An Anabaptist Liturgy of Hours
book review by Doris Murphy
St. Bridget's Parish,
Boers, Arthur Paul, Barb Nelson
Gingerich, Eleanor Kreider, and Mary H. Schertz, eds. Take
Our Moments and Our Days: An Anabaptist Prayer Book. Co-published
with the
for more information and to order go to
http://www.ambs.edu/prayerbook or
http://www.mph.org/hp/books/takeourmoments.htm
Lionel Blue wrote: “To know another religion you have to
experience it, taste it, join in its prayers.” Take
Our Moments and Our Days: An Anabaptist Prayer Book
gave me an opportunity during Lent to experience, taste, and join in the prayer
of the Anabaptist communities. This prayer book is guided by the peace,
goodness, truth, and beauty reflected by that community and by the Spirit that
is God. No matter one’s denominational affiliation, it is a
call to prayer that can truly make anyone feel at home.
The four week cycle of morning and evening prayers for the ordinary
time of the year consists of three main calls that follow the way of
Christian prayer: the first call, to praise, begins with an invitation to
prayer followed by a portion of a psalm, a thanksgiving, a song, and a
confession; the second call, to listen, invites us as disciples to hear the
voice of Jesus, offers two Scripture readings with a reflection, and is
followed by the canticle of Mary or Zechariah; the third call, to respond,
leads us through intercessory prayers on behalf of the person, the community,
the church, and the world. The prayer closes with the Our Father and a
Scripture blessing. Each prayer allows for flexibility throughout and may end
with a period of common silence. The introduction to the book welcomes others
to continue to make recommendations for its use.
This format, repeated week to week, is easily
memorized. Many of the individual parts of the service follow common
themes of the Anabaptist faith life. These are also repeated throughout the
prayer cycle, thereby allowing for less concern about logistics and more
freedom to move to contemplative prayer within the common prayer. The ease of
movement and profound simplicity (not an oxymoron) of the three calls provide a
natural rhythm of praise and thanksgiving, listening to the voice of God, and
responding with prayer and petition. Because only a short portion of a psalm is
selected for each day, these, too, can be quickly memorized through repetition
over a short period of time. The Scripture passages are brief and carefully
selected but provide sufficient verses to lead to “lectio” (reflection or
mulling over the word) at a later time. The opportunity for open prayer during
the intercessions makes for a progression from individual needs to the needs of
the local and world communities, as the Gospel instructs.
The major themes for the four weeks – Lord’s Prayer,
Beatitudes, Parables, and Miracles – are central to praying with Jesus.
However, over a period of time, these themes could become routine and somewhat too
programmed. The variety of carefully selected Scripture readings, can suggest
additional themes for the pray-er that the Spirit of God and the very heart of
the words may direct. Scripture passages always keeps
prayer from becoming static. Since only portions of each psalm are selected, it
is left to the pray-er to be responsible for reading the remaining verses of
each psalm and exploring the riches of the psalms that are not used.
The preface, introduction, and notes, lay out a careful
framework for the what, why, and how of this community prayer. For the
Anabaptist community, restoring this prayer for their church use has been a
serious project for over 25 years. An adequate introduction is provided to
explain the meaning of and reasons for this prayer style. This is especially
helpful for those in the Anabaptist community who have not officially been
involved in formal communal prayer, as well as for non-church members who may
wish to use the book for personal or public prayer. The introduction could be
enriched with a reference to Acts 2:42 where we first read that the Christian
community gathered for common prayer. Since the founding of the early Christian
church, an essential element of religious life has been prayer in common – as
it had been in the Jewish home before that. This prayer book continues
that custom in a comfortable way, keeping with a less ritualistic style of
prayer.
The Rule of St. Benedict from the 5th century
remains the premier source for prayer in common. The motto for the monks was
and is “ora et labora” – “work and pray.” The
introduction to this book acknowledges that if only our work is our prayer,
then, perhaps, we are not praying! We need to set aside time to focus
without distraction on this “opus dei” – “work of God.” The term “Liturgy
of the Hours” has been used for centuries to designate the prayer of the
Christian community. Time during certain hours each day were
and are set aside to give praise and thanks to God. It is fitting, then, that
this new prayer book, a very user-friendly book of prayer, aptly used a hymn
reference for the title. It opens us to regular prayer with a welcome
title: “Take our moments and our days.”