Using
Noonday Prayer for Public Worship
The purpose of this essay is to guide parishes in the use
of the noon office in the 1979 Book of Common Payer for public worship. This
office is a very flexible one and can be used for a number of different
purposes. It could be used by a group of parishioners in your town’s central
business district gathering for lunch and a prayer or for the parish staff to
pray together in the middle of the work day.
In those instances it might make sense to just read or chant the office
straight out of the BCP without any of the additions mentioned in the text or
that can be deduced from it.
However if you are hoping to use the service to draw
worshipers to your church for public worship at noon, it is a bit short. That
is, it could easily be read in less than 10 minutes. But for public worship you should like to
have it take 15 to 20 minutes, otherwise people may think it a lot of effort to
attend for not much return. First I will discuss how to flesh out noon prayer
using only resources in the BCP itself. Then turn to additional resources.
Resources from the Prayer Book
So
before turning to page 103 with the order of service we should consider an
opening psalm, canticle, hymn or other liturgical chant. The Great Litany is one of the under used
treasures of the Prayer Book in the modern Episcopal Church and was used
historically in cathedrals at noon since there was no noon office in the
original Prayer Books. I recommend the following to begin the office.
Feral Days The
Great Litany page 148
Feast Days The
Te Deum page 52
Feral Days in Advent Magnificat page 65
Feral Days in Easter Pascha nostrum page
46
Turning to the order for noon, while
it will not lengthen the noon office, after a while you may find the three
psalms printed in the Order for Noon Prayer to be a bit repetitive, if you pray
it more than once a week. The traditional Psalms for Sext are sections of Psalm
119.
XI or Kaph
page
770
XII or Lamedh page
770
XIII or Mem page
771
XIV or Nun page
772
XV or Samekh page
772
XVI or Ayin page
773
The rubrics in the BCP
are more flexible and in essence allow any psalms to be said at noon.
Again while it will not lengthen the office, for
but variation and seasonality, the opening sentences for Morning Prayer can be
used as readings in place of those in the Order for Noon Prayer.
Advent page
37
Christmas page
37
Epiphany page
38
Lent page
38
Holy Week page
39
Easter page
39
Trinity page
39
All Saints and Ss. Days page 40
Prayer, along with praise, is
central to the office. Thus prayers are a good place to expand the service. The
Collects are one such place were additions can be made to extend the order and
reflect seasonality. The tradition is that one can use any odd number of
collects up to seven. The Order for Noon prayers has four collects that you can
use along with the Collect of the Day.
The Collect of the day is the
Collect for the feast on that day if there is one or if it is a Sunday the
Collect for that Sunday. Otherwise it is the collect for the previous Sunday.
Further the Prayer Book
traditionally appointed the following collects to be used for the whole of the
season indicated.
Advent First
Sunday in Advent page 159
Christmas 3rd
Collect of Xmas page 161
Lent Ash
Wednesday page 166
Easter 3rd
Collect of Easter page 170
In addition it is consistent with the tradition of
the prayer book to use the collect of any black letter (bolded) feast days in
the previous eight days and on weekdays, the previous Sunday even if it is not
the collect of the day.
Further, one can use the collect for
the votive mass that would traditionally be said on that day. They are as
follows.
Sunday of the Holy Trinity
page
199
Monday of the
Angels page
200
Tuesday of
the Holy Ghost page 200
Wednesday
for any necessity /
For all Baptized Christians page
201
Thursday of the Blessed
Sacriment page 201
Friday of the Holy Cross page
201
Saturday of the
BVM pages
188. 189 or 192
Any day for the Faithful
Departed page
202
Collects are not the only prayers that can be used to
expand the daily office and all of the additional prayers from page 810-841 in
the BCP can be used. If the litany is not said at the beginning of the service,
then additional intercession would be good idea. I recommend:
7. For the Church page
816
and all in Civil Authority page
820
Another option for intercession would
be any of the forms for the prayers for the people beginning on page 383.
From other Approved Liturgical
Resources
The principal additional resource for extending the noon
office is the Hymnal. The traditional office Hymn, to be sung after the opening
versicle and response and the Gloria Patri, is “O GOD of truth, O Lord of might”
which is Hymns number 21 & 22 in the Hymnal. In addition to the office hymn,
a hymn could be sung before the noon office in place of the chants I suggested
above. Also a hymn could be sung after the office. These hymns could be used to
give additional seasonality to the office.
Another resource that could be used is the first volume
of enriching our worship that has additional opening sentences on pages 18,19
that could be used in place of the reading provided in the order for noon
prayer. There are additional canticles on pages 30-41 that could be used as an
opening chant for the office.
Additional Materials
The following are additional materials that could be used
to extend the noon office.
A traditional noon devotion (about 700 years old) is the
praying the Angelus Domini, a series of three versicles and responses each set
followed by the Ave Maria and concluding with the collect of the Annunciation. This
should be used carefully, while the text is largely from the scriptures, the
petition for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin is not and some people have
scruples. So I have omitted it here, which is quite justified since it is a
later interpolation.
V. The Angel of the Lord declared
unto Mary.
R. And she conceived by the Holy
Ghost.
Hail Mary Full of
Grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb Jesus. Amen.
V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
R. Be it done unto me according to
Thy word.
Hail Mary Full of
Grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb Jesus. Amen.
V. And the Word was made Flesh.
R. And dwelt amongst us.
Hail Mary Full of
Grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb Jesus. Amen.
Let us pray: Pour
forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the
Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by
His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the
same Christ Our Lord. Amen.
As I mentioned above, I generally use
four chants to begin the office depending on the day and season. However there
are 5 Psalm compilations from the 1789 BCP that are meant for use on:
Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, the Ascension, and Whitsunday. I use
these on the appropriate days.
Before
the opening versicle and response you can read an opening sentence of
scripture. An appropriate one would be:
On the morrow, as they went
on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop
to pray about the sixth hour. Acts 10:9
Turning
to the Psalms, the office maybe extended and enriched by the use of antiphons.
This is authorized by the BCP on page 141, “Antiphons drawn from the Psalms
themselves, or from the opening sentences given in the Offices, or from other
passages of Scripture may be used with the Psalms and biblical Canticles.”
I personally only use seasonal antiphons for noon prayer, because traditionally
one antiphon is used for the group of three psalms said at each of the little hours.
These are the ones I use.
Christmas:
The
Angel said unto the shepherds: behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy: *
for unto you is born this day the Savior of the world, Alleluia!
Epiphany: When they had opened their treasures,
the wise men presented unto the Lord * gold and frankincense and myrrh,
alleluia.
Palm
Sunday: Give
sentence with me, O God, and defend my cause; * for thou, O Lord, art the God
of my strength.
Easter:
Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Ascension: He lifted up his hands and blessed
them, * and was carried up into heaven, Alleluia!
Whitsunday:
The
Spirit of the Lord hath filled * the whole world, Alleluia!
Trinity: Praise and unending glory to God the
Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Spirit, through ages everlasting.
Another
way to extend the noon office is with an extended or supplemental reading. If
you are not using Matins or Evensong in your parish on that day, you could use one
of the readings appointed in the Lectionary for that service. Alternatively you
could read through the scriptures from beginning to end at noon prayer one
chapter a day. You could read the Rule of St. Benedict, the Articles of
Religion, the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, or the book of homilies.
A
sermon preached after the concluding versicle and response would be another way
to extend noon prayer. I think it would
clash with the tone of the service which is vey much praise and prayer
oriented.
An
addition element that can be added after the noon office is to chant the Marian
antiphon after the office. I only do
this from Advent to the Purification, because this is when Marian elements seem
most important to highlight and because Alma Redemptoris Mater is the most beautiful of the Marian antiphons.
Adopting the Noon Office for
Terce or Noone
If
you want to adopt the noon office for mid-morning or mid-afternoon worship,
this can be done with a few easy changes.
First,
if you are going to use an opening sentence of scripture, the following would
be good for Terce and Noone respectively.
At
the third hour they crucified him. Mark 15:25
Now
Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being
the ninth hour. Acts 3:1
Second,
the office hymn is different.
Terce COME, Holy Ghost, who ever One Hymns 19,20
Noone O God, creation’s secret force Hymns 14,15
Third,
the traditional psalms are different sections of Psalm 119 than are prayed at
noon.
Terce
V
or He page
766
VI
or Waw page
766
VII
or Zayin page
767
VIII
or Heth page
768
IX
or Teth page
768
X
or Yodh page
769
Noone
XVII
or Pe page
774
XVIII
or Sadhe page
774
XIX
or Qoph page
775
XX
or Resh page
776
XXI
or Shin page
777
XXII
or Taw page
777
The antiphons for the Psalms are also different.
Terce
Christmas:
Lo,
a maiden hath borne the Monarch whose Name is everlasting: she hath both the
joy of a mother and honor of a virgin: * before her hath none been seen like
her, nor shall there be after, Alleluia!
Epiphany: Thy light is come, O Jerusalem, and
the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee, * and the Gentiles shall walk in thy
light, alleluia.
Palm Sunday: The Lord God will help me: * therefore
shall I not be confounded.
Easter:
Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Ascension: And while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven as he went up, * they said, Alleluia!
Whitsuntide:
They
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, * and began to speak, Alleluia! Alleluia!
Trinity: Our hope art thou, our salvation and
glory, * O holy, O blessed, O glorious Trinity.
Noone
Christmas:
There
was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying:
* Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good-will,
Alleluia!
Epiphany: O ye seas and river-floods, shew
forth the praises of the Lord; O ye fountains of living water, bless ye the
Lord of all, alleluia.
Palm Sunday: Let them be confounded that persecute
me: * but let not me be confounded, O Lord my God.
Easter:
Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Ascension: Exalt ye the King of kings, * and
sing a hymn unto God, Alleluia!
Whitsuntide:
O
ye Wells of Salvation, and all that move through the baptismal waters thereof,
* sing praises to God, Alleluia!
Trinity:
Let praise and glory resound from the
lips of all men to the Father and the Only begotten; * and equal praise be
given forever to the Holy Spirit.
If
you are praying more than one of: Terce, Sext, or Noone, you will need
different readings for the services. You could use several of the suggestions I
made above, i.e. you could use the
opening sentences for Morning Prayer at Terce, read the Rule of St. Benedict at
Sext and read a chapter a day in course at Noone.
In Conclusion
As
I mentioned at the beginning of this essay, Noon Prayer as a standalone service
is not its only use. It can be used privately for prayers before meetings or
lunches. In can be prayed publicly as an adjunct to Holy Communion. But the
above should allow you to use the service for public worship at noon.
