Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Matter At Hand. . .

For the last several years, Jen and I have been praying the Liturgy of the Hours together. It's a Catholic form of daily prayer (sometimes called the Holy Office), consisting of Psalms and Scripture readings, the Lord's Prayer, and some general intercessions. There are Morning and Evening prayers, and 'lesser' forms for mid-day and bedtime. We have mainly prayed the Morning Prayers together; for the most part, the Evening Prayers haven't fit into our schedule very well. Two or three years ago, we started having the kids join us for Morning Prayers. We had a few 'false starts', where we struggled to get it well and truly established as a family pattern, but it eventually 'took hold'. Every morning (or at least most of them), we gather around the breakfast table at 6:45; some of the kids will gather around Jen, and the rest with me, and we pray the psalms antiphonally. It takes about 15 minutes, and fits really well into our morning family schedule, even as we're all getting ready for our work or school days. Just recently, Jen has been wanting for us to find a way to pray the Evening Prayers, as well. It would be nice, I suppose, to incorporate them into the dinnertime pattern, but we have so many people going in so many directions around, and just after, the dinner hour, that it just doesn't work. So, Jen and I decided to start small, and the two of us have tried to pray the Evening Prayers together at bedtime. . . ------------------------- Now Jen (like many women, I've come to find) likes chocolate, in small doses, as a kind of 'comfort food'. She keeps a little stash of dark chocolate chips under her side of the bed, and is fond of grabbing a handful to munch as she does her bedtime reading and 'winding down'. It's not a huge big deal for her; it's not an every-night thing, and she doesn't even exclusively nosh on chocolate; sometimes she'll grab a handful of marshmallows, or a granola bar. But the chocolate chips are her favorite. . . (I know this seems kinda non-sequitur-ish, but bear with me. . .) ------------------------- So, as I said, we just recently decided to start praying the Evening Prayers together at bedtime. I came to bed, and Jen handed me the prayer book. We sat together, and she prayed one of the antiphonal parts, and I prayed the other, and it was rich and good. I imagine that, as long as we're not just dead-tired at the end of the day (which, sometimes, we are; and whatcha gonna do?), it'll be good, and we'll manage to make it a regular pattern, in the fullness of time. So, when we had finished with the prayers, I handed Jen the prayer book, for her to put it back away. "Oh - could you put it away for me?" she asked. Which was a little odd, since it was stashed on her side of the bed, and I would have to either crawl over her, or get out of bed and walk around. I looked a bit askance at her; she looked back at me sheepishly, and opened her hand. . . . . . which was covered, about a quarter-inch thick, with melted chocolate. "I didn't want to be munching on chocolate chips while we were praying," she explained. . . My wife is an utterly delightful woman. . . And very pious, besides. . .

12 comments:

  1. Awww... that is so great! You've got yourself a wonderful soul mate.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would have had no problem eating the chocolate while you prayed. No problem at all.

    Then again, we drink coffee, eat cake and sometimes entire meals at our church, DURING the service, so I'm used to it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gooey, pray-ey goodness. Mmm.

    I've tried a time or two to incorporate a "family devotional," even one night a week. It generally falls to the wayside after one or two weeks. Which is probably my fault, darn it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Phyllis - I'm sorry; I'll try to keep it down to 'just funny enough' from now on. . .

    Michelle - She IS wonderful. . .

    Lime - HAH! I get it! 'Sweet'. . . chocolate. . . I get it!

    Cocotte - See, the funny thing is, Morning Prayers are more-or-less coincident with breakfast, and we all will use our 'off turns' (when the other group is praying their part of the antiphonal prayer) to grab bites of breakfast. So it's not like we've got this scrupulous thing about not mixing eating with praying. . . Maybe it's just a 'chocolate thing'. . .

    FTN - Hey, long time, no see!

    I'm probably more derisively bemused than I need to be that you said 'pray-ey'. . .

    And listen, if it only depended on me, we probably wouldn't get much to stick, devotion-wise, either. My wife is a very stubborn, uh, determined woman, and that has redounded to my benefit many, many times. . .

    ReplyDelete
  5. One of my prayers is that there is actually chocolate in heaven. The good kind. None of that Russell Stover or Nestle stuff, either.

    ReplyDelete
  6. faDKoG - Dove Dark. . .

    But as far as what there is/isn't in Heaven, I already know that one of my favorite things in earthly life won't be there. . . (hint: Matthew 22:30)

    So, good luck with the chocolate thing. . .

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have my own recent stories too much on my mind, I guess. I saw this headed in an entirely different direction - coming up with a handful of ants (which, considering the antiphonal... never mind.)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Suldog - ant-iphonal. . .

    Dude. . .

    Don't quit yer day job. . .

    ReplyDelete
  9. What lovely routines to have. Both the praying AND the chocolate!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Flutter - The prayers have been very life-giving for us. WAY beyond what my 60s-raised self would have expected (at least once-upon-a-time) from 'set prayers' that we essentially read. . .

    And heck, anyone could keep a stash of chocolate under her bed. . .

    ;)

    ReplyDelete