Over the next few weeks I want to hold your attention to seven different things I've identified as 'pools of wisdom.' Each is something that is accessible for an ordinary person who has a hunger to know God. The first is our Book of Common Prayer.
Each pew at St. Paul's has four of these books that contain all the various ways we worship together. If you look at them carefully, you'll probably notice a group of pages about a third of the way though that are dirty and worn. These are the pages we use every Sunday for our worship. But the Book contains so much more than that. In fact, it is intentionally structured to contain prayers and services for all of life's major transitions and challenges.
I've never known life apart from the Book of Common Prayer. I use it every morning for Morning Prayer. I savor its excellent translation of the psalms. The 81 short prayers at the back of the book cover all of life's moments. The book accompanies me when I visit people who are sick. It provides just the right words for the delight of baptism, the joy of a wedding and the grief of a funeral.
All of life is in the book. And the words never grow old or tired. In fact, I find just the opposite. Although there are, of course, days and seasons when I'm not paying full attention, or that things seem a little boring, on the whole what happens over time is that the words enter into the deepest parts of my heart and shape me. I have asked for 'the peace that passes all understanding' so often I actually think I'm beginning to get a taste of what that might mean. My heart is slowly following the beautiful authority of these words.
I do not believe I will ever come to the bottom of this book. There are many saints over the nearly five hundred year history of this book (the first version was published in 1549) who have shown us what it means to live dignified, generous and devout lives centered in this book. By grace and by attending to this book, we too can be saints in this proud lineage.
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