My prayer book

[TomUK]

I get bored very easily and i found it difficult to stick with one prayer book as none of them truely address what i want from a prayer book. As i result i've decided to create my own!

This thread is more for my own benefit so i can keep track of what i've done so far and what i have yet to do. The idea is that over the coming year i can perfect it and include everything i want from a prayer book.

I don't claim that what i'm producing is in any way my own work. Rather what i'm doing is taking what i feel is the element of the two daily prayer books i use (common worship and benedictine daily prayer) and and putting them into a format i would find it easy to use a and also supplementing them with material that i find in alternate places.

I intend this thread to be a sort of blog, listing new things i have included but if any of you want to post any ideas or suggestions, or comment on what you want from a prayer volume then please feel free! Also if you ever want a draft copy of what i've completed then drop me a PM with your email address and i'll send you a copy. At the moment though it is very minimal!

[TomUK]

OK, things done so far.

Draft versions of Lauds and vespers for Sunday in ordinary time.
A contents page of canticles completed.
Benedictus, magnificat, glory be and lord's prayer listed
a couple of hymns that correspond to sunday prayer are listed
four seasonal Marian antihphons are recorded, though i'm not yet sure if this is the translation i'm going to stick with.

That's really not much to show for about 4 hours work!

[karen freeinchristman]

great idea, Tom, and I'm glad you are sharing the process with us. I look forward to hearing about it! :)

[TomUK]

Blimey, i've spent ages on it today and it doesn't seem like i've made that much progress.

I've typed up i think the first 23 canticles out of common worship and i've competed lauds and vespers for sunday monday and tuesday during ordinary time.

i've also added relevant hymns for those offices.

It really is quite boring at the moment. I want to reproduce all of the Common Worship canticles of which there are 87. Sadly there are only a few on the internet and those ones include verse numbers and aren't formatted correctly so it's not really worth my while copying and pasting, so instead i'm typing them up one by one.

I did a word count earlier and i'm already at nearly 10,000 words. I think this is going to be longer than i first thought...!

[karen freeinchristman]

I did a word count earlier and i'm already at nearly 10,000 words. I think this is going to be longer than i first thought...!

Well, you will have learned them all a bit better!

[Called2Grace]

This is a great idea, I have always wanted to put something like that together. I use a couple of different books at the moment too.

[gtsecc]

Are the antiphones online anywhere?

[AngCath]

this seems like quite a project!
I understand your reasons though. I currently switch between several prayerbooks as well and often wish there was a way to effectively combine them into one.

[TomUK]

Phew, 60 canticles down and only 27 to go! I've added a few more details throughout like a cycle of prayer and have only got lauds and vespsers for Friday and Saturday to go.

I know some of you are wildly excited to get the first draft but you'll have to hold your horses for a bit longer. :D It should be done by Saturday.

[AngCath]

sounds great! looking forward to it.

[TomUK]

Phew! After a rather long week i've finally finsihed a preliminary draft. It is still very sparce at the moment but i feel i've made a lot of progress this week. It the moment it is very similar to Common Worship daily prayer to be honest. However as i start to add all the various seasons and festivals i think the differences will start to become a bit clearer.

Things which are included in the first draft:
Lauds and Vespers for Ordinary time including a variety of choices of antiphones and collects. Provided a recommoned hymn which is different for each day (so there are 14 in total at the moment), all of the CW canticles and recommendations are there for each day of the week. There's a few options for prayers of thanksgiving also provided. There's a cycle of prayer which covers the entire year including recommended prayers for the seasons.

I must stress however that this isn't my own work. All i've done is start combining my personal favourite elements for the prayer books i currently use.

If you would like a draft copy then drop a PM with your email address and i'll send one to you. I'd love to know what people thought of it and if you had any ideas on how it could be improved. There are probably hundreds of typos etc at the moment however so please excuse those!

[TomUK]

I decided to spend a couple of weeks away from my prayer book - typing up the canticles made me want to shoot myself! However this evening i though i better resume and so i've now completed lauds and vespers during advent. It's slowly taking shape but there's a tonne of work still be done.

I will keep you updated, and feel free to drop me a PM if you want a draft copy.

[gtsecc]

Send me a copy please

[TomUK]

Have made some major changes to the book over the past few weeks. The structure is now pretty much in place and it is clearer how it is going to look when it is finally finished.

At the moment it usable from Advent through to Maundy Thursday. I've decided to focus on the seasons for the time being rather than the Saints. Once i've finished the seasons i'll move onto the Saints and the commons etc.

It's now a few words shy of 50,000. Any comments or advice will still be very welcome. You can read a copy of the three drafts i've made so far here.

http://www.4shared.com/dir/607152/a714b5bd/sharing.html

Just follow the link and you'll see something that looks like a folder directory. Just click on whichever draft you want and a new screen will load. If you wait a few seconds then right at the bottom of the screen will be a button you need to click to download the file. Don't ask me why they didn't make it bigger but it is there, on the left hand side of the screen right at the bottom.