm editing my own. It's pretty easy since Cranmer basically simplified the Hours to make M&EP--that's where M&EP came from. Adding devotional richness to his skeleton is pretty easy since the basic form is preserved. For example, Matins begins with an invitatory and then the Venite and then Nocturns, which consist of groupings of psalms and scriptural (and non-scriptural) lessons. Well, MP is basically that: an invitatory, the Venite, psalms, and lessons. Getting back some of the richness of the breviary can be done by adding more changable elements that vary with the season and the saint.

For those of you familiar with the Prayer Book Office (edited by Galley; thanks Ron), I'm thinking of something halfway between it and the Breviary. Only all in Rite II language, so the English doesn't distract. I just hope I'm not roasting myself on my own gridiron here with this project. But mark my words: I will have a bound copy of this by the end of the Summer.

I need a title. What about "The Chicago Breviary," or else "The Chicago Office," or something like that? I'd like to see some recognition for my city in here, in appreciation for the great and growing Anglican enthusiasm in the area. Ideas?

A New Direction?

Here we are, a new year. I had originally thought that this blog would be an opportunity for me to talk about how the Daily Office reverberates and resonates within my life. But the meta-textual questions have been as important as the textual ones: for example, why am I doing this at all? That seems like such a huge question that it's frequently too intimidating to even contemplate. But I'm working on it. Peace.

Happy New Year

Yesterday, which was the Eve of Holy Name, from Isaiah 65:

¹⁷For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
¹⁸But be glad and rejoice for ever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.

And from Revelation 21:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
⁴he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’

That's good news for the new year. Peace and goodwill to all from your Daily Officer.