Rebooting My Soul For Advent

I have not been posting much lately, because the creative juices are just not flowing.  That might not be a bad thing.  Also, life has been busy.

Anyhow, starting on the first day of Advent, I decided to follow the Scripture readings and prayers in the Book of Common Prayer, which is a prayerbook used by Anglicans.  This is the beginning of the church year, for those who follow such things (and as a Presbyterian, I usually don’t;  as a group we are not even sure whether Christmas and Easter should be celebrated),  so it seemed like a good time to begin.   Following a discipline imposed on me from the outside seems like a good way to “reboot” my soul.

So every day I am reading 3-5 chapters of the Bible, which includes (right now) 2-3 Psalms, and selections from Isaiah, Mark, Luke, and Revelation.  These are divided into morning and evening readings.   There are also morning and evening prayers.

The discipline is good.  I am finding it challenging to have a quiet time in the house when I am reasonably awake, but as long as I heed my alarm clock the first time it goes off in the morning, I am OK.  So far I have not missed a day.

I am also not used to pre-written prayers (again, that is mostly foreign to my tradition), but they are actually pretty helpful in the morning when the brain is not at full capacity, and I find that they actually spur me to more spontaneous prayer.  To put it in the most un-spiritual language I can muster, if my soul is a car, the written prayers of the prayer-book work like jumper cables. (Please, if there are any theologically minded people reading this, don’t analyze it too much.)