The Daily Office (Short, Short Version), the Rosary, and Bible in 90 Days

As has been repeated repeatedly, I am a freelance nun. Like a freelance writer, I can call myself a nun because I said I am one, and sometimes I do things that other nuns do. Like pray the Daily Office.

However, I am also not a morning person. So praying the lovely, long Morning Prayer (Episcopal or Roman) is really not an option. Ergo, I've got the short, short version memorized, and I usually pray it in the shower. Some people sing in the shower, I sing the Our Father.

I usually pray a chaplet in the morning. Chaplets evolved from the Desert Mothers and Fathers, whose Rule of Life mandated reading all 150 Psalms a day. 'Cept some of them couldn't read. So they said 150 Our Fathers and/or 150 Hail Marys a day. Keeping track is hard, so they gathered up 150 rocks to help keep count. Then someone got the bright idea to put the rocks on a string. Then St. Dominic has a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary and she told him to say fifteen sets of one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and a Glory Be while meditating on the life of Jesus. And the most famous chaplet ever, the Rosary, was born.

A lot of people from all spectrums don't understand that you can say pretty much any prayer you want to the beads. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is the next most famous, but pretty much every saint from Katerwaia to Terese Liseux to Patrick has a chaplet of varying lengths. Anglicans, due to our contrary nature, have decided that it's up to the individual to make up their own prayers. So I usually just use the Dominican formula, or "Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, have mercy on us and on the whole world."

What do I get out of it? I think chaplets like the Rosary are the perfect ADD prayer. You're moving your fingers over the beads, you're moving your lips along with the prayer running through your head on one track, and that base line drives and keeps my meditations on track. I don't always meditate on the traditional Rosary mysteries. Actually, today's meditation was on Jeremiah. Because last night I started the Bible in 90 Days plan. It doesn't start at Jeremiah, but I always quit around Leviticus if I start at Genesis, and at John if I start at Matthew. I know a lot of other people are blogging their thoughts on the scripture every day, but this is probably one of the last mentions you're going to hear from me. Until, you know, I finish and some junk.