Midday Slowdown
November 19, 2008
One of the many reasons for praying the office, via Celtic Daily Prayer, is to reconnect ourselves with the church universal. This means reaffirming our relationship with all of God’s church past and present. The compilers of CDP deliberately include archaic language (’thee’ and ‘thou’) in the Midday Office and this offers an opportunity for us to remember our part in the “great cloud of witnesses”.
It also reminds us of a different time, one in which prayer and devotion to God were not considered oddities but noble choices for life. Our lives, and the lives of those we minister with and to, are immersed in a kinetic culture. Constant movement, speed and the quest for efficiency are hallmarks of our age. These do not lend themselves easily to a life of contemplative prayer.
The words of the midday office support contemplative prayer in both content and form. The words, deliberately short and archaic, remind me of a rock immovable in a stream. The water of the busy day breaks around this small but ancient fortress of prayer. Anchored to the church and praying with it, both past and present, we find refreshment in God’s rule over the day.
The Midday Office concludes with this prayer of St. Teresa of Avila. A welcome slowdown from the pace of the day.
Let nothing disturb thee,
nothing affright thee;
all things are passing,
God never changeth!
Patient endurance attaineth to all things;
who God possesseth
in nothing is wanting;
alone God sufficeth.
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Paul,
Thanks for plugging midday prayer. Of the ones I miss the most midday is it. It really takes great intentionality to stop at middday to pray. Thanks for the reminder.