A Beginner’s Guide to the Daily Office

No, the “daily office” is not Michael Scott memes everyday. Rather, the daily office is a rhythm of praying Scripture, the book of Psalms particularly, each day. The daily office answers the question: How do you pray when you don’t know how to pray?

The daily office provides a means to pray on days when it’s really hard to pray or on those days you just can’t seem to find words. It some ways, it’s kinda like training wheels for your prayer life.

I grew up in a household where prayer was a big deal. We prayed before every meal, even at restaurants. Spiritual people prayed. Stuff happened when you prayed. Prayer was how you felt close to God. In college, I found myself in communities where praying in tongues was a big deal. You could be a “prayer warrior.” Feeling the right feelings was really important.

I was in my mid-20s when I shipwrecked my life. I was deconstructing faith piece by piece. In the midst of that experience, a friend gave me a copy of a prayer book with a red cover and invited me to a community that used it together.

And that was a blast of fresh air. That was new life.

What is the daily office?

The daily office is sometimes also referred to as “fixed-hour prayer” or “liturgical prayer.” The book of Psalms anchors any version of the daily office. Psalms was the prayer book that guided the worship of Israel. It was the prayer book of the early church.

Within the psalms we find a prayer for every day of our lives. There are prayers of praise and thanksgiving. There are prayers of lament. The psalms are a school of prayer. They teach us how to talk to God and how to talk about God. As Dallas Willard writes, “If you bury yourself in Psalms, you emerge knowing God and understanding life.”

Modern versions of the daily office trace their roots back to monastic practices in medieval times. But the practice of fixed hour prayer goes much further back. The psalmist writes, “I will praise you seven times a day” (Psalm 119:164). In the book of Acts, “Peter and John went to the temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service” (Acts 3:1). Likewise, when Peter later sees the vision that leads him to Cornelius’ house, Peter is engaged in noon-time prayers. The early church prayed the psalms together (Acts 4:23–30).

The contemporary template for the daily office comes from St. Benedict, who ordered the book of Psalms around seven points of the day each day for his communities. Even today, you can visit Benedictine monasteries and participate in the prayers throughout the day. Benedict said, “To pray is to work, to work is to pray.” Our modern word “office” comes from this Latin word that means work. Essentially, prayer like this is our daily work.

Why pray the daily office?

Pete Scazzero writes,

In his book A Hidden Wholeness Parker Palmer relates a story about farmers in the Midwest who would prepare for blizzards by typing a rope from the back door of their house out to the barn as a guide to ensure they could return safely home. These blizzards came quickly and fiercely and were highly dangerous. When their full force was blowing, a farmer could not see the end of his or her hand. Many from to death in those blizzards, disoriented by their inability to see. They wandered in circles, lost sometimes in their own backyards. If they lost their grip on the rope, it became impossible for them to find their way home. Some froze within feet of their own front door, never realizing how close they were to safety.

The daily office is like this rope. It keeps us on track. It provides a way when distractions assault us. The daily office offers a way of entering into a new world.

Here are just a few things I have grown to love about the daily office:

There is a structure.
The daily office provides a guide for my prayer. I’m not left wondering what to say or rambling whatever is on the top of my mind.

There is beauty in these words.
The psalms are poetry, and they shape my imagination with incredible images of what God is like. They shake me out of the same old words I can get stuck in.

There is truth in these words.
Praying Scripture is praying true words about God. These words are good, rich, and mature theology. To pray these words is to pray like Jesus.

There is unity in these words.
To pray the daily office is to pray in unity with other Christians, some times around the world, some times throughout time.

These words are enough.
I don’t have to get up at 5 am and pray for hours on end in order to be a good spiritual person. It’s not about how hard I try. All I have to do is show up.

These words form and inform my feelings.
My feelings don’t have to dictate the shape of my prayer practice. My feelings are fickle things. With the office, I can allow Scripture to influence my feelings.

How do I start praying the daily office?

The daily office comes in numerous forms, depending on your tradition or community. For Roman Catholics, there is the Liturgy of the Hours. Anglicans and Episcopalians utilize the Book of Common Prayer.

If you don’t come from a liturgical tradition, I recommend one of two resources to get started. Phyllis Tickle has a three-volume set The Divine Hours (Prayers for Springtime, Prayers for Summertime, Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime). It offers four readings each day, and they’re sequenced straight through for minimum page turning. It also includes daily prayers from the Book of Common Prayer. This is a simple place to start.

For a one-volume resource, I recommend Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, compiled by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove, and Enuma Okoro. It includes morning, midday, and evening prayer. If you’ve used a daily devotional book before, the structure of Common Prayer should look familiar. It’s also available as an app for your phone.

Praying Scripture is like feeding your positive self-talk. In saying Scripture out loud we listen to God speaking to us in these words. Eugene Peterson writes,

Scripture and prayer are not two separate entities. My pastoral work was to fuse them into a single act: scriptureprayer, or prayerscripture. It is this fusion of God speaking to us (Scripture) and our speaking to him (prayer) that the Holy Spirit uses to form the life of Christ in us.

When you wake up in the morning, open the Psalms. When you go to bed in the evening, open the Psalms.

Speak. Listen. Be shaped as you pray.