Learned something right off the bat this morning. I’m going to do the Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families as a starting place for some personal prayer. My hope is that I’ll be able to all four very short devotions each day. That’ll take some discipline right off the bat.
And I ran into a problem from the first. Clearly just handing someone the BCP (Book of Common Prayer) won’t work. You get halfway through the “In the Morning” devotion (p. 137) and you hit the instruction “A hymn or canticle may be used”. OK, for the folks without a church background canticle is going to stop them dead. I at least know what a canticle is and that there’s info in the BCP on how to select them. Flip, flip, flip one way. Flip, flip, flip back the other. Flip, flip, flippity, flipflipflipflipflipflip…where IS that stupid stuff. (This in the midst of my devotion. Yes, I should have looked earlier but even if I had it would be frustrating. And what if you don’t know to look!) Found it! Two pages (144; 145). OK, Tuesday morning canticle 2 or 13. Now where are those canticles? Flip, flip, flip, I know they’re here we use them in Morning Prayer, flip, flip, flip, maybe they’re listed on the subjects down on the bottom of each page, flip, flip, flip, Collects, flip, flip, flip Daily Devotions, flip, flip, Evening Prayer II, flip, flip, Morning Prayer II, flip, flip, Evening Prayer I, flip, flip, Morning Prayer I, flip, flip, Calendar, flip, beginning of book. SIGH.
Think. Wait, aren’t they actually in the middle of the Morning Prayer section? Flip, flip, flip. YES! But they’re not listed as canticles. If you read the instructions just before them you’ll see it says “…the following canticles…” but it’s pretty small print. They look a lot like Psalms (begins on p 585). Can we make this any more unfriendly for the beginner?
The simplest form of personal devotion isn’t so simple. Yeah, maybe this sabbatical project of mine really is a pretty good idea.
Stories Are My Life 
Was the Book of “Common” Prayer written for the insider only? Flipflipflipflipflip….even the most experienced user often can struggle navigating the BCP. One positive for the BCP offering another view than the rhetorical question above, is that our BCP is full of scripture. So many of the prayers, are right from scripture. Side thought….is our BCP a good tool for personal piety (good being-useful, open to user needs, portable, meaning full material year round)?Look forward to your work.pansyliz
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It sure seems like it sometimes. I think the BCP COULD be a great tool for personal piety. Right now it's only a good one. To use the computer terms it IS portable but not intuitive. A look at the BCP is on my list of things to reflect upon.
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