Brian's reading and music blog

         A book that is important to me is the 1662 Book of Common Prayer,  mediated by the revised Canadian edition of 1962. The Book of Common Prayer has a complex history tied in with the history of England and its church which I won’t go into. Suffice to say that it has become part of the language of the English speaking world, as much as Shakespeare and the Authorized version of the Bible. Even when becoming a Roman Catholic,  I kept my mothers Anglican prayer book close to me and recited the offices of Matins and Evensong. What joy it was recently when I received a prayer book or breviary containing the hours of prayer as contained in the Anglican BCP officially approved by the Catholic Church with the offices and the readings of the lectionary all in one book. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer is designed for lay people,  being a simplified version of the Catholic prayer service. It has two principle offices, morning and evening prayer. In...

     I recently got in the mail a copy of the Philokalia. It’s the fifth and final volume of the English translation edited by Ware, Sherrard, and Palmer.  The five volume books have quite a reputation, though it’s not nearly  as popular in the West as in some Orthodox circles,  where it is second in stature only to the Bible. It was first compiled on Mount Athos in Greece by two monks,  St Nikodimos and St Makarios, and published in 1782 in Vienna. It was translated throughout the Orthodox world and had a huge impact in Russia. It is a spiritual anthology of many of the most significant monastic and spiritual writers in the Orthodox church.  I often wonder how much someone like me can even profit reading these books, being a lay person and a Roman Catholic. Some of these texts seem to be geared towards Orthodox monks.It's also important to have a spiritual guide or elder.  I was musing about this with a Jewish friend who shared with me that ...

  I’m just sitting in my basement listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Nick Cave really is a true poet. I’d be bold as to put him in the company of Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan which is the highest praise. Like the aforementioned singers Nick has a deeply spiritual side. There is a kingdom, there is a king And He lives without and he lives within There is a kingdom and there is a king The starry heavens above me The moral law within So the world appears Through this mist of tears Lately I've been really inspired by Cave. He has me re-interested in English poetical verse, like Thomas Treharne, John Donne and the devotional poetry of Christina Rossetti. I was particularly moved by Caves beautiful description of receiving the communion wine in the song Brompton Oratory. A beauty impossible to define A beauty impossible to believe The blood imparted in little sips The smell of you still on my hands As I bring the cup to my lips. Its hard at times to figure if its ...