Evensong

I had planned on writing and sending this to all of you at 8:30 this morning.  That obviously did not happen, as one thing led to another.  I'm not complaining - it's been a productive day and it's not yet over.  And waiting until now afforded me the opportunity to participate in my weekly sermon preparation group and reflect on what I learned - and how it might be applicable to my devotional writing.

Each week we discuss the readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, which is the cycle of readings we follow at our church.  That in itself is kind of neat as this discussion group originates at a parish of the Church of England.  Right there, we see the striving for the universality of the Christian faith put into practice.  This morning, one of the facilitators noted of the Epistle reading that there was a lot there in its three short verses but it wasn't the right passage for this coming Sunday, just before Christmas.  He thought the proper preaching text was the one from Luke; I agree.

But all of this got me thinking, of what's appropriate and what's night, like the hour at which we play or I share a devotional.  We tend to do a lot of our worship activities, our praying, in the morning.  But there is no reason to not pray in the afternoon or evening.  Think of Evensong, which can still be heard in Episcopal churches today.  It's one of the appointed services of worship in the day, and is often contemplative.  We don't do Evensong in the UCC or in Congregationalist Churches -- but we will on Christmas Eve and also on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  Next week we'll have a chance to think about, to pray on, and to give voice in song to the importance of the coming of the Christ child.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying it's okay to pray at any time of day!