Making Hours Divine – Rev. Dr. Liz Mosbo VerHage

First of all, you may notice that my site looks a little different, and it will continue to, as my hubby helps me update my blog a little. So in the next few weeks, as it gets spiffed up some graphically, don’t be surprised if it appears a little altered.

Second, there are some amazing comments/discussions in the last two posts around politics and faith, if you didn’t see them already. I want to give those posts/ideas more attention and discussion soon, but have been thinking about other topics lately and writing more about those.

Third – so onto one of those other topics! An interest that has been growing in my life deals with regular, or fixed, prayer. In our Integrate group this week (a ‘small group’ of sorts), we talked about spiritual disciplines, and lack of or hunger for them, devotions, and the whole notion of how many times there seems to be a “theme” that keeps reoccurring and drawing attention to it. This is my recent theme, as evidenced by our Integrate discussion and many other aspects of life right now.

My recent theme in life deals with the need for schedule, for centeredness, a desire for more interior organization and grounding, and how this all intersects with my spiritual life. I read Scot McKnight’s “Praying with the Church” a little while ago and this whetted my appetite for more regular prayer. He explores some the various judgments, hesitancies, or just lack of knowledge that many evangelical protestants, including me in many cases, bring to the idea of fixed prayer. It is an easy to read introductory book and helped explain some of the organizational fear I’ve always encountered when I use a complicated, ribbon bound, multiple-step daily prayer. So this helped me feel like it was possible to learn how to pray this way, even though I haven’t been taught this form of prayer. He also states that the only rule about prayer is that there are no rules, a helpful reminder in an area (spiritual disciplines) that can elicit both an awareness that we need to do more to make ourselves open to God, and feelings or guilt or comparing with others who prays more, better, etc.

I also keep noticing quotes, prayers, and other related material on fixed prayers and spiritual growth. As I was re-reading some notes from a seminary class last week, I wrote down a quote from one of my favorite professors; “The only cure for loneliness is solitude.” John Weborg said this as he opened a lecture sharing the wisdom of withdrawing from external needs and voices in order to listen, speak, and attend to inner spiritual voices. There is also an absolutely beautiful prayer that my advisor often starts class with; I’ve noticed that after three years of classes with him, I can almost recite the prayer without thinking about it:

New every morning is your love, Great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us the desire to serve

https://cialico.com/dosage/

you, to live peaceably with our neighbors, and to give each day to the service of your Son, our Savior.

That simple, poetic, profound prayer is now common – fixed – embedded in my life. When I hear the first sentence begin I know what follows; when I arrive at the last section I know serving leads to peaceable living leads to giving our day to Christ. I think this is an example of what liturgy, fixed prayers, common offices, and ritual can provide our spiritual walks – knowing what comes next, hearing/thinking the sentences internally as well as externally, and waiting espectantly for words that we know will come. This rhythm, this knowing what is coming, can help to reaffirm a truth for us even when we don’t feel it, or don’t know it, for ourselves at that moment. It is still true, still necessary, still a prayer to God. It is still the same words, the same truth, the same action, the same centering awareness, day after day, after week, after year. That knowledge, provided by a simple prayer in class over the years, grounds me, and reminds me of how people must feel on Sunday morning when phrases, prayers, collects, liturgies are read that they are know are coming, that are familiar and grounded in a truth bigger then we are. Of course liturgy can be empty and cold, as evangelicals are apt to remind the church; personal, spontaneous prayer and spiritual disciplines are also important. But right now in my own life, I am realizing a need for ordered, fixed, and known prayers that give me words bigger than my own. I think this need is, in part, to point me toward truth that is bigger than my feelings, to reorient me away from my striving, my academic research, my attempts at relationships, my pastoring advances, my goals and to-do lists – and instead to re-focus on God. My own prayers somehow still end up being about me; having other words to ground me has been healthy.

I have been venturing into fixed prayer with a couple different prayer books, each of which are explained well in Scot’s book. (His website has a large array of links to various prayer sources and many interesting entries on the topic.) I’ve linked the two I’ve been using and know a little about to this site, the Divine Hours and Celtic Prayers, and will shortly add a favorite of mine that provides art, music, and reflections for the Advent season. I am just learning all of this, and am by know means an expert. I just wanted to share how I’ve been shaped recently by this form of worship and awareness as it’s been so helpful and so foreign to add into my own life. I know many younger, ’emerging’ evangelical protestants are also expressing a renewed interest in liturgy of various kinds and it fascinates me. There is more that I need to look into regarding this issue, I suspect!

4 thoughts on “Making Hours Divine”

i love that you’re thinking about these issues lately, too! I don’t know if its finishing Girl Meets God or my Lutheran roots, but lately I have found myself more connected with liturgy and all that comes along with it.

I have lived both with the “static” feeling of liturgy and felt overwhelming centered within it at others. I was reminded this week of how powerful certain affirmations and prayers are from growing up in a liturgical faith community. There is something “beyond myself” when praying the same prayer of lament that my great-grandmother did, and the same words my parents learned in church growing up.

While I am no longer worshiping regularly in a strict liturgical tradition, those familiar words provide form for lament, thanksgiving and adoration. I am thankful for those words which can bring solace and reflection through their repetition. And I am thankful for friends like you who are thinking and writing and dialoging about the desire to more fully integrate such faith practices.

Happy Thanksgiving…say hi to your family for us!

Love the new developing look and the post. I’ll have to check out the websites. 🙂 – Heidi

Yes to these thoughts too! Lament, and confession are so often lost in our language and even in worship. I love the Covenant confessions – they are really powerful, I may have to post some of my favorites from the book of worship. This is one one of the things that pointed me more toward liturgy again was reading a confession from the Bk of Worship that I so love, and has become ‘common’ to me. Also, reading through the funeral liturgy when we were mourning my grandma was powerful, to have that structure and those words.

After reading an excellent biography of St. Patrick, I have been reading a morning prayer attributed (but probably not written by) to him. It is called the Faeth Fiada, and it reads:
I rise today
with a mighty power, calling on the Trinity,
with a belief in the threeness,
with a faith in the oneness
of the Creator of creation.

I rise today
with the power of Christâ€™s birth and baptism,
with the power of His crucifixion and burial,
with the power of His resurrection and ascension,
with the power of His return for the final judgment.

I rise today
with the power of the love of the cherubim,
in obedience of angels,
in service of archangels,
in hope of the resurrection and reward,
in the prayers of the patriarchs,
in the foretelling of the prophets,
in the preaching of the apostles,
in the faith of the confessors,
in the innocence of the holy virgins,
in the deeds of righteous men.

I rise today
with the strength of the sky,
with the light of the sun,
with the splendor of the moon,
with the brilliance of fire,
with the blaze of lightening,
with the swiftness of wind,
with the depth of the ocean,
with the firmness of earth,
with the strength of rock.

I rise today
with the power of God to guide me,
with the strength of God to raise me,
with the wisdom of God to lead me,
with the vision of God to see for me,
with the ears of God to hear for me,
with the words of God to speak for me,
with the hand of God to protect me,
with the path of God before me,
with the shield of God to guard me,
with the friendship of God to keep me safe from
the contriving of demons
the temptations of sin,
the inclinations of my nature,
and everyone who wishes me harm,
far and near,
alone and in the crowd.

I summon today all those powers to protect me
against every cruel force which may attack my body and soul,
against the incantations of false prophets,
against the evil laws of unbelievers,
against the false laws of the heretics,
against the subtle temptations of idolatry,
against the magic of women, blacksmiths, and Druids,
against every knowledge which corrupts body and soul.

Christ protect me today
from poison and burning,
from drowning and wounding,
so that I might gain an abundant reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ below me, Christ above me,
Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me,
Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I stand,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye which sees me,
Christ in every ear which hears me.

I rise today
with a mighty power, calling on the Trinity,
with a belief in the threeness,
with a faith in the oneness
of the Creator of creation.

Comments are closed.