As people respond to the coronavirus, move into self-isolation or are unable to attend public worship, we experience an increase in time and desire to commune with Jesus Christ.

Though we may not be able to worship in person as is most desired, the church has a wealth of spiritual resources for daily prayer in our Book of Common Prayer (also referred to as BCP, or the Prayer Book) including the Daily Office. The Daily Office includes services for Morning and Evening Prayer, Noonday prayer, and Compline.  Holy Scripture is one of the central places Christians encounter God, and the Prayer Book provides a structure to encounter the Old and New Testament, Gospel, and Psalms (or Psalter) on a daily basis.

I encourage you to consider adding the Daily Office to your practice of prayer during this time. The Office has sustained those in religious life, our seminaries, and many parishes for hundreds of years, and when anyone prays the Office, they join in community with people across the world who will be lifting up the same prayers each day. These prayers are meant to be said with others but can be said individually and are just as valid and powerful because of the global community that says them together.

I created this guide to the Daily Office because I believe in common prayer through the Daily Office. At the School of Theology at the University of the South (Sewanee), we pray the Daily Office on weekdays and our entire schedule revolves around our worship life. Under the direction of the Dean of the Chapel and the Organist and Choirmaster, a classmate and I put together a weekly bulletin to guide our community in prayer. I am leaning on that expertise to provide the document below for you to be able to pray the Office as well.

This guide will be accessible at the top of my blog (click “Daily Office”) Please contact me personally if you would like a copy of this guide to share with friends, parishes, or otherwise. I hope you will use and modify as you see fit for your contexts, and please let me know if you do!

Thanks to Mother Allison Caudill for her patience and editing my work.