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Book of Prayers

JustinWilliamsJustinWilliams
edited December 1969 in Coptic Orthodox Church
Does the Coptic Orthodox Church have a book of prayers similar to the Anglican Book of Common Prayers or the Protestant book of prayers The Valley of Vision?


Blessings

:)

Comments

  • peterfarringtonpeterfarrington
    Our daily prayers are in the Agpeya or Book of Hours - one version is at http://www.agepeya.org

    But our services are in the various service books which are all available, texts are online as well.

    Did you mean the private daily prayers or the liturgical community prayers?

    Father Peter
  • JustinWilliamsJustinWilliams
    Yes Father Peter, private daily prayers.
  • mabsootamabsoota
    the agpeya is private as well as communal, i mean u can pray it at home each day.
    in practice most of us do it when we can as we don't all mange (esp me!) to repeat 7 groups of prayers and a bunch of psalms each day (it contains just under half the psalms). also some versions of the agpeya have really useful prayers eg. 'prayer when seeking the will of God'
    there are 7 times ('hours') for prayers each day, plus the prayer of the veil (a night-time prayer for monks, and, i presume, nuns as well) and also 3 midnight prayers. midnight here means middle of the night, not strictly 24.00 hours, as there are 3 sections to it, to correspond to the old 'watches' of the night, when there was a night watchman guarding the cities and shouting out 3 times a night that all was well.
    i personally recommend the veil and the night prayers, for times when you don't have to work the next day, or if you have a break when on night shifts. they include the whole of psalm 118 (119 in some Bibles, its the longest psalm), which otherwise tends not to get read too much but is actually beautiful. of course, you can read it in the day as well if you want!
    may people get daily readings and a prayer on a calendar, the only ones i've seen are brought from egypt and in arabic, so i suppose that wouldn't help u.
    there are also loads of traditional prayers i don't know, eg before eating. i tend to pray something spontaneous at these times, i think it's useful to experience both spontaneous and set prayer, set prayer because those that have gone before you have written down beautiful things to say to our great and holy God, and spontaneous prayer because He cares about every aspect of our lives and loves to hear us speak from the heart.
    i would like to know more about daily prayers as well, so could someone more experienced also please share?
    thanks
    :)
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