A Canadian Mom-blogger (and Coffee&Canticles follower) has written this lovely post about the Liturgy of the Hours.
Like so many of you, she has discovered that, far from being a piece of arcane, elite spiritual practice for those of a monastic bent, the Liturgy of the Hours, particularly in its psalms, expresses and addresses our very down-to-earth situation:
We all have suffering and darkness in our lives, and we want God to take it away. Sometimes, the only prayer we can muster is, "God, help me; I can't deal with this crap." But if we're going to pray that prayer, we might as well use beautiful language--not because God needs to hear it (he knows all the words, even the bad ones), but because we do. God is everything that is true, good and beautiful. And good Art is the same thing. True Art leads us to God.
So read the rest. Maybe follow the blog too. Looks like she has lots of interesting things there. I mean, pot pies, St. Iraneus, Tupperware fandom, and homage to the PBS Hercule Poirot series. Quite a spread of topics.
By the way, isn't it kind of nice to be back in ordinary time, with no more wondering how to find the pre and post-Epiphany office each day?
Like so many of you, she has discovered that, far from being a piece of arcane, elite spiritual practice for those of a monastic bent, the Liturgy of the Hours, particularly in its psalms, expresses and addresses our very down-to-earth situation:
We all have suffering and darkness in our lives, and we want God to take it away. Sometimes, the only prayer we can muster is, "God, help me; I can't deal with this crap." But if we're going to pray that prayer, we might as well use beautiful language--not because God needs to hear it (he knows all the words, even the bad ones), but because we do. God is everything that is true, good and beautiful. And good Art is the same thing. True Art leads us to God.
So read the rest. Maybe follow the blog too. Looks like she has lots of interesting things there. I mean, pot pies, St. Iraneus, Tupperware fandom, and homage to the PBS Hercule Poirot series. Quite a spread of topics.
By the way, isn't it kind of nice to be back in ordinary time, with no more wondering how to find the pre and post-Epiphany office each day?
