Daily Office
In a culture that is full of hurry and busyness, it can be difficult for us to recognize and walk with Jesus in our everyday lives. The practice of the daily office helps us ground ourselves more fully in God’s presence as we pause each morning, midday, and evening for silence, scripture, and prayer.
Below you will find a series of guided prayers. We created guides (first daily and then weekly) for most of 2020. If this is your first experience with the daily office, I would encourage you to begin with one of these. The morning and evening prayers are about 10 minutes each, and the midday prayer is about 5 minutes.
The final entry is a general guide you may use to carry you forward. Each prayer begins in silence. Then the morning prayer guides us in a practice of scripture called Lectio Divina. This is simply a way to read the Bible with Jesus. We reflect on the text and listen to what God has to say to us in it today. The midday prayer leads the Lord’s Prayer. And the evening prayer guides us in a practice of prayer called the Examen. In this practice, we review the day with Jesus. The structure of this prayer helps us to notice God’s fingerprints in the midst of our everyday life.
For the morning prayer, you will need to choose a passage of scripture. It is helpful to choose a text that will take 30-90 seconds to read. You may choose one that is meaningful to you in this season or you may join Christians around the world in reading a text from today’s lectionary readings. You can find those readings here.