Viberg Service Boot

The Boots of Common Prayer I’m an Anglican priest, and I teach at a seminary where we pray together daily in a 150-year-old chapel, using the Book of Common Prayer. These are my Boots of Common Prayer. I’ve prayed in these boots regularly for the past six months. They now bear the marks of habitual worship. Black is the priestly color, but my boots have faded like the wooden furniture of this old chapel. A heavenly glow has begun to appear on the toe and heel. The rolling of the vamp, shaft, and tongue comes from the repeated movements of prayer—standing and sitting and kneeling over and over again. Isaiah the Prophet saw a vision of God seated on a throne, high and lifted up, surrounded by seraphim, calling, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3). Each angelic creature had six wings: with two it flew; with two it hid its face; and with two it covered its feet. Over the past six months, these boots have been my seraphic wings, covering my feet as I journeyed to the throne of God. In the desert of Sinai, Moses beheld the angel of the Lord in the glorious flame of a burning bush. God called him by name, and he answered, “Here I am.” Then God said, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). I’ve heard my name called, and I’ve answered. Now it’s time to take off my boots—for the place where I’m standing is holy ground.