• The Agpeya
• The '28 BCP
• The alternative prayers found in The Practice of Religion by Archibald Campbell Knowles
• My own practice of praying through the Lord's Prayer and a few Psalms in the morning, at noon and in the evening (an adaptation from the Didache)

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Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
I suspect a number of people are adding candles and incense to their personal prayer routines. A few years back we had a thread where Shipmates shared photos of their personal prayer corners with icons, candles and burners.

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Good idea. Time to do that again?
 

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Posted by Hart (# 4991) on :
 
Well, this is a little odd for me because I live in a church. The three of us start our day together with morning prayer and then I normally get the rest of the office in privately. Standard modern Roman Rite office. We don't sing at all. We do stand for the gospel canticle on and add our own free prayer (including community necrology) to the intercessions.
 

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Posted by ChastMastr (# 716) on :
 
I will have to finally post mine soon but I am nervous.
 

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Posted by iamchristianhearmeroar (# 15483) on :
 
I've tried using both CofE Common Worship and BCP through a very useful app (PCP). But I can't quite get over the fact that I'm saying something silently (usually on the train) which was written to be read aloud, and doing something alone which was intended to be done in community.

Has anyone else struggled with this or is it just me?
 

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Posted by Prester John (# 5502) on :
 

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Originally posted by iamchristianhearmeroar:
I've tried using both CofE Common Worship and BCP through a very useful app (PCP). But I can't quite get over the fact that I'm saying something silently (usually on the train) which was written to be read aloud, and doing something alone which was intended to be done in community.

Has anyone else struggled with this or is it just me?

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I have thought about it as well. My solution is to try and "time" it correctly so that noonday prayers are actually at noon, etc. I figure there must be someone else somewhere praying that prayer at the same time but sometimes I think I'm simply rationalizing something that is not a good practice.
 

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Posted by Spike (# 36) on :
 
I recently downloaded the Common Worship Daily Prayer app to my iPad so am now in the habit of saying the office every day. The app is great, because all the psalms, canticles and readings for the day are on the same page without having to flip backwards and forwards in a service book and have a separate bible to hand which is what always put me off in the past. It's also got me reading some scripture every day which is an area where I'd become very lax.
 

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Posted by Thyme (# 12360) on :
 
St Peter Damian OSB , early second century, answered the question about solitary liturgical prayer thusly:

"In the short treatise Dominus vobiscum (The Book of "The Lord be with You") (PL 145:231-252), he questions whether a hermit praying in solitude should use the plural; Damian concludes that the hermit should use the plural, since he is linked to the whole church by faith and fellowship."

The question above wasn't about praying the Office, but the use of the plural. But clearly the hermits were expected to be saying the Offices.

The CofE Common Worship says that Daily Prayer is for the the use of individuals as well as groups.

I say an version of Morning Prayer online in a chat room with a small group of friends on Friday mornings.
 

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Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
Compline.

More than 40 years ago our youth group used to have a shared holiday and every day ended with compline.

When we all met up some 25 years ago many of us remembered this and some started to say Compline together using speaker 'phones.

There are now 12 of the original group who do this most nights of the week (excluding Sundays) and various family members join in too.
 

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Posted by ChastMastr (# 716) on :
 
I'm a skosh nervous about posting mine... As so many Shippies nowadays don't know me too well from before.
 

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Posted by iamchristianhearmeroar (# 15483) on :
 
We don't bite!
 

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Posted by MSHB (# 9228) on :
 
For years now I have been using the Catholic Morning and Evening Prayer, although I tend to have Evening Prayer rather late, just before going to bed. I figure someone in another time zone is probably praying it at the same time as I am, so it is still the prayer of the church ... somewhere.

I find my mind too chaotic to cope without a liturgy. I need the objective structure and content to focus my mind. But I found, after some time, that I began experiencing spontaneous episodes of contemplation - I just wanted to stop and "gaze". I didn't know what to make of this until someone lent me a book by a Jesuit about the prayer of quiet, drawing on St Teresa of Avila (e.g. the Interior Castle). That was really helpful.

So I continue with liturgical praying, but also pause for contemplative prayer when that happens. But I also attend an informal Protestant church: thus my interior life is very "catholic" while my public prayer life is ostensibly Protestant. But in saying "catholic" I am more attracted to the Desert than to the Cathedral, so it is not bells and smells that attracts me, but rather the contemplative life - being the hermit in the midst of the world (this kind of fits with being on the autism spectrum).

PS: thanks, Kelly, for the tip about that Daily Office app. It looks interesting.
 

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Posted by Melangell (# 4023) on :
 
I've started using this at home: Rhythms of remembering: an everyday office book compiled by Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild (SPCK, 2013). It is described on the SPCK website as "a compact and easy-to-follow way… of praying". There are four short offices for each day of the week; morning and evening prayer vary according to the liturgical season; midday and night prayer remain the same.

These are very short indeed, but they work for me.
 

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Posted by ChastMastr (# 716) on :
 

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Originally posted by iamchristianhearmeroar:
We don't bite!

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Well, here goes, then...

The traditional way I do my Morning/Evening Prayer is thus. First, I put on my collar (not only the chain collar I normally wear, but adding a leather one as described in this ancient Ship thread in Limbo), which helps remind me that I am owned, as well as the ring my (earthly) master gave me--both the chain collar and ring have been blessed by a priest as outward signs of my being a slave of Christ--and I use the forms for Morning and Evening Prayer from the 1928 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Ideally (and I struggle with this, especially when I am bleary-eyed and want coffee in the morning), I would traditionally do the full office of Morning/Evening Prayer, with the collect for the day and such. As there are seven sentences of Scripture to choose from at the start, I go by the day of the week; ditto for some of the additional prayers in the back (Prayers and Thanksgivings, and Prayers for use in Families), one for earthly government/related things and one for the church (so for instance On Sundays it would be "For Our Country" and "For the Church," Mondays "A Prayer for Congress" (not only in their session) and "For the Unity of God's People," and so on. I combine "For the Army" and "For the Army" on Thursdays.

In general, especially as I'm trying to take care of the apartment and I kind of seem to suck at it at the moment, plus since I'm working on our eating better and using our budget better, I will often do "For Faithfulness in the Use of this World's Goods"; on days I am going to work or grading papers I try to do "For Schools, Colleges, and Universities" and "For Every Man in his Work"; every day I try to remember family members and other loved ones (living and dead, "for this life and the life to come") with both "For Those We Love" and "For the Recovery of a Sick Person"; if under tons of stress, as needed or appropriate or when some crisis hits (personal or otherwise), I will use "In Time of Calamity," "For Quiet Confidence," "For Trustfulness," and/or "For Guidance"; sometimes for depression or those I know who are struggling with it, "For Those in Mental Darkness"; and as needed/appropriate, "For a Birthday," "For One about to undergo an Operation," "For an Anniversary of One Departed" when someone dies (not so much the anniversary, just when someone dies), and so on. (A nice online 1928 BCP is at this link.)

For readings, honestly I've done various things but mainly I've found reading two pages from the OT (including the Apocrypha), the NT, and the Psalms to work best, in order, and starting again at the beginning when I get to the end. That way nothing gets left out. Sometimes I've sung the Psalms and such, sometimes not.

I'm trying to get back into full Morning and hopefully Evening Prayer as I used to do. I don't have a good place in that room to put up candles at the moment as I used to. Often in the last couple of years I've been rather poor about all of this (sometimes a mere furtive "A Shorter Form"*) but I am working on getting back on track with it. Prayers for my success in getting back into this--which always helps me by the way, it really seems to center me for the whole rest of the day--would be appreciated.

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* This takes me something like a minute or less, alas, but it is better than nothing for me:

OUR Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

O LORD, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings, being ordered by thy governance, may be righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

... with a couple of extra prayers thrown in. I don't think I really have the excuse of not doing the longer version though, so perhaps now that I have posted this it will give me some accountability...

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