Evelyn Underhill and our Daily Prayers

AM Psalm 119:97-120 • PM Psalm 81, 82
Num. 11:24-33 (34-35) • Rom. 1:28-2:11 • Matt. 18:1-9

Each day the scripture readings posted for these Morning Reflections are the lectionary readings listed in the Prayer Book (p. 394-1001) for Morning and/or Evening Prayer.

Today is the feast of one of my favorite writers, Evelyn Underhill. She was a British lay woman whose writings and letters advanced our understanding of mysticism and practical spirituality.

Since you are reading this Morning Reflection, I’m hoping you are doing so within the context of the Daily Office. It is a way of placing yourself in a powerful river of Christian practice and regular remembrance of God. Underhill says,

The real significance of the Divine Office is that in its recitation the individual or group enters the ancient cycle of prayer, by which day by day and hour by hour the church in the name of all creation adores and implores the eternal God.

For many, the Daily Office is an opportunity to connect personally with the Divine Mystery of God within a practice that also connects you to the praying Church. In this busy and demanding life, it is good to stop and to feed your soul. Underhill again:

How necessary it is...for you, kept perpetually on the move, incessantly distracted,...and exposed too to the dangers of monotony and spiritual deadness,...to form early and to feed regularly the habit of recourse to the changeless Eternity which supports [your] life. It is the ultimate object of all those devoted, ceaseless and changeful activities of yours, to bring into the lives of those for and with whom you work, something of that changeless temper of Eternity.

See if you can first orient yourself in praise and love toward God as your primary context. Then, see what it yours to do today.

One’s first duty is adoration, and one’s second duty is awe and only one’s third duty is service. And that for those three things and nothing else, addressed to God and no one else, you and I and countless human creatures evolved.

Written by Lowell Grisham

Lowell Grisham started writing Morning Reflections as a form of journaling when he found the prayers and readings of Morning Prayer stimulated his thoughts.