Aaron Klinefelter wrote this in a recent blog post:

"Doing the morning daily office from Phyllis Tickle is nice because it is not about finding something that fits ME, that serves ME, that feels good for ME. It is rather something that forms me. "

I think Aaron really captures the value of a practice like the office. The office is a structure/practice/reality that exists outside myself that I enter into. It is the long haul doing of it that forms one. This is a much different approach than the Daily Quiet Time where one meets with God and is searching for a daily affective experience of God. The rhetoric is that one should have those kinds of experiences - the reality is that one does not.

I think of the story of a Benedictine monk who exhibited holiness in his attitudes and life patterns. This old monk had never had a consolation or affective experience of God's presence. He simply gave himself to the lifelong practice of the daily office.

Food for thought there methinks.

Cheers.