Routine, Ritual, and Rut

I am staying and studying at an Anglican residential school at the University of Oxford. The school is relatively small, taking up one city block and housing a handful of students, staff, and faculty. As a community, they observe the Anglican hours of prayer in the purest form of the tradition. Twice a day, upon the ringing of the church bells, the community gathers in the chapel for prayer, once per day for mass, and daily for a social time at four o’clock for tea. Yesterday, I enjoyed high tea. However, I soon realized that British tea is not conducive to adjusting to a new time zone. The highly caffeinated, but oh so tasty, mix of tea leaves kept me awake until 2:00 in the morning. This evening I opted out on the tea, but participated in evening prayer. For half an hour, the people gather for a series of predetermined readings, songs, creeds, and prayers. The entire service is recited in chant with the people facing each other in two sets of rows along each side of the chapel. It was actually quite beautiful.

There remains something to be said for routine and ritual. The routines of these hours of prayer ensure that the staff, faculty, and students gather together many times daily for worship, shared prayer, and fellowship. I sense a deep connectedness among the people here and consequently, an open hospitality to my family and me. However, I do wonder how much of the prayer time exists as a heartfelt connection with Almighty God and how much remains as merely going through the motions, caught in the rut of routine. I obviously could not answer this as I cannot see into the hearts of the seemingly sincere participants, but I do wonder.

Routine and ritual remain important dynamics to a vibrant, healthy spirituality. If we fail to schedule in times of spiritual renewal, our schedule produces spiritual failure. However, if we participate in spiritual activities because that is what we always do, our routine becomes dry, devoid of divine encounters. Lack of spiritual routine and ritual, as well as the overdone rut of routine and ritual both leave us empty.

Spiritual vitality comes when we are intentional about our part in connecting with God, yet free to allow God to meet us where we least expect.