Stepping Into Jesus's Baptism: First Sunday after Epiphany
Stepping Into Jesus's Baptism: First Sunday after Epiphany

A weekly Epiphany Daybook devotional post for these weeks of revelation and witness.

Look: Baptistry of the Basilica of Laodicea (4th century) - photo credit: Dr. Julie Canliss

Here’s a brief article about Laodicea from the Biblical Archeology Society.

Listen: Troparion of Theophany (Tone 1) (Znamenny Chant), St. Symeon Orthodox Church Choir - Text | Spotify | YouTube

Listen to the new playlist I made for this week: Stepping Into Jesus’s Baptism

Read: Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 89:20-29; Acts 10:34-38; Luke 3:15-22

Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the First Sunday After Epiphany

Do: Remember your baptism!

Read More
EpiphanyTamara Hill MurphyEpiphany 2022
The Word Became Flesh and Lived Among Us: Christmas Daybook 9
The Word Became Flesh and Lived Among Us: Christmas Daybook 9

A Christmas Daybook Meditation for these 12 days of festive celebration.

Look: Altar and Reredos for Lady Chapel, John Maddison - Source

Listen: Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, Longon Chamber Orchestra- Spotify | YouTube | Text

Read: Jeremiah 31:7-14; Psalm 147:12-20; Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:1-9, 10-18

Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Second Sunday of Christmas

Do: Sing more Christmas carols!

Read More
ChristmasTamara Hill MurphyChristmastide 2021-2022
New Year: Christmas Daybook 8
New Year: Christmas Daybook 8

A Christmas Daybook Meditation for these 12 days of festive celebration.

Look: Children’s shoes and toys were placed in a makeshift memorial outside the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, where the remains of hundreds of Indigenous children have been discovered in unmarked graves. Dennis Owen/Reuters, Erica - Source

Listen: Lullay, Lullay (Coventry Carol), Annie Lennox - Spotify | YouTube

Read: Psalm 2, 26; Isaiah 49:13-23; Matthew 18:1-14; Psalm 19, 126; Isaiah 54:1-13; Mark 10:13-16

Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Feast of Holy Innocents

Do: Bless the children in your family, community, and beyond.

Read More
ChristmasTamara Hill MurphyChristmastide 2021-2022
I Am Making All Things New: Christmas Daybook 7
I Am Making All Things New: Christmas Daybook 7

A Christmas Daybook Meditation for these 12 days of festive celebration.

Look: Peaceable Kingdom, John August Swanson - Source

Listen: O Day of Peace, Josh Garrels - Bandcamp w/ lyrics | Spotify | YouTube

Read: Psalm 46, 48; 1 Kings 3:5-14; James 4:13-17, 5:7-11; John 5:1-15; Psalm 90; Isaiah 65:15b-25; Revelation 21:1-6

Pray: In our 1 Kings passage, we witness Solomon’s prayer for wisdom. As you think back on 2021, how would you answer God’s question to Solomon, “Ask what I should give you.”

Do: Celebrate today, the final day of 2021!

Read More
ChristmasTamara Hill MurphyChristmastide 2021-2022
The Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living: Christmas Daybook 6
The Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living: Christmas Daybook 6

A Christmas Daybook Meditation for these 12 days of festive celebration.

Simeon with the Infant Jesus, Benjamin West - Source

Listen: Simeon’s Song, The Porter’s Gate - Spotify | YouTube | Lyrics & Score

Read: Psalm 20, 21; Psalm 23, 27 1 Kings 17:17-24; 3 John 1-15; John 4:46-54

Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Feast of Holy Innocents

Do: Bless the children in your family, community, and beyond.

Read More
ChristmasTamara Hill MurphyChristmastide 2021-2022
Holy Innocents: Christmas Daybook 5
Holy Innocents: Christmas Daybook 5

A Christmas Daybook Meditation for these 12 days of festive celebration.

Look: Children’s shoes and toys were placed in a makeshift memorial outside the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, where the remains of hundreds of Indigenous children have been discovered in unmarked graves. Dennis Owen/Reuters, Erica - Source

Listen: Lullay, Lullay (Coventry Carol), Annie Lennox - Spotify | YouTube

Read: Psalm 2, 26; Isaiah 49:13-23; Matthew 18:1-14; Psalm 19, 126; Isaiah 54:1-13; Mark 10:13-16

Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Feast of Holy Innocents

Do: Bless the children in your family, community, and beyond.

Read More
ChristmasTamara Hill MurphyChristmastide 2021-2022
His mother treasured all these things in her heart: Christmas Daybook 2
His mother treasured all these things in her heart: Christmas Daybook 2


A Christmas Daybook meditation for these twelve days of festive celebration.

Look: Pinoy Belem with Red Horse, Wayne Forte- Source

Listen: Mary’s Lullaby (Black Haired Boy), The Porter’s Gate [feat. Liz Vice] - Spotify | YouTube | Lyrics & Score

Read: 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26; Psalm 148; Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 2:41-52

Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for First Sunday after Christmas

Do: Keep giving on Boxing Day!

Read More
ChristmasTamara Hill MurphyChristmastide 2021-2022
A Child Has Been Born For Us: Christmas Daybook 1
A Child Has Been Born For Us: Christmas Daybook 1


A Christmas Daybook Meditation for these weeks of festive celebration.

Look: Adoration of the Magi Altarpiece, left hand predella panel depicting the Nativity, Gentile da Fabriano - Source

Listen: Infant Holy, Infant Lowly, The Porter’s Gate [feat.Paul Zach & Lauren Plank Goans] - Spotify | YouTube | Lyrics & Score

Read: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20

Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for Christmas Day

Do: Practice gift giving and receiving.

Read More
ChristmasTamara Hill MurphyChristmastide 2021-2022
O Emmanuel, God With Us, Come! Christmas Eve
O Emmanuel, God With Us, Come! Christmas Eve

This week we are adoring Jesus by praying the prophetic names of the O Antiphons.

Look: Holy Family, Father John Battista Giuliani - Source

Listen: Advent Song, The Porter’s Gate [feat. Jonathan Ogden] - Spotify | YouTube | Lyrics & Score

Read: Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:31-33; Isaiah 43:1-2,8-9a,10-13; 1 Timothy 3:16

Pray: Read Malcolm Guite's sonnet and then sing all seven verses of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel as today's prayer.

Do: Make space for rest and listen to the live radio broadcast of King’s College Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols today.

Read More
AdventTamara Hill MurphyAdvent Daybook 2020, O Antiphons 2020
O King of Nations, Come! Advent Daybook 25
O King of Nations, Come! Advent Daybook 25

This week we are adoring Jesus by praying the prophetic names of the O Antiphons.

Look: Journey of the Magi, James Tissot -Source

Listen: Advent Antiphons: No. 6. O Rex gentium, Queens' College Choir, Cambridge - Spotify | YouTube

Read: Jeremiah 10:6-7; Haggai 2:6-9; Isaiah 2:2-4; Ephesians 2:19-22

Pray: Read Malcolm Guite's sonnet and then sing the sixth verse of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel as today's prayer.

Do: Selah pause

Read More
AdventTamara Hill MurphyAdvent Daybook 2020, O Antiphons 2020
O Dayspring, Come! Advent Daybook 25
O Dayspring, Come! Advent Daybook 25

This week we are adoring Jesus by praying the prophetic names of the O Antiphons.

Look: Callanish on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland at sunrise a few days before the winter solstice, Dawn Louise Farrell - Source

Listen: Advent Antiphons: No. 5. O Oriens, Queens' College Choir, Cambridge - Spotify | YouTube

Read: Hebrews 1:1-3; Malachi 4:1-3; Isaiah 58:8-10; Isaiah 60:1-3,19;Luke 1:78-79

Pray: Read Malcolm Guite's sonnet and then sing the fifth verse of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel as today's prayer.

Do: Make space for healing prayer.

Read More
AdventTamara Hill MurphyAdvent Daybook 2020, O Antiphons 2020
O Key of David, Come! Advent Daybook 24
O Key of David, Come! Advent Daybook 24

This week we are adoring Jesus by praying the prophetic names of the O Antiphons.

Look: Annunciation to the Shepherds, Adam Pynacker - Source

Read: Isaiah 22:22-23; Numbers 24:17; Isaiah 9:2-7

Pray: Read Malcolm Guite's sonnet and then sing the fourth verse of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel as today's prayer.

Listen: Advent Antiphons: No. 4. O Clavis David, Queens' College Choir, Cambridge - Spotify | YouTube

Read More
AdventTamara Hill MurphyAdvent Daybook 2020, O Antiphons 2020
O Root of Jesse, Come! Advent Daybook 22
O Root of Jesse, Come! Advent Daybook 22

This week we are adoring Jesus by praying the prophetic names of the O Antiphons.

Look: Branch, Isaiah, Chapter 11. Letters cut from the Kabbalah, Meg Hitchcock- Source

Listen: Advent Antiphons: No. 3. O Radix Jesse, Queens' College Choir, Cambridge - Spotify | YouTube

Read: Isaiah 10:33 -11 :2a,11:5 -10; Isaiah 52:13-15; Habakkuk 2:3

Pray: Read Malcolm Guite's sonnet and then sing the third verse of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel as today's prayer.

Do: Create more space for God throughout your day today (and maybe the remaining days of Advent!) by eliminating an unnecessary daily habit.

Read More
AdventTamara Hill MurphyAdvent Daybook 2020, O Antiphons 2020
Reign of Mercy: Advent Daybook 22
Reign of Mercy: Advent Daybook 22


An Advent daybook for these weeks of prayerful expectation.

Look: Joyful Mystery #2: Visitation, James B. Janknegt - Source

Listen: Reign of Mercy, The Porter’s Gate [feat.Paul Zach & Lauren Plank Goans] - Spotify | YouTube | Lyrics & Score

Read: Micah 5:2-5a; Psalm 80:1-7; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-55

Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for Fourth Sunday in Advent

Do: Pray silently in a public place.

Read More
AdventTamara Hill MurphyAdvent Daybook 2021