Return of the Daily Office

| Posted By Charles Gaston

[Ed. note: We’ve restored a Daily Office link to the website, which you’ll find in the “footer” section at the bottom of every page, and it contains all the information you see below…]

The pattern of prayer and scripture reading to mark the passage of each day spans thousands of years. Countless numbers have been helped by its structure, breadth and comprehensiveness.

During the Reformation in England, Thomas Cranmer reduced the eight monastic offices (among them: lauds, matins, vespers, and compline) to two services of daily Morning and Evening Prayer. These services were simplified and placed in English, intended for the use of all. These times of prayer and Bible reading (with a particular affinity for the Psalms) are still known as the Daily Office.

God speaks to us in his living and active word. Whether in the Daily Office, through our Bible-in-a-Year Blog, or other ways you may prayerfully engage and be engaged by the Scriptures:  it remains our prayer that you may be strengthened by the Spirit “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-29)

Here are some Daily Office links for you to choose from:

Here’s one that will let someone else read the scripture to you:
ESV: Daily Office Lectionary Podcast by Crossway on iTunes

The ESV Lectionary web page requires you to set up a free account with Crossway and a login, but once you set that up, click on “Webpage” and you’re good to go:
https://www.crossway.org/blog/2006/11/book-of-common-prayer-daily-office-online/

A page on the Vanderbilt University site offers dozens of Bible translations, including ESV, so just select your preferred translation and scroll down to the current date:
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/daily.php?year=A

Finally, if you want to stick with print, simply turn to page 934 in your 1979 Prayer Book!
(We are currently in Year 1 for the Daily Office, and Year A for the Eucharistic Lectionary.)