02 November 2008
What's Neat
about the Treasury of Daily Prayer is the different way folks are approaching it. My dear friend, Pr. Rick Stuckwisch, sees it primarily as a handbook for a father to use in leading the family in prayer. It certainly could be used in just that way with great profit. I see it chiefly as a complete breviary - a Lutheran form of the Daily Office - which can be used in individual prayers or in the Church setting - also with great profit. And there's a number of variations in between. Either way, it is a fabulously rich resource for growth in the life of prayer for the Christian. If you're a Lutheran Christian, do I think you should buy it? DUH. YES! I think you'll find it to be the most versatile prayerbook you've ever come across. I'll bet no matter HOW you end up using it, it will be a daily companion on the Way.
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9 comments:
Ours has been sitting open to the day's readings right on the dining room table since the day I unpacked it.
This is another strength of the TDP. It grows with the family. Now, with little feet running around the house all day, it gets read in small bits throughout the day. But there is such a wealth of riches inside that it will be just as invaluable when our family has a high-schooler.
I also appreciate that everything matches the services in LSB. My daughter already knows the Close of Day service on pg 298, and now my husband can lead us out of the TDP without anyone having to learn a new service.
It's almost like one of pastors involved in the project has vast experience with small children... ya think? :-)
But what do you do when you get through the year's worth of Scripture readings and writings from the fathers? Do it again? Do you just keep reading the same passages from the Fathers over and over again? Not that this is bad, but just curious.
Thanks Bill. You are so correct. I posted this over at Pastor Stuckwisch's site, where he had a much longer post on the background of the Commission on Worship's planning for a book like the Treasury. It gave some good background on the planning for a volume like this, with a particular focus on his involvement in the thought and planning and thinking as he served as a member of the Commission on Worship's sub-committee.
The bottom line is that, thankfully, Treasury is not an "either/or" book - either for the individual or for the family or small group.
Here is what I wrote over at RS's site:
The Treasury of Daily Prayer, as the introductory material makes clear, is specifically designed for use by individuals, alone, by themselves, as they pray daily, even as it may easily be used in the home, among families. It is not an "either/or" situation.
While I recognize the Commission on Worship's, or perhaps some members of the CoW's vision, for a book for daily prayer was that it be for the family, the vision, scope and intent of Treasury of Daily Prayer expands upon the CoW's original concepts, greatly improves upon them, adds to them and has now provided a book more useful, to more people, in more situations and contexts: "individuals, families and small groups."
Paul As proponents of the one series remind us often, repetition is the mother of learning, and so it would be entirely appropriate to read the same passages every year, even as you read the same passages of Scripture every year, or the Psalms, many of us, every thirty days, but.....I have good news. We are planning for companion volumes in future years with more readings gathered from the fathers, for those who might wish to have more of that material.
Jennifer - neat to hear!
Pastor Beisel - remember Walther's favorite proverb: not many, but much. I frequently read and reread the same things over again. I find it quite helpful - especially to this aging brain that doesn't hold info the way it used to.
Pastor McCain - exactly!
It is an amazing piece of work, and a real achievement on the part of CPH. There aren't enough or sufficient superlatives to express the extent of this good gift that God has bestowed upon His Church. Not least among its benefits, as you indicate, Pastor Weedon, is the comprehensive flexibility of the Treasury. That is very cool.
I like the notion of a Lutheran breviary. I can see this book as a wonderful resource for those churches who have daily matins and vespers and even for the opening of church meetings. I would expect the Treasury to have a lively place in the corporate life of the congregation.
what do you do when you get through the year's worth of Scripture readings and writings from the fathers? Do it again? Do you just keep reading the same passages from the Fathers over and over again? Not that this is bad, but just curious.
Yes indeed, repetition is a good thing when one becomes familiar with the Daily Office.
But I am curious -- the official Roman Liturgy of the Hours is composed of four volumes corresponding to the liturgical year. The Office of Readings in each volume provides a tremendous amount of patristic material (although I recognize not all of it would be acceptable to Lutherans) so that by the time one completes the entire cycle it's almost like reading them anew.
Might the TDP someday adopt a similar format (which would also cut down on the size of the one volume edition)?
Christine: Thanks for your suggestion, while we will not be producing multiple volumes of the Treasury, given the genius of its design around the daily lectionary, as explained by Pr. Stuckwisch, the chief architect of the daily lectionary, we do intend, as I mentioned to Pastor Paul B., to release supplemental volumes for other church father readings.
What's neat is being given the 'Treasury' by a dear friend for my birthday.
I've been reading a Bible study which goes through the Book in one year (the Psalms twice in that time). There is still something to learn in that in the third year.
So I don't think I'll get bored with the 'Treasury' very soon.
But I suppose I'm "starting from behind" some of you.
Helen
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