We are changing seasons here in Chicago — it suddenly ran up to 87 degrees the other day. High schools are winding down, colleges have sent the residents home, gardens are beginning to bloom, and we’ve got new birds flitting around our neighborhood. I would like also to suggest that this a time of prayer change — a time when the change of seasons lends us a little more easily to adjusting our habits to spend more time in prayer. We might be in need of a new habit. Let me suggest one.
If you are looking for a brief introduction to the great prayer traditions of the Church for praying the divine hours or the sacred rhythms, you might need a starter book, like Praying with the Church. I’ll tell you what I’d like to see: I’d like to see one downtown church in every community make it a matter of principle to open its doors for the public recitation of The Divine Hours edited by Phyllis Tickle — or some historic prayer book.
It’s time for a new habit for some of us.