Each morning at 5:45, the Rev. Michael Jarrett sits down at his prayer station in a dark room in rural Texas, lights some incense made by Orthodox monks, and plugs his headphones into his laptop. Then he begins to read aloud in his slight Southern drawl, uttering a silent prayer as he goes. Hours later his recorded voice is heard by people in 43 countries sitting down to their morning cups of coffee or beginning a daily commute. This is Morning Prayer for the global village, combining ancient readings from the Book of Common Prayer with technology that carries it around the world.

Jarrett, a C4SO priest, partners with a Kansas-based Army chaplain, the Rev. Chris Cairns, to offer streaming podcasts of Morning and Evening Prayer (with available iTunes and RSS subscription options)—a ministry they call The Trinity Mission. Jarrett records Morning Prayer; Cairns records Evening Prayer, and visitors can enter both services through a simple link on The Trinity Mission homepage. Visitors have the option to begin the service with a Confessional Rite from their preferred revision of the 1549 prayer book, then listen, read along with the provided text or both. Thanks to word of mouth, Facebook and Twitter, thousands take advantage of the services each month.

Ironically, Jarrett, a former Presbyterian, began practicing the Daily Office at the same time he began recording it on January 1, 2013.

“I was interested in liturgical forms, but never practiced them myself,” he says. “For many years, I had people asking me, ‘I try to read my Bible regularly or pray, and I just don’t know what to do. Can you give me some direction or guidance?’ I wanted to help them. At first it was simply about coming up with a reading plan for scripture, but that led me to Cranmer’s Daily Office readings.”

Jarrett loved that Cranmer exposed readers to so much of the scriptures each year. But he wanted a daily guide that would walk people through the liturgical year as well. Over the next three years, he set out to create a resource containing sequential Daily Office readings with special readings for Holy Days that facilitated the Church celebrating the Christian Year together. Jarrett plunged headfirst into the practice of daily prayer when he began recording the Daily Office. Now in addition to Morning and Evening Prayer, he is working on creating print resources for individuals and families.

“Coming into

[the Daily Office], I’ve experienced so much more of its fullness,” Jarrett says. “It’s more to me than just getting through Scripture, though it’s a great vehicle for that. It enables me to pray continually throughout the day.”

Jarrett’s experience with the Daily Office fuels his passion for Anglican spiritual formation. His family attends Christ Church Austin when they’re in “town” but have spent the last eight months working at a ranch for foster children in a remote area of the Texas Hill Country. They hope to one day establish a brick-and-mortar Trinity Mission that incorporates a service work of mercy, a discipleship work of Christian formation, and an economic work of providing for some of its own needs—all centered around a life of common worship and daily prayer. For now, Jarrett ministers to his listeners through the human voice, which he says is a connection to place in a generation that is mostly rootless.

“The similar and more commonly used term for ‘place’ would be community,” he says. “Listening to the human voice is evidence that you’re not alone. The Protestant ideal is a little bit isolationist, and there’s nothing wrong with having your own private devotions, but we need to feel that connectedness with others, pray and read together, identify with a place and a people.”

It was for that exact reason Jarrett chose the name The Trinity Mission instead of “The Audio Daily Office.”

“I didn’t want it to be an ambiguous product you could consume in isolation but a community you could enter,” he says. “It’s one thing for you to sit alone with your prayer book in a dark room, but to sit with two in a dark room, that’s when we’re told Christ is present. There’s something about listening to the Daily Office read aloud that conveys connectedness, community and a sense of body.”

Learn how your parish can partner with The Trinity Mission or offer it as one of your ministries.