The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the foundational prayer book of Anglicanism. The original was one of the instruments of the English Reformation. In addition to the authorized Prayer Book of the Church of England, most member churches of the Anglican Communion now have their own official versions, which may be used by individual Anglicans for their private devotions. Many Anglican churches use contemporary alternatives to the Prayer Book, such as Common Worship (Church of England), or the Book of Alternative Services (Anglican Church of Canada).
Many devout Anglicans begin and end their day with the Daily Office of the Prayer Book, which includes the forms for morning, noonday, evening, and bedtime prayer, as well as suggested Bible readings appropriate to each. Some Anglo-Catholics use forms of the Roman Catholic Daily Office, such as the Liturgy of the Hours, or the forms contained in the Anglican Breviary.
The Litany in the Book of Common Prayer, or litanies from other sources, is also a devotion used for private or family prayer by some Anglicans.
Quiet Time, a time of prayer and Bible reflection is quite common among evangelical Anglicans, while Lectio Divina, a similar practice, is advocated by more Catholic-minded Anglicans.
Read more about this topic: Anglican Devotions
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“We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.”
—Morning Prayer, General Confession, Book of Common Prayer (1662)
“We therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life.”
—Book Of Common Prayer, The. The Burial of the Dead (1662)
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalms, 116:15.
In the Book of Common Prayer, the lines are rendered: “Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:13)
“There ain’t nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I’d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled it, and I ain’t agoing to no more.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“We fatuously hoped that we might pluck from the human tragedy itself a consciousness of a common destiny which should bring its own healing, that we might extract from life’s very misfortunes a power of cooperation which should be effective against them.”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)
“A childish soul not inoculated with compulsory prayer is a soul open to any religious infection.”
—Alexander Cockburn (b. 1941)