by Chris Labadie
This semester, as part of Fr. Anthony’s School of Theology•Seminary course on the Liturgy of the Hours, we had the assignment of praying an intentional “office” experience and journaling about how the prayer connected with our daily life and the course materials.
I chose to spend the week of Easter praying morning and evening prayers from Take Our Moments and Our Days: An Anabaptist Prayer Book. This was a fascinating exercise – coming from my usual base in the more traditional aspects of Catholic liturgy – because historically the Anabaptist worship tradition is much freer and rooted in the movement of the Spirit. “Anabaptist” is an umbrella term for various groups growing out of the “Radical Reformation” – Amish, Hutterites, Mennonites, Brethren, Bruderhof, Apostolic Christian Church – but from what I have researched Take our Moments and Days is associated primarily with Mennonites. The idea that there would be a set form of liturgical worship in the Anabaptist tradition intrigued me because I wondered how this would work with the freer worship style.