Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

Last Saturday I met with the cohort that was preparing for Confirmation, Reception, and Reaffirmation. It was the final of 11 sessions together throughout January; it was a busy, fruitful season!

Ranging from a 14 year old to people in their 70s, the group gathered last Saturday to rehearse, pray Morning Prayer, and to ponder questions about identity in Christ, the cloud of witnesses that support them, and their callings in their current season.

We met in a circle during Morning Prayer instruction. Before each section I explained just a little about how groups typically pray certain sections of the liturgy.

It’s not immediately apparent, for instance, that we say the Antiphon before and after the Invitatory Psalm. But once you know the response is always “O come, let us adore him” it makes the prayers more fluid and organic in any setting.

After the first reading, which is always from the Old Testament, one Confirmand quietly said “that’s my favorite passage in the whole gospel” while another said “I do not get this section—it always irks me.” Since we were in instruction-mode, I got to share my love of the canticles.

No matter whether the reading is your favorite, one that makes you cringe, or one that’s unfamiliar, the daily canticles root us in ancient prayers and give words that are a faithful response to these holy words that come to us through our human ears and understanding. The canticles are suggested for various days.

So if you find you always have time to pray Morning Prayer on Saturdays, you’ll get really familiar with the canticle “A Song of Creation” (on page 88 in the Book of Common Prayer) to follow the Old Testament reading. The table of canticles is on page 144, and refers back to the canticle numbers found in both Rite 1 and Rite 2 of Morning Prayer in the front of your Book of Common Prayer.

If this sounds a bit like math, then come experience the prayers in the beautiful setting of the side chapel one morning. Liturgy helps us hold complexity, and forms our faith in ancient and communal patterns. Morning Prayer is offered Mondays through Thursdays from 8:30am-9:00am in the Chapel of Saint Benedict.

In Christ,

—Mtr Taylor

From this morning’s first canticle, quoting from Isaiah:

For as rain and snow fall from the heavens
And return not again, but water the earth,
Bringing forth life and giving growth,
Seed for sowing and bread for eating,
So it is my word that goes froth from my mouth;
It will not return to me empty;
But it will accomplish that which I have purposed,
And prosper in that for which I sent it.