Here and Now...and Yet To Come

This morning Mitch and I began process of renewal. At about 8:20 Mitch and I went to the chapel that juts off of our sanctuary to pray and observe "The Daily Office". For those who don't know, "The Daily Office" is fixed hour prayer. The church has been performing and following this ritual for centuries. Mitch and I decided to give it a go.

We began by opening with a time of silence. We had decided that Mitch would lead the chanting (that's right chanting) and he would signal when we would begin. Well, he forgot. In the midst of observing the silence Mitch forgot that he was leading the ritual. This lead to about 30 minutes of me quietly waiting on Mitch to begin and Mitch quietly waiting on me to begin. Don't get me wrong, it was nice and relaxing to sit in silence for thirty minutes, but it is very comical to think about as I look back. You can imagine both of us sitting side by side not wanting to disturb the other so we didn't look over and tried to stir as little as possible.

Anyway, we finally looked at each other, smiled and said, "Are you ready?" I thought that since Mitch was leading he would also lead the chanting. If you know Mitch then you know that he is not the greatest musician in the world. He can carry a tune but under pressure he gets a little flustered. Good thing chants are done on one notes. We made our way through the ritual until we got to The Gloria. Admittedly, I am not familiar with The Gloria because of my background. Mitch knows it so I was depending on him to lead the way. He did...very badly. I love Mitch, but that was horrible. I literally couldn't contain my laughter, which made me feel really bad because we were trying to establish the sense of presence with the almighty and here I am laughing my head off. I had to stop singing. That made me laugh even more because Mitch just kept going. It was bad, but I love it.

I know that when we get in the swing of things it will be better. This was our first morning and there are many more to come. I am going to hold the afternoon office on my own and Dru and I are going to do the evening Vespers together.

If you are interested in the materials we are using then go here. It really is wonderful, rich stuff. I am praying that it helps me get past the idea that the only way to grow closer to God is to have a 30 minute devotional that I never keep. We will see.

Adam