From Richard Liantonio On the Road to Emmaus
The Book of Common Prayer was so radical a book, its author got burned at the stake. Phrases from its pages like “Speak now or forever hold your peace,” “Till death us do part,” or “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” have become enshrined in the consciousness of virtually all English speakers. Together with the writings of Shakespeare and the Authorized version of the Bible, these three works constitute the foundational compositions of modern English. The beauty, simplicity and power of this book has revolutionized worship for all English speakers, whether one is aware of it or not. On a personal note, I owe a hearty debt of gratitude to its crafters, as this simple tool has played a crucial role in revolutionizing my personal prayer life (It enabled me to accomplish all of these objectives).
The Book of Common Prayer (hereafter, BCP) was first published in 1549 in England, under the direction of Thomas Cranmer, then Archbishop of Canterbury. Its publication was ultimately caused by, but structurally unrelated to the Protestant Reformation which began 32 years earlier when Martin Luther posted his famous “95 Theses” in 1517. One of the major consequences of the Reformation was worship in vernacular languages. Previously, all public worship had been in Latin for centuries, regardless of whether the common person understood it. The Book of Common Prayer was meant to be just that – “Common Prayer” – in the language English people spoke and understood. The BCP was the first large scale collection of liturgies in the English language (the Litany had been published in 1544). Incidentally, on March 15, 1556, Thomas Cranmer was put to death by Mary I (“Bloody Mary”), in her attempt to undo the Reformation in England and restore Roman religion.
The BCP also sought to reform another aspect of worship that had developed in the Medieval period. Over time, the services of daily prayer became more and more the work of monastic communities and less and less the occupation of the common person. In the monastic communities, these services became more and more complicated. This was no problem if your primary occupation was prayer, but it took the prayer farther and farther from the average worshipper.
This complexity manifested itself in that at least four large books were needed to perform the prayer services: Psaltery (the Psalms), Antiphonal (the chants), Lectionary (the readings), and Ordo (specific portions for ordinary and special days). Eventually all these were combined into one huge book called a Breviary (hardly brief!).
The same phenomenon existed for the Mass, the service of the Lord’s Supper. Numerous books were used including the Epistolary (epistle readings), Evangeliary (gospel readings), Sacramentary (variable prayers for the Mass), the Ordo and Antiphonal. These were eventually combined into what is called a Missal.
Then there were additional lengthy books for pastoral services like baptism and marriage (called the Manual), processional litanies (the Processional), and services only the bishop would perform, such as ordination, confirmation, coronations, etc. (called the Pontifical).
Then there was the Pie. The Pie was yet another book, a directory of sorts, which gave all the instructions for using all the other books in a given service. You may have heard the expression that something is “as easy as pie.” Without going into the details, although the Pie certainly made having a service much simpler, it was far from easy.
The genius of Thomas Cranmer, and the revolutionary nature of the BCP can be seen in that it takes all of these books, simplifies them, and combines them into one book that does not require microscopic print. What this means, is that all one would need is this single book plus the Bible to perform any and all services of the Church.
Specifically with regard to Daily Prayer, Cranmer condensed the 8 daily prayer services of monastic orders (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline) into two – Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. Later editions of the Prayerbook add a “midday” office (replacing Terce, Sext and None) and Compline (said right before bed). These simplified orders comprised merely a few dozen pages in the prayer book, as opposed to the thousands of pages (with tiny print) in a breviary.
These two steps – simplification and English composition – put prayer back in the hands (literally!) of the common person. Any literate person could fully take part in and understand all of the Church’s worship. The Prayerbook’s simplicity and beauty also lends easily to memorization, which would additionally enable those who were not literate to participate.
The 1979 American edition of the Book of Common Prayer has much in common with Cranmer’s original, but with some modifications, which for the most part: 1) reflect what research has discovered concerning models of prayer more ancient than what Cranmer had available, 2) restore a little bit of the complexity and diversity that Cranmer removed (some would argue he over did it) and 3) uses contemporary English (as opposed to the “thees” and “thous” current in 1549).
The central prayer texts are Morning and Evening Prayer. As with all of the services in the BCP, they have two general components: the Ordinary and the Proper. The “Ordinary” is what stays the same all the time. There is a fixed skeletal structure that is used every single day. This helps to lay a solid foundational consistency and rhythm to the prayer. The “Proper” is portions that change according to the day or season of the Church Year. This includes the psalms, readings, and prayers that vary. This adds the diversity and depth to the prayer. As we begin to walk through the liturgies in the next post, it will be easy to tell the difference between the Ordinary and the Proper. I’ll also show you how to make it real easy to keep track of the varying “Propers.”
In addition to the two general components all of the prayer services (including midday and Compline) have the same four part structure:
1) Opening – this includes an opening Scripture verse that sets the time of prayer in its context in the Church Year, confession of sin, and opening praise.
2) Psalms – in Morning and Evening Prayer, this involves praying/singing the entire book of Psalms over a given period of time (your choice depending on how much time you want to give to it – any where from a one to seven week cycle). This is only interrupted on special holidays.
3) Readings – meditation readings from the OT, NT epistles and Gospel every day. They generally follow through entire books at a time and during the seasons of the Church Year, the readings usually relate to the seasonal themes. Canticles (biblical songs outside of the Psalms) are used as responses to the readings.
4) Prayers – a collection of prayers – some are used consistently (i.e., “Ordinary”), some vary according to the Church Year (“Proper”). Of course there’s room to add whatever prayers you want. This section always ends with thanksgiving.