Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Weekly Q&A + Welcome Newbies!

Welcome to new blog followers Jason, KT Cat, Michael, Veronica Mae and Collette.

Only two weeks of ordinary time left, and then owners of 4-volume breviaires will be switching to volume II, and all of us who use a printed breviary will be adding that extra daily ribbon- flip to the Proper of Seasons in the front third of the book after the psalmody is done. It's even more fun when you have a saint's memorial during lent. Don't worry, breviary novices, you can do this. And if you can't, there's always the digital route.

I just received a review copy of a new book by Anglican bishop N.T. Wright called The Case for the Psalms.  Idon't know much about this author, but he appears to be a decent, "mere Christianity" kind of writer. I haven't read too far into the book yet, but so far  like what I see. This quote, for example, where he talks about the need for the psalms in worship as opposed to a more free-form, modern "praise&worship" style:
 "Good liturgy, whether formal or informal, ought never to be simply a corporate emoting session, however 'Christian', but but a fresh and awed attempt to inhabit the great unceasing liturgy that is going on all the time in the heavenly realms.(That's what those great chapters, Revelation 4 and 5,are all about.) The Psalms offer us a way of joining in a chorus of praise and prayer that has been going on for millennia and across all cultures. Not to try to inhabit them, while continuing to invent non-psalmic 'worship' based on our own feelings of the moment, risks being like a spoiled child who, taken to the summit of Table Mountain with the city and the ocean spread out before him, refuses to gaze at the view because he is playing with his Game Boy."

I like that.

A couple of readers here at Coffee&Canticles are Anglican/Episcopalian. Do you know much about this N.T. Wright and could you recommend other works of his?

Okay. Questions from the confused are welcome in the comments below. Also, comments from the non-confused who just want to share a favorite passage from today's hours or anything else you might want to say. Don't forget to enter the new book giveaway that is a post or two behind this one.