Introduction
While on sabbatical retreat at Christ in the Desert Monastery, deep in the remote Chama Canyon of New Mexico, I felt called to deepen my love of God through better-disciplined daily prayer. The Benedictine monks of Christ in the Desert Monastery pray together seven times daily, with lovely Gregorian chanting of the psalms and other biblical readings. (I confess that in this weeklong retreat, I arose only once for the 4:00 a.m. vigil. Showing up for lauds at 5:45 a.m. was more realistic for me. Also, I had the good sense to keep my off-key droning quietly to myself while the monks praised God with glorious chanting.)
I was there to connect with God on a deeper level and to seek more spiritual balance in my life, which had become frenetically imbalanced over the years. My daily demands as pastor of Incarnation Lutheran Church in Milwaukee and as director of the Gamaliel National Clergy Caucus, engaging in various organizing strategies locally and nationally, were fulfilling and meaningful but had begun to swallow up my soul. I sensed that I was increasingly anxious, testy, short with people, racing around, oblivious to my surroundings, quick to judgment—in short, running on empty. The gift of a sabbatical, graciously funded by the Lilly Foundation, made possible a privileged, four-month time of travel, rest, fun, and discernment. With my family, I visited the ancient monastic caves of Cappadocia in Turkey and remote monasteries in the mountains of Crete. Drawing on previous training in Byzantine iconography, I painted an icon, Elijah in the Cave, with egg tempera, ground pigments, and gold, and I meditatively entered the prophet’s cave during that sacred process. Then, determined to go deeper into my soul and to seek some spiritual healing through wilderness solitude, I spent a week at Christ in the Desert Monastery.
At the monastery, I felt moved by the Spirit to fashion a Daily Office of readings and prayers, which could help me—and perhaps others—to deepen my love of God while organizing for a more just society. Although many worthy devotional aids and Daily Offices are in print, I have not yet found one that is sensitive to inclusive language, highlights the prophetic tradition of Scripture, and offers the kind of daily rhythm that goes to some depth while being realistically attentive to the time constraints of those engaged in active lives. Each selection of biblical passages and wisdom quotes will reveal a preference. Mine is clearly to connect with the great prophetic voices of Hebrew Scripture, with some of the central teachings and healings of Jesus, and with the wisdom of some who have faithfully struggled for justice and peace.
I offer this Daily Office as a resource for those seeking to find a more faithful balance in life: congregational core teams, leaders, organizers, and others who are struggling for a more just society, trying to love neighbor as self and desiring to love God with heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank Maureen Leach, OSF, and Nancy Schreck, OSF, for their gracious permission to use the psalms and the Magnificat from their book Psalms Anew: In Inclusive Language, originally published by Saint Mary’s Press, Winona, Minnesota (1986), but now out of print.
For reasons that are made clear in “A Note on the Name of God” below, I have consistently preferred Yah instead of Yahweh for the sacred name of God in the psalms. I do so also with the permission of Sr. Leach and Sr. Schreck.
All Scripture quotations (other than the psalms and the Magnificat) are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
In this text: Yah replaces Lord; God or Who replaces “Him” or “He” as points of divine reference. “Human One” replaces Son of Man; “One Who Reigns” replaces king. Occas...
