The Book of Common Prayer is more than a collection of prayers. It’s a pattern for living. We’ve seen before, on previous examinations, how it guides us in the living of a regular Christian life: daily prayers and offices, weekly participation in the Christian sacrifice of the Altar, a yearly cycle of worship through the months and seasons, and the events of our lives—from baptism to burial—celebrated or observed in rites and ceremonies that ennoble the poor in spirit and humble the proud of heart.
In doing this, the Prayer Book makes our life on earth a path to Heaven. It fosters the life of Christ in us in ways both obvious and subtle. For the next few weeks I want to talk with you about some of those Prayer Book subtleties.
The Prayer Book “pattern” isn’t just an outline of services taking us from cradle to grave, though it is that. By its repeated patterns of prayer, of feasts and fasts, rites and ceremonies, it shapes our spiritual lives. Its old admonition that we are “to worship God in His Church every Sunday” builds up in our souls a regular, weekly habit of worship. It anchors an on-going habit of worship in our lives. Prayer Book worship is grounded in an understanding of who we are and Who God Is. When those two truths come together, worship is the inescapable result.
Every human being worships something: wealth, power, fame, pleasure—those are the usual recipients of human adoration, as St Thomas warns us. In every life these idolatries all turn tinny and ring hollow and we crave something more, something real. Following the tradition of Scripture, the Prayer Book takes us along a path, at once both ancient and modern, which enables us to grasp Something true. Its cycles of prayer and Sacrament allow us to look at Something other than ourselves all the time. Worship enables us to grasp the One Thing Necessary to make the rest of life fall into its proper place.
It’s not enough to “believe,” even if it’s to believe in Jesus “as your personal Savior,” as our Protestant friends preach. St James the Apostle grumbled “even the devils believe.” The Bible calls us to worship, and the Prayer Book tells us how. It forms the ancient, Catholic practice of worship in those who take its pattern for their own.
What are the subtleties of Prayer Book worship?
Here’s the first: we’re called to worship with others. There is a place—a very necessary place—for personal prayer. But Common Prayer is different. The old Catholic tradition, still a part of Anglican practice as well as church law for Eastern Orthodox Christians, forbids a priest from celebrating Mass without the presence of others. If I schedule a Mass and nobody shows up, there is no celebration (and happily for me and my job security, the converse is also true—if there is no priest, there can be no Mass). Common Prayer means we need each other. “Where two or three are gathered together,” the Lord said, “I am there in the midst of them.”
Here’s another: Common Prayer requires order and discipline. It has little place for how people feel; it’s not about being entertained by good music (although Palestrina is, I think, inherently good for the soul) or stirring sermons. The focus of Prayer Book worship is not us, but God. We come together for His sake. Our tradition never asks what we get out of worship, but what we put into worship.
A host of unspoken truths lie embedded in Common Prayer. Truths so obvious we don’t think of them, but bear in mind they’re more than true observations. They’re the foundations on which our spiritual lives are built.
Over the next few weeks we’ll continue our spiritual spelunking. But be warned, beloved. The hidden purpose of this little expedition is not only to acquaint you and me with some profound truths, but to open our eyes to some of our pathetic failings. These truths will fade to shadows if they’re not lived. There’s no room for us to thank God that we’re not like other people are. Sooner or later, we hear the Lord Jesus speaking to us and we have to answer (with a gulp) “Is it I, Lord?”—Fr Gregory Wilcox
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