October 25

Chapter 18 pt. 4

The Rule of Benedict October 25

The Book of Common Prayer has two different Psalm cycles that Jana and I have used at different times since February.  One is from the Daily Office lectionary, which appoints Psalms for morning and evening on a 7-week cycle.  This cycle tries to put morning Psalms in the morning and evening Psalms in the evening, similar to the way the Rule instructs, just on a much longer timeframe.

The other is a 4-week cycle that can be found in the BCP's Psalter itself.  It goes linearly, from beginning to end, through the Psalter assigning Psalms to days of the month.  If you notice, for example, on p. 766 at the top it says: Twenty-fifth Day: Morning Prayer, and then on p. 769 near the middle it says Twenty-fifth Day: Evening Prayer.  This 4-week cycle is what we have been using in our home since September.  It helps to give a feeling of really moving through the wide breadth of the Psalms in a few short weeks.

I recommend trying either of these to see what works for you.  You can simply substitute the BCP Psalm cycle you choose for the Psalms in the Breviary and use the rest of the service directly from the Breviary, if you so desire.