So, for those of you who are interested in the Daily Office, here’s how things are going for me.

Since I last posted on this, I reverted to Matins (Morning Prayer) and Vespers (Evening Prayer) daily.  For the first time, this includes doing both offices on Sunday also (I always used to count Sunday Eucharists as replacing an Office).  I’ve managed this (Sundays) for three weeks running.  Last week I was out-of-town.  But I missed only 1 office (Friday night at 11:30 PM I decided I needed to sleep more than I needed to say the Office).

And I’ve got the beginnings of my new pattern for how I say the offices.

For Matins, basically I say the office.  When I’m at home, I say it from the monastic edition of the breviary, using the 2 week Psalter Cycle from the sisters as it is found in the breviary.  When I’m at the office (mornings I have office hours) or out-of-town, I use the personal edition and the Psalter from the Episcopal Daily Office Lectionary.

The same holds true as my pattern for Vespers.  Except that I try to sing those parts of the service that have a set tune.  Occasionally I work on learning the musical parts that vary by day and/or season.  But I may give that up.

I supplement Matins by using a variety of readings by and about the saints or other spiritual readings.  And also by doing my prayer lists (my daily public list, my weekly public lists, and my weekly private list) and our Diocesan Prayer List.

I use the reading from the Jewish Scriptures and the gospel reading at Matins (both from the Daily Office Lectionary).  I use the non gospel reading and the gospel reading (again) from the Christian Scriptures at Vespers.  I don’t normally shift readings for saint’s days (but read about the saints in a variety of books, both at home and at work).

Occasionally (not with enough discipline to really go anywhere) I still use the Compline Anglican Rosary or simply sit for Contemplative Prayer — usually at night, usually near bed time.  I’m going to need to update the Compline Anglican Rosary I’ve been doing for language from the Order of St. Helena Breviary (rather than from the Prayer Book service of Compline).

The additional time in the Daily Offices (now around an hour and a half a day) has felt helpful.  It would probably have been over two hours a day if I were trying to say all four offices daily (which I’d been playing with for a couple of weeks), and that simply felt like too much (too soon).