S: I love this prayer. The cadence and pure adoration of God, as well as the penitence, are beautiful. My background is such that I’ve never read from the Book of Common Prayer nor had set times to pray during the day. Reading through this first prayer (and it is my suspicion that it will be the same for the other two) makes me want to incorporate this liturgical discipline into my life. It brings to mind the Psalms, and more specifically those that are for the morning, evening, and Sabbath.

R: It is such a beautiful prayer, though in the language of her day, quite simple! Until recently, I was the same as you, not really familiar with the liturgy as Jane would have been. Over the last year, though, my church has been developing a liturgy, using many elements from the Book of Common Prayer. Jane’s address of God as ‘Almighty Father’ illustrates, as in Scripture, that we can approach God in a familiar way and make our requests and needs known to Him.

Jane’s prayer goes on to acknowledge that God is always with His people and knows everything about us. Dodge quotes Psalm 139.1-4, which says:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

It’s a reminder that God is always near and we can go to Him with anything.

Jane highlights the importance of making God the focus of our thoughts and lives. Whatever we do, it should be done for God’s glory, even the menial or boring tasks of daily life. We should examine our hearts from God’s perspective and not allow laziness and distractions to take our focus off of our Creator. We should always be praying – asking (and thanking) God for His provision, praying for others, and confessing our sins with true repentance.

S: Scripture tells us to pray continually with thanksgiving, and the easiest way to do that is to talk to God conversationally, but there’s something to be said for the discipline of writing down prayers and really thinking about the words we use when we address the Lord as Austen’s prayers demonstrate. (Side note: It’s also a really good mental exercise to use words that are less common and incorporate them in our private prayers!)

Jesus gave His disciples, and us, an example of how to pray. As we have learned from the devotional, it was with His prayer that Jane closed her own. This is a solid foundation on which to build our own daily prayer lives.