Daily Devotions on the Run

This morning, I came across a website that will provide a new way of participating in daily devotions for me. If you enjoy "The Daily Office" approach for your daily devotions and you like to use your MP3 player, this might be of interest to you. The website is provided by an Episcopal Church in Maryland.

This morning, before I went for a jog, I downloaded their morning devotions for Friday, September 19. (They also have a noon-day & evening service.) In addition to the readings, this download also provided a mini-worship which includes a call to worship, prayer of confession, the scripture readings, other prayers, the Apostles' Creed, and a benediction. It was 17 minutes long.

"The Daily Office" (not to be confused with NBC's hit show, "The Office") is the Anglican/Episcopal/Catholic approach to the daily reading of scripture in which each day consists of readings from the Old Testament, the Psalms, an Epistle, and a Gospel.

There are three main reasons why I love this daily devotion method. First of all, the scriptures always reflect the present liturgical season (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Ordinary Time, Easter, etc.) Secondly, the lessons repeat themselves every two years which means that after two years, I will have read through most of the bible. Last but not least, since many denominations use this method, there is a sense of unity since we are all reading the same biblical lessons each day. Presently, the New Testament readings focus on Acts and the Gospel of John, while the Old Testament just began the Book of Esther.

If you're not into the full MP3 "The Daily Office" service, you can go to a couple of other websites (non-MP3) and just get the daily scripture texts. If you want to read the texts only, go to this website. If you want to have the texts read to you which is also pretty cool, go to this website. For people who really aren't into reading, I highly recommend either the MP3 website or the website that reads it for you.

Enjoy!