Morning Prayer (Part One)


You're probably already aware that the Jewish way of praying is to stop and pray seven times a day. (Muslims similarly stop and pray at certain times in the day). For centuries, Christians have also stopped to pray seven times a day, and in convents and monasteries they still do that. Obviously that's not possible for those of us who are studying or job-seeking or working! For people who aren't monks and nuns, the pattern has become a much more simplified Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer with perhaps Night Prayer (or Compline) at the end of the day.

Just like the worship in the Jerusalem Temple went on continually at these set points of the day, in the Anglican church our public and communal worship of God goes on continually with most Cathedrals keeping Morning and Evening Prayer going every day of the week. Some parish churches also maintain Morning Prayer and most priests in the Church of England commit to praying at least one, if not both, of Morning or Evening prayer every day.

Morning Prayer is quite different from the more evangelical "quiet time with God". Rather than it being a time to focus on my personal worship of God and my personal spiritual life, it's more of a communal 'priesthood of all believers' activity. The focus is on us praising God together, meditating on His love and His saving work throughout history, and praying for the world and our communities.

Morning and Evening Prayer are referred to as the Daily Office or Divine Office (meaning 'duty), because it's our duty to continually praise God and pray for the world. My understanding is that this sense of duty stems from our role as priests (in an Old Testament kind of sense). We pray Morning Prayer faithfully even when we don't feel like it. The Daily Office is for God and for the world rather than for our own spiritual benefit - although it does have the consequence of helping us get to know God (and the Bible) better and making us more outward looking...