So what do I plan on doing?

I've got an ambitious plan. I fully expect to fail miserably, but it's worth shooting high, I think.

The plan goes roughly as follows:

Starting on the second Sunday of Easter, to give time for the hubbub of activity from Holy Week and First Easter to die down:

Sunday:

• Morning Prayer at approximately 6:15 am, giving me time to shower and dress.
• Church, at times serving as a Sub-Deacon (otherwise known as a lay eucharistic minister)
• Evening prayer at approximately 5pm.
• Compline before bed at 9:45pm.

Monday:

• Morning Prayer at approximately 6:15 am, giving me time to shower and dress.
• Noon Celtic prayers followed by 1/2 hour of contemplative prayer, at church.
• Evening prayer at approximately 5pm.
• Compline before bed at 9:45pm.

Tuesday:

• Morning Prayer at approximately 6:15 am, giving me time to shower and dress.
• Noon Celtic prayers followed by 1/2 hour of contemplative prayer, at church.
• Evening prayer at approximately 5pm.
• Compline before bed at 9:45pm.

Wednesday:

• Morning Prayer at approximately 6:15 am, giving me time to shower and dress.
• Noon Mass, followed by Gospel study at church.
  
• Evening prayer at approximately 5pm.
• Compline before bed at 9:45pm.

Thursday:

• Morning Prayer at approximately 6:15 am, giving me time to shower and dress.
• Noon Celtic prayers followed by 1/2 hour of contemplative prayer, at church.
• Evening prayer at approximately 5pm.
• Compline before bed at 9:45pm.

Friday:

• Morning Prayer at approximately 6:15 am, giving me time to shower and dress.
• Noon Celtic prayers followed by 1/2 hour of contemplative prayer, at church.
• Evening prayer at approximately 5pm.
• Compline before bed at 9:45pm.

Saturday:

• Morning Prayer at approximately 6:15 am, giving me time to shower and dress.
• Evening prayer at approximately 5pm.
• Compline before bed at 9:45pm.

And repeat.

Not exactly a full "seven times a day" but after all, I'm not really a monk. Just a layperson.

We'll see how this goes. I have, in the past, managed to be somewhat faithful about praying the office, but this is a whole order of magnitude more. Part of what I hope this will teach me is how to move smoothly between "secular time" and "sacred time," making that less disjointed, more integrated, and less a "Sunday morning" thing.

I fully expect it to be difficult, and boring at times. This is normal, or so all of what I've learned tells me. I suppose, if it were easy, we'd all be doing it, at least those of us who are drawn to this sort of style of life.

Celtic prayers at my church use the text Celtic Prayers from Iona: The Heart of Celtic Spirituality as a text.

We do a spoken mass following Rite II at noon on Wednesdays.

The Daily Offices I'm using are directly from the Book of Common Prayer, Rite II, although I hope, as I grow into this, to use some other texts periodically. The nice thing about the BCP Office is that you will, in fact, if you follow it well, read all the Psalms every 7 weeks, and the vast majority of the Bible in two years. I have friends who have sat down and read the scriptures straight through - this never appealed to me. I need time to think, to let it sink in, and to roll it around my heart.