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hylabrook1
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| Posted: Dec 04 2008 at 12:59pm | IP Logged
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Okay, I win the Dodo of the Week award. The bookmarks and 8-ribbon set of markers (the Dodos book uses 8 instead of the more usual 5-ribbon markers that may have come with your Christian Prayer book) are available from penitents.org in their gift shop. The bookmarks and ribbons come as a set for $9.95. Thanks for being patient with my simple-mindedness. 
Peace,
Nancy
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Cay Gibson
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May I suggest the first book that I have read that helped me to "make sense" of the Christian Prayer?
Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day by Macrina Wiederkehr
This book spoke to me in the poet's voice that I so love. This book gave me the "why" I should observe the hours of the day.
I want to write so much more and post a review of the book on my blog but I have no time. Oldest ds needs the computer for his last final of the semester so I must go.
I was excited to note that Macrina will be giving a retreat here in LA in Sept. 2009. Her retreats next year are focusd on this new book of hers. I'm hoping I can make it.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
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hylabrook1
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| Posted: Dec 04 2008 at 6:09pm | IP Logged
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I totally agree, Cay. Seven Sacred Pauses is just beautiful. It's actually the reason that I'm willing to work through the (boring) mechanics of learning how to pray the Office. I look forward to being able to navigate the prayers smoothly so that I can get to the deeper sense of praying the Liturgy of the Hours.
Thanks for the reminder that it's not just about working through the prayer book!
Peace,
Nancy
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: Dec 04 2008 at 9:35pm | IP Logged
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I came back to clarify.  I'm glad to see you're working through the "mechanics" with me, Nancy, and that I'm not alone in trying to "make sense" of this ancient form of prayer.
I missed Marilyn's first posting and when I read it today I could relate so well to the "confusion" of the (as Nancy stated) "mechanics".
Like Marilyn, I desired to start the new liturgical year "on track". So I researched the mechanics over the summer and got so bogged down I walked away deciding this was not for me at all. Have I mentioned my dislike for all things mechanic. 
I am not mechanically inclined. At all. If something lacks beauty or meaningfulness, I have a very hard time embracing it much less keeping on track. The ADD gene, which I never knew I had, raises its curious head and, for a brief moment, I understand how those students feel when having to learn something they have no "feel" for.
Honestly, the week I tried the liturgy of the hours was dry and meaningless for me. I did not immediately see the beauty and meaningfulness in the repetition and rote. I just didn't. And I lamented that perhaps I wasn't as "Catholic" as the next person. Perhaps I was a fraud. A simpleton at most.
Perhaps I'm the Doubting Thomas...the one needing an explanation...the one needing to know "why"...the one always questioning...but I needed to know.
I was beginning to suspect that I was falling victim to acedia as described in Kathleen Norris' new book Acedia and Me.
In mid-October, I went on retreat armed with Mother Teresa's Come Be My Light. It talked about the dryness and meaninglessness she felt in her prayer life as well. While on retreat I found the only copy of Seven Sacred Pauses.
I am not telling fables when I say that the moment I opened the book I felt a connection. A meaningful connection. A heartful connection.
SSP gave me a prayer rope to grab hold of.
It took this poet's soul (Wiederkehr) to speak to my soul about why the dynamics (as I'm more likely to say) work with regular "mechanical" use.
SSP is definitely a "why" book but it's because I now understand the "why" that I embrace the "how-to".
The Liturgy of Hours in a very old tradition. It has a very embedded history in the life of the early Christians. Understanding it is fascinating in itself.
I worry now that I'm more intrigued with the mechanics of it than with actually doing it. Imagine that! But Wiederkehr's explanation is compelling and insightful. She not only labels the seven "pauses" of the day but she gives them themes for us to focus on during those "pauses". She gives you psalms and words for meditation.
Her book explains the balances we need in our lives and how our world is devoid of this "balance". She explains how these "pauses" give us the balance in a world otherwise consumed by the disease of acedia which Norris' book speaks of with indept research and first-hand experience.
These books are excellent companions to one other. Perhaps, they make excellent companions only to me for a reason God has yet to reveal to me but I do think the world has fallen victim to acedia.
What I do believe we can all receive from praying the liturgy of the hours is a tool which provides us a means of escaping this "acadia" that dates back to the desert monks and threatens to take over our whole society.
It's worth an effort right?
Of course, doing it, living it, and studying it are completely different things. I see the meaning and harmony of these "pauses" when I'm on retreat and am able to live the "pauses" throughout those four days. Family life, no matter how many times we say we live in a domestic church or that we are making a monastery of our homes, is not at all the same. I hate to disengage your clocks but the two ways of life are not the same. At all.
Yet I hesitate to lay the blame on our families.
While on retreat there are no phones, no television, no computer, no delivery people, no appointments. The whole day and night centers around a prayerful state of being. Simply being. That is exactly what the liturgy of the hours calls of us. To just be.
I'm still searching for a way to use the divine office in this household where the phone rings every hour, the computer keys click under the fingertips of six other people, where the honking of the horn alerts me that the dogs are trying to jump the UPS man, and where the only hours that are recorded in my planner are the doctor-dentist-haircutter appts and the game-dance schedule.
I don't see it happening anytime soon. 
The overbearing weight of this hectic lifestyle is ripe ground for a form of acadie to sweep over us and completely cover our good intentions.
I'm afraid I've gone too deep and off into left-field but I do find the whole conversation fascinating. Excuse my contemplative moment. 
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
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Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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MarilynW
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What a wonderful post Cay - and thanks to you and Nancy for the recommendations.
I have been wanting to do a blog post on the Liturgy of the Hours - just not found a minute. I have really got into the swing of things now - just with Morning Prayer - but it is so uplifting to say those prayers. Ok - sometimes Morning Prayer happens mid-afternoon!! But I am having no problems with Christian Prayer together with the guide. I have my ribbons organized and some other bookmarks for canticles etc. I hope to add in Compline next - and that is probably all I will do.
Just had to say - the prayers and psalms and canticles are just beautiful - and I so look forward to them as a mini retreat each day.
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Cay Gibson
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I had this book in my Amazon cart but deferred ordering it due Christmas buying. However, today I was looking for gifts for the godmothers at the local Catholic bookstore and there was a copy all by its lonely looking at me from the shelf.
I'm afraid to admit that I'm very weak when it comes to book buying...and I still don't have the godmothers gifts. 
One look-see through it had me hooked. It manages the whole process by breaking it into lessons. Very manageable.
Thank you for bringing it to our attention, Martha.
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Cay Gibson
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wife to Mark '86
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Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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SuzanneG
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Cay Gibson wrote:
One look-see through it had me hooked. It manages the whole process by breaking it into lessons. Very manageable.
Thank you for bringing it to our attention, Martha. |
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Yes!!! Thank you to everyone who recommended it on this thread and the other one.....it's a very helpful book!
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Elizabeth
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link to ribbons
nak
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Cay Gibson
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Can I just add, the author is very entertaining and treats the whole book as a guided one-on-one through the Office.
In short, she doesn't treat you as a...dodo ...but rather as a friend:
"OK. This has been a painstaking lesson. If you need a break, go get a coffee, soft drink or glass of lemonade and come back when you feel refreshed. How about getting me a milkshake? Vanilla please."
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Maria B.
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Thank you Cay and Marilyn for your insights and recommendations. I can't wait to get the books. I have been wrestling witht his in my mind for some time and think these books will help me.
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Martha in VA
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Marilyn, I'm curious how it's going for you using the one volume Christian Prayer?
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MarilynW
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I actually did my first Divine Office blog post a few weeks ago - but forgot to link here. Here it is Praying the Divine Office - Part 1
A friend called me yesterday and asked when I was going to do Part 2 - still working on it - I have a ton of drafts - right now I am desperately trying to write a series of posts in response to Casey (as mentioned in this post
I still have not got Divine Office for Dodos - partly because my perfectionist tendency is to read all about doing something rather than just wading in and doing it So I was determined to just start. I am still only praying Morning Prayer - I am hoping to start Compline this week - nights are usually my good prayer times but right now the nausea is worst at night so I just kind of flop into bed.
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MarilynW
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Martha in VA wrote:
| Marilyn, I'm curious how it's going for you using the one volume Christian Prayer? |
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Martha - we must have been posting at the same time! I am finding the one volume really fine to use. This is what I want to post about - navigating the One Volume. I use the ribbons and a couple of my own bookmarks and the guide - and I have no problems. I am going to try and post soon.
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MarilynW
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Martha - OT but thanks for posting a comment for Casey. You wrote so well.
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Martha in VA
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MarilynW wrote:
I actually did my first Divine Office blog post a few weeks ago - but forgot to link here. Here it is Praying the Divine Office - Part 1
...... right now I am desperately trying to write a series of posts in response to Casey (as mentioned in this post
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I'm so glad you are blogging about it. I think my hesitation to jump in is that I feel like I "need" the 4 volumn set to do it "right"!
BTW - I wrote a comment to Casey. I go by Runningmom on my blog. The types of questions she's asking are right up my alley!
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Topic: Christian Prayer
