Phyllis Tickle Responds
Phyllis Tickle is the author of The Divine Hours and several other works on the life of the Spirit. The following are responses to questions posed by those who are using The Divine Hours. If you have a question that you'd like us to consider, try our online form.
Question:
For people new to faith, the use of The Divine Hours may
well be their introduction to daily prayer as a discipline. How
would you suggest spinning off from the format of The Divine Hours
to expand the more personal or private practice of prayer? Are
the ours in any particular ways designed for this?
Answer:
The absorbing thing about this question is that it highlights--almost
innocently--the changes that have occurred over the centuries in Christian
prayer in general, as well as in the observing of the hours in particular,
changes most of us have forgotten to remember. This question
brought me up short, in other words; and I am grateful. more...
Question:
In The Shaping of A Life, you introduce prayer as somewhere
your motheer went. So, where is it that one goes when one prays?
Answer:
Aha! It seems I have been caught out at last. Good. more...
Question:
Could you describe your own use of "The Divine Hours." That
is, do you use the books that you've put together, or the Book of
Common Prayer or older version of fixed-hour prayer?
Answer:
As I sit down to write my answer to this question, I have to begin
with a thank-you to the asker. It's a question I have often longed to
answer in print, but have never before received as a formal question
in a written format. That having been said, though, the answer really
is yes, yes, and yes. more...
Question:
In a typical day, how do you use TDH or equivalent at this stage
in your life and how did your daily practice of prayer work when
you were in the labor-intensive, kids-at-home stage of life?
Answer:
Over fifty years of marriage and by the grace of God, Sam and I have
produced seven children. One of our sons is deceased, but the others--two
boys and four girls--have become so accustomed by now to my Benedictine
schedule as to hardly notice. But as the question recognizes, children
are not born forgiving of maternal routines. As a result, I did
two things when they were young and living with us. more...
Question:
What is the overall theory of the structure of the daily office?...i.e.,
is it meant to reflect a structured conversation with God (greeting,
hear God talk, response, etc.) or something else?
Answer:
This is a very good question, for it goes right to the heart of what
the offices are. Not only are the hours in fixed-hour prayer "fixed," but
so also is the format and so too, in large measure, is the content. more...
Question:
What's up with "the gloria"--where did it come from,
and is there any reason it occurs in some of the offices, but not
others?
Answer:
What a positively GREAT question. I love people who observe rhythms,
even subtle ones like the Gloria's, and care enough to ask. In all
my years of dealing with fixed-hour prayer, this is the first time someone
has asked me this without my having to more or less evoke it. So thanks and
blessings on somebody there who has a ready heart and a quick mind! more...
Question:
The psalms are often filled with such raw emotion, including
emotion that we might not easily identify with on any given day. As
a life-long pray-er of the psalms, how do you connect with the emotional
undercurrent of the psalms?...that is, connect it with your own emotional
experience?
Answer:
I have pondered this question for several days before actually attempting
an answer. My delay has been due, not to any objective hesitancy,
but to a kind of remembered and poignant empathy with the questioner. more...
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