Fr Peter Helman

"Surely it is God who saves me;
I will trust in him and not be afraid.” 
(Canticle 9, The First Song of Isaiah, BCP pg. 86)
 
+

Dear friends,

The above citation comes from the Old Testament book of the prophet Isaiah and is included in the Prayer Book office of Daily Morning Prayer: Rite II. The First Song of Isaiah remains a favorite canticle of mine. Reading it reminds me of how I discovered The Episcopal Church in graduate school. Quite by surprise, I began to say Morning Prayer every day with a small group of friends at Trinity Church, Princeton. We gathered in the hush of the half-lit sanctuary and joined our voices in prayer.
 
The regularity of Morning Prayer – the frequent encounter with this and other Daily Office canticles – fixed my heart to the Anglican way and reshaped my love of the Bible as a vibrant and vital discipline of Christian faith.
 
Morning Prayer teaches us a beautiful truth: with so many Christians the world over, past, present, and yet to come, we are rooted and built up in God through a deep and abiding engagement with the holy scriptures, the ancient and sacred writings of the Christian faith, which we encounter on Sundays and throughout the week, in the celebration of Holy Communion and the Daily Offices, as living words to direct our steps. 
 
We encounter and internalize the Bible as a corporate act of adoration and prayer. As a community we hear the scriptures, “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them” (Proper 28, BCP pg. 184), and by that shared encounter predispose ours hearts, souls, minds, and collective strength to the transforming work of God’s saving help.
 
Join us some morning this week, Monday through Thursday at 8:30 a.m., for Morning Prayer in the Chapel of St. Benedict (formerly the Baptistery). Gather with friends and fellow pilgrims in the hush of the early hours and offer all your days to God, who loves you and knows you by name.

Sincerely yours,
Peter