The Daily Offices

I have been trying to follow the "discipline" of the daily offices lately. I really enjoy the idea of stopping periodically to arrest the compulsiveness of the day and to challenge the idea that my working is somehow what keeps the universe from falling apart (whatever sort of work I happen to be doing at that moment). (How do I fall into such self-centeredness?) It leads me back to, as Phyllis Tickle says, remembering that the "Watchmaker and I have a conversation about the clock and my place as a nano-second in it".

But I do long for a group, a community of like minded ones, who would actually like to engage in the act of midday prayer together. One in which we all choose to stop what we are doing, go against the flow of our fast-paced, me-centered world and have a conversation with the Watchmaker. Is that possible in our society? How much energy and discipline would it take from all members of the community? (for even though I dream about it, I know that my part is far from effortless).

Perigrinatio

I love this word (although I spelled it wrong because the real spelling was already taken). Here is an explanation I came across:

Green martyrs' refers to Celtic missionaries - the wandering peregrini - who set out from home never expecting to return. There was no "term of service", no furloughs - they went forth as they were led and were eventually buried in some foreign field at the end of their lifelong peregrinatio: their pilgrimage for and with God.

I want to be a "green martyr". I want to set out from my home never expecting to return. I want my life to be a pilgrimage for and with God.