The BCP

We had an excellent Sunday school class yesterday on the Prayer Book, formally The Book of Common Prayer. Our lives in the Episcopal Church are structured around the content of this book with the most recent published edition dated 1979. There is continued discussion of additions and changes to the BCP at the General Conventions of the EC. There have been jokes that Episcopalians know their Prayer Books better than their Bibles.  But, in all seriousness, the Book contains our prayers, the services we use on Sundays and at other times, an outline of our beliefs, and our liturgical calendars.  It is a rich resource to guide us on our Christian journeys.

Yesterday, we focused on the prayers. There are 2 main sections of prayers: The Collects (pp. 159-261), and Prayers and Thanksgivings (pp. 810-841). A Collect ('col-ect) is a prayer form that addresses God and then makes a request, such as guidance, blessing, or strength. We read a seasonal one each Sunday as part of the Eucharistic service, and there are additional ones for Holy days and special purposes. 

I know these powerful prayers are available, but I often forget to turn to them when my prayer life goes dry. Perhaps, like me, you tire of always praying the same prayers in the same form.  I lose enthusiasm for my prayer time when I get bored, and I feel it may kind of insult God if I ask for the same things over and over as if I don't trust that I am being heard.

Whatever your faith tradition, I commend to you the Book of Common Prayer for these excellent sections. There are prayers for most topics including The Church, the world, families, communities, illness, and so on. You can find a helpful list on pp. 810-813. One prayer practice we considered yesterday was to turn the weekly collect into a personal prayer for the week by changing the pronouns 'us' and 'we' to 'I' and 'me'. As our leader pointed out, "strap on your seatbelt, for this can be more powerful than you expect".

I will share as today's prayer one of my favorite prayers in the Prayer Book, the Collect for Purity that is said every Sunday at the beginning of the service to help us transition from the outside world into worship (p. 323 and p. 355):

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen