Two weeks ago we held our third annual retreat for Eastern University’s student chaplains.  Today I got a small package in the mail with a gift from my good friend (and Eastern’s Chaplain), Joe Modica.  It was a much appreciated (and entirely unecessary) gesture, and Joe does a good job selecting gifts which capture people’s interest.  Today I was blesse to recieve a breviary of prayers from the Missio-Dei community in Minneapolis.  As I page through the book I know I’ll find it useful, and will probably make it my prayer book for the season of Lent.  So far my biggest nit-pick is the use of sans serif fonts for the bulk of the text – I find large blocks of printed sans serif fonts a bit of a chore to read.

On the the other hand, when I opened up the title page of the book I was met with a unexpected treat – The Missio Dei Breviary is licensed under the same Creative Commons license I release all my materials under!  This means I could copy the entire book and hand it out to my whole congregation as long as I kept the authorship and publishing pages in the work.  Of course, that would cost more than purchasing the book for everyone, but it’s a nice thought.  They also use the NET Bible as their translation as they find that the free and open project adheres nicely with their own mission goals – which I appreciate (though the wording on the title page comes off a bit on the “preachy” side, but that might just be me).  I’m glad to see other CC licensed material out there for churches!

I’m quite touched by the gift, and if you’d like to see what I’ll be praying this Lent, go to thebreviary.com.