that having used the Treasury in a variety of ways over the last couple years, I have definitely decided that I am truly most at home using it the way I did at first. Here's how:
Matins/Lauds: Opening Versicles, Monthly Psalter (see chart on pages 1436-1437 - easiest is to write the divisions into the Psalter itself), Hymn stanza, OT reading, Responsory, Canticle (Te Deum on Sundays; Benedictus all other days), Kyrie, Our Father, Prayer of the Day, Prayer for the Day of the Week (pp. 1306-1309), Collect for Grace, Benedicamus, Benediction
Vespers: Opening Versicles, Monthly Psalter (as above), Hymn stanza, NT reading, Responsory, Writing, Versicle and Magnificat, Kyrie, Our Father, Prayer of the Day, Intercessions for family and for those who have asked my prayers, Collect for Peace, Benedicamus, Benediction
The heart of this way of using the Treasury is the Monthly Psalter. Truly, the more I use the Psalms, the more I have come to love them and find them to be the very best prayers we as the Church can ever offer. As Bonhoeffer said, they're all expansions of the petitions of the Our Father.
5 comments:
It's great that Lutherans are rediscovering the Psalter. In my own prayer life (which is a joke), the Psalter is a constant flow of joy which I, a lowly sinner, cannot express on my own. It is the true hymnal of the Church!
I find that when certain days arrive, it's like greeting an old friend: oh, yeah! This is Psalm 107 day!!! and so on. Yes indeed, the true hymnal of the Church. It really stands out when you consider how the Introits, Graduals and Verse are almost invariably from the Psalter - so it's a big part of the Divine Service - and then it's huge also in the Daily Office.
I couldn't agree with you more on the value of the Psalter. If/when you miss, do you try to make them up next go round? Sometimes I'll try to fold in the previous evenings Psalms to Matins--praying 6-8 Psalms can have one feeling positively monastic.
One other question: when do you pray Vespers? Is it with your family?
When possible, I make it up. As in, if I couldn't pray in the morning, I'll add in those psalms in the evening. Generally, though, I just pick up where I should be and look forward to using any I missed this month in the upcoming months.
I pray Vespers usually all by my own alone self. My family is not usually here - kids out and about, working, school. Cin is usually occupied about that time of the day. I frequently pray it in the Church, and every once in blue moon, someone will be over there, hear me, and join in.
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