This Week at St. Peter's

Rector's Thoughts                                   June 23, 2026

This week we had our 200th liturgy of the Daily Office (Morning and Evening Prayer) in the church this year. More than 200 times this year we gathered in the Corpus Christi Chapel to pray the prayers of the Church and to say aloud the names of those on our parish prayer list. It is such a profound gift to our parish and to the world to offer daily prayers at the altar, and I am so grateful for those who continue to participate. This week even baby Autumn joined me a couple of times, and I can’t tell you how special it is for her ears to be filled with the sounds of our prayers as she is surrounded by the communion of saints. 

One thing I’ve been thinking about in the liturgy is the role of silence. We live in such a noisy world. And even when the world halfway quiets down, we find our minds are just as noisy! At daily Morning and Evening Prayer there are intentional moments of silence woven into the liturgy itself that invite the noise to fade away in order that we might pay attention to the presence of God in our midst. We enter the church in silence. We pause in silence before the confession and after each reading. And we linger in it during the intercessions. In each of these moments of silence, we find God closer to us than our very heart.

My favorite moment of silence in the liturgy though is one that is more difficult to do and one that we often almost complete ignore: the asterisk of the Psalms. On page 583 of the Book of Common Prayer in the introduction to the Psalms, there is a single sentence that points to an ancient tradition: “An asterisk divides each verse into two parts for reading or chanting. In reading, a distinct pause should be made at the asterisk.” A distinct pause. 

Have you ever noticed the asterisk the prayer book places half way through each verse of the Psalms? It is not in your Bible, but it is in your prayer book, because when we use the Psalms in the liturgy they are meant to be prayed. Indeed, they are meant to be breathed. They are meant to become part of our soul. The monks of the centuries have perfected the pause. You slowly say the first half of the verse, pause long enough for a deep inhale, and then you say the second verse. The temptation is to keep moving until at least the verse is complete, but the asterisk interrupts the verse and forces you to slow down and find God between the words. The pause is especially difficult when praying with multiple people. If you all pause together, how do you know when to all start the second half of the verse at the same time? It takes practice and cultivates attention to those around you. You can’t just do your own thing. You have to be in sync with those you join in prayer. 

That is partly why we call it “common prayer”. When we come together to pray the Daily Office or the Holy Eucharist, we do so not primarily as individuals but as community. We are not private persons praying alongside of each other who happen to be saying the same words; we are a community, in sync with one another, holding our prayers in common. The pause at the asterisk is a simple and profound tool that helps cultivate communal prayer. 

I wonder what the asterisk could teach us about daily life. I wonder how often we make the assumption that prayer is for the beginning or end of the day, after all the to-do lists and distractions have been dealt with. I wonder how often we assume that we need to wait until the day is over, the task is complete, the distractions are out of the way to sit down to prayer. Perhaps the asterisk teaches us that sometimes the day, the task, the distraction, the sentence has to be interrupted in order to remind ourselves of God’s presence underneath it all. Where might the asterisk go in our daily life? Where might an intentional and challenging moment of silent interruption be inserted in order to cultivate an awareness of God’s presence within? 

If you haven’t come to Morning or Evening Prayer at the church yet, please do! It’s amazing in the most beautiful and subtle of ways. And it is the most important way to support the ministry of St. Peter’s—more than anything else you can do for the parish, which is why we put it first on our pledge cards.

That’s what’s on my mind this week. What’s on yours? I’d love to hear.

Peace,

Derek