Call for Morning Prayers & Meditations (and Thoughts)

My husband Ron was cleaning behind bookshelves a couple of months ago when a small book enveloped in dust and cobwebs appeared on the tip of the broom. The title of the book was “Always We Begin Again: The Benedictine Way of Living.”

The small volume, paperback $10, was written by an Episcopal lawyer, John McQuiston. In the intro, he writes that he really didn’t have a spiritual routine until middle age when, upon the death of his father, he lamented to a friend that while he himself regularly attended church, it didn’t hold the same meaning for him as it had for his father. The friend recommended that he read “Living with Contradictions: Reflections on the Rule of St. Benedict.” The next summer McQuiston and his wife had the opportunity to stay in the dormitory at the Canterbury Cathedral, which is apparently Benedictine-centric, as it were.

Anyway, when the author returned home to Memphis, a priest recommended that he start his day with the Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. Soon, reading the Rule of St. Benedict became part of that morning routine. Over time, McQuiston translated the Rule from the more traditional language of St. Benedict and “institutional images of the church” to something more modern and easier for him to get at what he calls the “core insights.” While there is wording in some prayers like “grace to us and peace”, which is recognizable, it is pretty much written in a way that a non-church going person could get the meaning.

For all I know, half of the Episcopalians in the world have a copy of this book sitting on top of the Book of Common Prayer (or fallen behind their bookshelves). The title track prayer in my copy, which ends with “and every day we begin again” is gone because I actually cut it out to send to my son Wolfie his first year in Germany. It’s one of the best in the book.

Despite the missing page, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the book again lately. And I share with McQuiston’s interpretation of the first rule:

Live this life
And do whatever is done,
In a spirit of Thanksgiving.

Abandon attempts to achieve security,
They are futile,

Give up the search for wealth,
It is demeaning,
Quit the search for Salvation
It is selfish,

And come to comfortable rest
In the certainty that those who
Participate in this life
With an attitude of Thanksgiving
Will receive its full promise.

Morning prayer and meditation, for me, has been an off-again, on-again sort of lifetime pursuit. When I am in the habit, I find that it’s a good way to begin the day, good for mental health, spiritual health and overall well-being. (Sort of like coming to church regularly--which was really good this morning, by the way, Peter Bauer gave a guest sermon.)

I ask fellow Dunstanites, would you mind sharing your favorite morning meditation or prayer, or perhaps offer any insight you may have about your morning spiritual routine?

Click on the comment section below this blog post. I think it wants an email address and password but just follow the links. If you have any trouble, email me: sibleyfleming@comcast.net.

If you would like to just post your writing as a separate blog, rather than make a comment on an existing blog, just send it to me at the same email address and I’ll make sure it gets posted. Grace to all and peace!