Posts Tagged ‘prayer’

Ukrainian Bishop uses Treasury of Daily Prayer

Friday, October 16th, 2009

A little while back, I received a note that the Rev. Dr. Vyacheslav Horpynchuk, Bishop of the Ukrainian Lutheran Church, was using Treasury of Daily Prayer. He has some wonderful words to share about where we can find unity and common ground. Here is some of what he wrote:

Every morning I begin with Treasury of Daily Prayer. Then Book of Concord follows and then Greek New Testament. Treasury is one of the greatest book I have ever read. It is done with love to God’s Word and His people – the Lutheran Church.  When Angela is in my study that early in the morning, I translate readings for her. Often I simply read appointed texts for the Treasury from the Ukrainian Bible, especially when children join us.

The difference in 1 week between Easter in the East and in the West this year and in 13 days (in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars in general) causes only a little inconvenience. For even though we have different calendars and different liturgies (we use St. John Chrysostom ‘revised’ liturgy), theology is the same, faith is the same, and Christian minds want to read and hear and exercise the same things as our bothers in the Western part of the Church do. Coming back to Treasury, my wonderful and miraculous table book – to make it more practical, I took a pencil, sharpened it and slighltly wrote Julian Calendar dates over pages with fixed dates in the Treasury.  Treasury is already a dream book for those of my colleagues in the Ukrainian Lutheran Church that read and speak English.

Bishop Horpynchuk keeps an active blog at УКРАЇНСЬКЕ ЛЮТЕРАНСТВО (Ukrainian Lutheranism).

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TDP Recording moves forward: Name That Tune!

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Concordia Publishing House needs your help naming a new product. Since Treasury of Daily Prayer was released from CPH in Fall 2008, we have received many requests to record the various prayer services.

CPH, working closely with the Kantorei of Concordia Theological Seminary, will provide a set of beautiful recordings of the sung and spoken portions of the prayer services offered in the Treasury. Included are:

• Matins (8 tracks)
• Vespers (6 tracks)
• Compline (9 tracks)
• Morning Prayer (7 tracks)
• Evening Prayer (8 tracks)
• Litany (1 track)

The Kantorei is a choir of sixteen male voices from the student body of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. The recordings have been prepared to allow an individual, family, or even a small group to have the support to confidently sing the liturgy of the prayer services.

While this will be a wonderful complementary product for the users of Treasury of Daily Prayer, others who desire to connect their personal devotion time to the Church’s pattern of prayer will find this to be a rich and meaningful resource.

So get creative and send us your best suggestion. The poll is open through Friday, October 9, 2009.

Give Concordia your ideas. Click here to got to the survey.  You can also visit Treasury of Daily Prayer on Facebook and hear a sample in the Links area.

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Treasury of Daily Prayer User’s Guide: Pr. Esget’s Introduction

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

small_tdp1Last December, I led an introductory class/workshop on prayer and using the then-new Treasury of Daily Prayer. I was asked to publish my notes from the workshop, which I never did; the current sale on the Treasury reminded me of that. (Did I mention it is 50% off? Go buy it!) Here are some of my notes, which are very rough; I have eliminated/modified/summarized a lot of what we did, which was more hands-on, walking through the book:

After some Introduction and Preliminaries discussing the Layout of the Treasury of Daily Prayer (TDP), we walked through placing the ribbons:

Blue: Flexible placement.
TDP recommends using it for “Prayers for the Baptized Life” (page 1312)
However, that comes shortly after the purple ribbon, and is easily remembered because of its placement.
I have my blue ribbon on the Schedule for Reading the Psalms over Thirty Days (page 1436)
Other places you might want to put it:
Small Catechism, page 1446
Preparation for Confession and Absolution, p1458
Preparation for the Sacrament of the Altar, p1465
Brief Instruction for Those Preparing for Holy Communion

After discussing the Lectionary, I talked about the importance of prayer in daily life (a lesson which, alas, I continually need to re-learn myself):

Setting the Stage:

  • Make a commitment to daily prayer
  • Schedule a time or times, either by the clock or by daily landmarks (e.g., after you get up, after breakfast, before lunch, 10pm, before bed)
  • Communicate with others in your family what time you want to pray as a group
  • There will be days when you miss it because life intruded, you were lazy, sinful, sick, etc. Don’t worry or let that cause total failure. Simply start again at the right place.
  • Don’t try to do too much – better to do something, however small, than to set yourself up for failure and guilt.

Additionally:

  • Find a quiet place
  • Turn off TV, radio
  • Close doors if noise might distract you
  • Turn off cell phone, email notifications
  • Agree that you will not answer the phone. Let it go to voicemail. It can wait. (more…)
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Treasury of Daily Prayer User’s Guide: Pr. Bachman’s Guide to the Divine Office

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

small_tdpPr. Karl Bachman, put together a nice introduction to the use of the orders of daily prayer in the Treasury of Daily Prayer. These orders of daily prayer are also known as “office” or the “divine office.”  During the time of the Middle Ages these became obligatory especially among the monastic communities where they developed eventually into seven set “hours” of prayer, hence the expression,  “liturgy of the hours.” Here is a PDF file  divine_office and here is the Word format of this document: divine_office

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A Prayer for the Resurrection of Our Lord–Easter

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

The Resurrection

James J. Tissot, 'Resurrection'

Matthew 28:1-6

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.

Christ is Risen: The world below lies desolate; Christ is Risen: The spirits of evil are fallen; Christ is Risen: The angels of God are rejoicing; Christ is Risen: The tombs of the dead are empty; Christ is Risen indeed from the dead, the first of the sleepers, Glory and power are his forever and ever.
–St. Hippolytus (AD 190-236)

Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!
–Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

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