Inveterate Thanksgiving for the Book of Common Prayer

One of the most oft-repeated, and yes, tiresome in its dullness, criticisms of any use of the Book of Common Prayer is a perceived lack of spontaneity and sincerity. In his Christian Proficiency, Martin Thornton takes issue with the German Lutheran Friedrich Heiler where his “much lauded ‘primitive prayer from the heart’ is compared with the mere ‘recitation of formulae.’” Thornton goes on to discuss the Lord’s Prayer, but we can expand recitation to include the more “formal” prayers and collects included in the Book of Common Prayer, too, I think. Later Thornton stresses the importance and efficacy of having Rule in our lives as Christians, which must include the Office, Mass, and private prayer. He writes: “And plainly [the discipline of watching and waiting for Our Lord] is closely linked with Rule; it is remarkable how often God chooses to speak to us when we least expect it, and terrible to contemplate how much we miss by putting feeling before regularity (86).”

Or put another way, how many countless times, literally, has the “regularity” of the Daily Office blown my mind and helped me consider and contemplate things that were entirely outside of what I was thinking about.

Case in point: the collect for Trinity V: “GRANT, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

For a split second yesterday, I had the stupidity to think that this was one collect that might qualify as quaint and anachronistic in our day and age. What wishful, pie-in-the-sky, naive drivel, I thought subconsciously. Don’t judge - I said I was stupid. People are people, no matter the age, and Cranmer’s day was FULL of turmoil, of course.

What a bold prayer. What a censure of my timid faith and my mousy hopes.

Never on my own would I have prayed that this world would be so peaceably ordered by God’s governance that a joyful Church could possibly serve Him in godly quietness. And now I’m praying it annually at least twice a day corporately with Christians all over the world every day for a week.

E’en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come.