A Rule of Life

By Alex Grudem on June 17, 2022 in From Our Pastors

Starting this Sunday, I will be leading a group through Stephen Macchia’s Crafting a Rule of Life during the Adult Education hour. This class will help you form a personal rule of life, focusing on your physical, spiritual, relational, financial, and missional rhythms and habits.

But did you know that there is also a deeply formational Rule of Life implicit in our Book of Common Prayer? We Anglicans (and many other Christians from various traditions) observe a Rule of Life in the way that we tell time, the way that we pray, and the way that we read Scripture.

Adam S. Keck, CC BY 3.0The Rule of Time: The Liturgical Calendar
“The liturgical traditions of the Church, all its cycles and services, exist, first of all, in order to help us recover the vision and the taste of that new life which we so easily lose and betray, so that we may repent and return to it.” Alexander Schmemman

The Rule of Prayer: The Daily Office and the Holy Eucharist
“Faith, I’ve come to believe, is more craft than feeling. And prayer is our chief practice in the craft…In our deepest moments of anxiety and darkness, we enter into this craft of prayer, at times trembling and feeble. Most often, we take up prayer not out of triumphant victory or unimpeachable trust but because prayer shapes us; it works back on us to change who we are and what we believe. Patterns of prayer draw us out of ourselves, out of our own time-bound moment, into the long story of Christ’s work in and through his people over time… When we pray the prayers we’ve been given by the church—the prayers of the psalmist and the saints, the Lord’s Prayer, the Daily Office—we pray beyond what we can know, believe, or drum up in ourselves. ‘Other people’s prayers’ discipled me; they taught me how to believe again.” Rev. Tish Harrison Warren

The Rule of Scripture: The Lectionary and the Psalter
“Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.” Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556)

The function of each of these “rules,” of course, is to draw us deeper into the knowledge and love of God. It would be a gift to walk with you this summer as you craft your personal rule of life. If you have any questions, please contact me at bsnow@christchurchphoenix.org.

In Christ,
Dcn. Bree Snow