Rector’s Reflections
Wednesday 9th April 2025
Developing Our Prayer Life: Some ideas from an old book
In yesterday’s reflections, I referred to an old book, called The Cuddesdon College Office Book. This book was published some eighty years ago, to help ordinands at Cuddesdon Theological College to grow and develop in their relationship with God. Back in those days, the prime aim of a theological college such as Cuddesdon was to help future vicars to grow closer to God, and to help them to nurture the spiritual lives of their future parishioners. Time at a theological college was all about spiritual formation, and the practical stuff (eg how to take a funeral) was left to the next stage, when the new vicar served their apprenticeship in a parish under the watchful eye of an experienced priest. So The Cuddesdon College Office Book contains lots of ideas about how a priest and their congregation might grow closer to God. I’m going to share some of them in today’s reflections, and in the days ahead.
Before I do so, I should make it clear that I’m not suggesting that all of the ideas found in the book will work for everyone. The book is very much a product of its time and place. However, it might be that you will find one or more of the ideas promoted by the book to be helpful in developing your own prayer life.
The first idea is about seeking opportunities to connect our spiritual lives with our experience of the passage of time. What might this mean in practice?
It might mean that we create a personalised spiritual calendar, marking the anniversary of events which have been significant in our own lives or the lives of friends and family. For example, we could find out the date of our baptism or our confirmation, and make a note of these in our calendar. We might also add the feast days of favourite saints, for example St.Francis of Assisi or some other saint, or of men or women who have played significant roles in our lives and who we remember with fondness and thanksgiving. For example, the spiritual calendar at the front of the Cuddesdon Office Book contains an intriguing reference to “George Belcher, College Butler, 1929”, whose name appears in the entry for 2nd December. It would be fascinating to find out more about this George Belcher, but he was clearly someone who made a significant impact on the life of the college community. I wonder who might be the “George Belchers” in our lives – men or women whom we ought to remember with appreciation and affection?
Creating a personalised spiritual diary or calendar need not be an involved or elaborate process. We might simply take our existing diary or calendar, be they in paper or electronic form, and add a few notes against significant dates.
Such a personalised spiritual diary or calendar looks at the passage of time over a year. But it is possible to look at the passage of time over much shorter periods. For example, we could write out a very simply prayer list covering the days of the month – for example, on the 1st day of the month we say a prayer for John, on the second day for Mary, and so on, until we reach the end of the month. It is also possible to use this as a way for praying for different countries or topics, for example on 1st day of the month we pray for schools, on the second for hospitals, and so on.
And we can also choose a much shorter time frame, saying brief prayers at different hours of the day. There has long been a tradition in the Church of saying prayers at fixed points in the day : at the very beginning of the day (“Prime”), at around 9am or so (“Terce”), at midday (“Sext”), in the middle of the afternoon (“None”) and in the evening before going to bed (“Compline”). This round of daily prayer is called the ”Daily Office”. Nowadays, the Daily Office is typically reduced to prayers at the start of the day, and prayers at the end of the day. I think this is a pity, because it can often be a real joy and even a necessity to offer prayers at other times of the day. It can also fit in much better with the complexity of our modern lifestyles. For example, it may well be that saying prayers early in the morning is not going to work for us, whereas a 10 minute break for prayer at midday is just the job. The compilers of the Cuddesdon Office Book include prayers for different times of the day, so it provides a range of material eminently suited to the complexities of modern life.
I wonder whether a particular pattern of daily prayer might work for you?