Eastern Christian Publications is pleased to announce a FREE trial of an electronic Byzantine Daily Office! It will be distributed by email each evening for the following day and contain the texts for morning and evening prayer, and the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours, along with the changeable parts as per the Byzantine Ruthenian Typicon (which we publish too) and the Gregorian date for Pascha. When the calendar dictates, we will also offer a version for the Julian date for Pascha.

You can use it on your desktop, laptop, or any other portable device where you get email. It will be complete and contain all the prayers you need to pray on the bus, subway, at lunch, at a soccer game, dance class, or anywhere/anytime!

If we find enough interest in the FREE trial, we will continue and ask for a modest subscription fee through our website (something like 25 cents/day or $7.50/month) to cover the work involved in preparing each day's file.

But to receive these FREE 50+ page PDFs with all the Hours for each day, simply send us an email and indicate which calendar you follow -- Gregorian or Julian -- for Pascha. We will send the PDF to you at the email address you use. Send the email to:

info@ecpubs.com

We ask you to please USE the file, and give us your feedback of how it could be improved, or if you like it, will subscribe to it, and recommend it to friends.

The value we are trying to provide is the "figuring it out" for the uneducated or inexperienced lay person in an easy-to-use form. Comments we have received so far include:

-- So far, it looks great. I would be ready to pay as soon as you give the word.

-- Thanks for the wonderful Byzantine Daily Office online.

-- I have started reading the offices and they are most comprehensive - much more so than readings for the daily Liturgy than I have been receiving, and I commend you on it. Thank you for starting this.

-- I have been wanting something like this for so long.

-- Your electronic Daily Office is such a wonderful idea – and so needed for our Church.

-- I think this a great service that will inspire priests to pray more than just having the daily Divine Liturgy. There is no question in my mind that unless and until priests pray more than just the Daily Liturgy, God will not abundantly bless the works of his hands in his priestly ministry. I remember that Bishop Fulton J. Sheen always attributed the success of his weekly TV show to the fact that he always spent one hour each day (outside of his daily Mass) in front of the Blessed Sacrament praying.

-- Thank you so much for this good idea. The spirituality of these prayers which, when said with the heart, leaves nothing more to be said to God, as they allow a complete emptying of oneself in an effort to express love to God. These are truly the church’s rich gifts, other than the eucharist, that God has given to us. Thank you!

We are accepting requests for the Free Trial period, so if anyone wishes to sign up, just send an email to info@ecpubs.com and request being added to the distribution list.

Jack Figel
Pubisher

We are still running the free trial of the electronic Byzantine Daily Office, so anyone interested should send an email request to:

info@ecpubs.com

and we will send you the daily file.

Comments so far have been very positive, but we need more interest to make it worthwhile.

Jack Figel
Publisher

Reader Jack,
Thanks for posting this.
I have enjoyed the demo for the past ~2 weeks, and am grateful for it. I definitely recommend this to others who haven't checked it out yet!

In XC,
J. Andrew

Jack-
I sent an email to that address info@ecpubs.com requesting it on Feb 10th after hearing you on Light of the East radio and I haven't had any response.
-Marylouise

Marylouise, I'm sorry, but we added all the requests we received on Feb 10, and I've double checked, but don't see a request from you either in the inbox at ecpubs. We'll be happy to add you, but I need your email address, since it doesn't appear in this forum's profile. Either try again, or send me a PM.

Jack

Jack does it work on iPads?

As far as I know, I think so, but not 100% sure, since I don't have one!

If you get email on your iPad and can open a PDF file, then it should work just fine. That's what we distribute -- a PDF file by email with all the texts for each day all figured out according to the Typicon of the Gregorian or Mixed Julian Calendar.

Jack

All, I just received this email comment on the Byzantine Daily Office from Mitred Archpriest Andriy Chirovsky, Founder and First Director, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies and Faculty of Theology, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada. He does not have an account on this forum, and asked me to post it for him:

“BDO is one of your best ideas ever. I love it and use it on my iPhone. The .pdf format seems to work just fine. Sure, an app would be cool, but this is already such a great help. Don't have to carry around books. I always have my iPhone with me. Now I also have the Divine Office with me as well. This is a game-changer. Every priest, deacon, monastic and layperson should try this out. If it does not improve your participation in the prayer of the Church, you will have only yourself to blame. Even those accustomed to other translations will appreciate what Jack Figel has done for all of us.”

Thanks to Fr Andriy for his resounding endorsement! The free trial is being extended until April 1 so that anyone who wants to incorporate the BDO into their Lenten prayer life can do so at no cost. We'll be announcing details for the ongoing paid subscription service in the next few days.

Jack

Bump for this fantastic service. The free trial is ending so I just placed my order.

It's been a blessing for us.