The Daily Office Tutorial

The place to come to learn how to pray the Daily Office!

Part I – An Introduction to the Office and the Beginning of Morning Prayer

Part II – The Conclusion of Morning Prayer

Part III – Evening Prayer

Part IV – Noonday Prayer

Part V – Compline

Part VI – Celebrating Principal Feasts and Holy Days, and Lesser Feasts and Fasts

Part VII – Singing and Chanting the Office

Part VIII – Using “An Order of Worship for the Evening”

Praying the Daily Office is a wonderful way to mark the time of our days as sacred and belonging to God.  Christians, lay and ordained, have been praying some form of liturgical daily prayer from the very earliest days of Christianity, and even that has its roots in forms of Jewish daily prayer.

But just picking up the Book of Common Prayer and turning to the pages containing the Daily Office can be intimidating the first time you do it, especially if you are going to be praying by yourself.  All the different rubrics -instructions- can seem confusing and the different sections of the Book of Common Prayer which you will need to access can seem daunting.

And yet, you feel called to begin a spiritual journey of prayer.  You feel called to spend time with God every day.  You feel like you want to, need to, mark the time of your days as sacred.  Then this tutorial is for you.  We will take you through every Daily Office service in the Book of Common Prayer step by step, page number by page number, so that you can learn this beautiful, ancient, scriptural, and rhythmic pattern of prayer, and in so doing, join the countless throngs of ages past and present day who around the world and across the centuries offer up their prayer to God using these same words.

So, grab your Book of Common Prayer and your Bible, and let us pray!

An Ancient Prayer Before Beginning the Office

Open, O Lord, my mouth to bless thy holy Name; cleanse also my heart from all vain, evil, and wandering thoughts; enlighten my understanding and kindle my affections; that I may worthily, attentively, and devoutly say this Office, and so be meet to be heard before the presence of thy divine Majesty.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

O Lord, in union with that divine intention wherewith thou, whilst here on earth, didst render praises unto God, I desire to offer this my Office of prayer unto thee.

Online Resources to Aid You in Praying the Daily Office

The Book of Common Prayer, online

• The BCP Online
• The Book of Common Prayer in .rtf, MSWord, and .pdf formats

Online Bibles

• Oremus Bible Browser
• Bible Gateway

Online Lectionaries

• The Lectionary Page
• The Lectionary – this one has greater resources for Feast Days

The Daily Office Online – (the whole thing for the Digitally Minded)

• The Daily Office Online from Mission St. Clare
• Daily Prayer from the Church of England (this is an alternative form, but it follows the same general pattern)

• Choral Evensong from the BBC – for your listening pleasure
• St. Bede’s Breviary – generally for the more advanced user, particularly those given to anglo-catholic forms of daily office options, but has “bare-bones” as an available option as well.  The website author is the husband of Mtr. Meredith, who used to serve at St. George’s.
• Daily Office for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

Daily Office Books – (for those who like the feel of the book in their hand)

These links will take you to places to purchase the named items.

• The Book of Common Prayer, 1979 (gift edition)
• The Book of Common Prayer, 1979 and NRSV Holy Bible Combination
• Contemporary Daily Office Book – contains all the Rite II Offices and the Lessons (NRSV), Psalms, prayers and Collects throughout the two-year cycle in one volume.
• Daily Office Book (2 volume set) – contains Rite I and Rite II versions of all offices, along with all the Lessons (RSV), Psalms, prayers and Collects throughout the two-year cycle, in a very nice slipcase sized nicely for personal use and travel.
• Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church – for those who wish to supplement the scriptural readings with readings from the Early Church