Category: Prayer

The canonical hours are the times of day that monks, nuns, and some hermits stop what they are doing to pray.

This is based on the Bible passage which says, “Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous ordinances” (Ps. 119:164). St. Benedict of Nursia added an eighth.

The eight canonical hours are the following:

1. Matins or Night Prayer (at or after midnight)
2. Lauds or Morning Prayer (at or before sunrise)
3. Prime or Early Morning Prayer (around 6 a.m.)
4. Terce or Mid-Morning Prayer (around 9 a.m.)
5. Sext or Midday Prayer (around noon)
6. None or Mid-Afternoon Prayer (around 3 p.m.)
7. Vespers or Evening Prayer (around 6 p.m.)
8. Compline or Bedtime Prayer (around 9 p.m.)

Hermits can observe these, but they don’t have to. In fact, I do not, because I work full-time. I observe morning prayer and bedtime prayer. I don’t recommend much more if you are working full-time. If you can, I would add Midday Prayer.

The thought of God, the thought of Thee,
Who liest in my heart,
And yet beyond imagined space
Outstretched and present art,

The thought of Thee, above, below,
Around me and within,
Is more to me than health and wealth,
Or love of kith and kin.

The thought of God is like the tree
Beneath whose shade I lie,
And watch the fleets of snowy clouds
Sail o’er the silent sky.

’Tis like that soft invading light,
Which in all darkness shines,
The thread that through life’s sombre web
In golden pattern twines.

It is a thought which ever makes
Life’s sweetest smiles from tears,
And is a daybreak to our hopes,
A sunset to our fears;

One while it bids the tears to flow,
Then wipes them from the eyes,
Most often fills our souls with joy,
And always sanctifies.

Within a thought so great, our souls
Little and modest grow,
And, by its vastness awed, we learn
The art of walking slow.

The wild flower on the messy ground
Scarce bends its pliant form,
When overhead the autumnal wood
Is thundering like a storm.

So is it with our humbled souls
Down in the thought of God,
Scarce conscious in their sober peace
Of the wild storms abroad.

To think of Thee is almost prayer,
And is outspoken praise;
And pain can even passive thoughts
To actual worship raise.

O Lord! I live always in pain,
My life’s sad undersong,
Pain in itself not hard to bear,
But hard to bear so long.

Little sometimes weighs more than much,
When it has no relief;
A joyless life is worse to bear
Than one of active grief.

And yet, O Lord! a suffering life
One grand ascent may dare;
Penance, not self-imposed, can make
The whole of life a prayer.

All murmurs lie inside Thy Will
Which are to Thee addressed;
To suffer for Thee is our work,
To think of Thee our rest.

_____
By Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863)

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

Scriptural Basis

Many people do not realize that this request for Mary to pray for us is mostly derived directly from Scripture. The bulk comes from two verses in the Gospel of Luke.

The angel Gabriel… came to her [Mary] and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:27-28 RSVCE).

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:41-42 RSVCE).

Mother of God

I don’t think anybody would have a problem with Mary being called holy. But I suspect that my Protestant brothers and sisters will take issue with the phrase “mother of God.” Yet Jesus was “God” (John 1:1, 14), and Mary was His “mother.” Therefore, Mary is the mother of God.

Mary’s divine motherhood, according to the early church, refers only to the human begetting of the Son of God, not to his divine birth. Calling Mary the mother of God, or Theotokos in Greek, became more widespread during the third century. Church father Origen, in about 254 A.D., was the first on record to apply this title to Mary. It was proclaimed as a dogma of the Church at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D.

Heavenly Intercession

Another problem for Protestants may be the “pray for us” part. But when the Bible says “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,” it is talking about the saints in heaven (Heb. 12:1). If they can watch us and hear us, they can also pray for us (Rev. 5:8). For “He is God not of the dead but of the living” (Matt. 22:32).

So you are simply asking Mary to “pray for” you. You are not praying to Mary as if she was the source of grace, but as an intercessor. Just like you ask people at church to pray for you. If you don’t want to ask for her prayers, don’t. You can always go directly to God.

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone” (1 Tim. 2:1).

When you are asked to pray for someone, how often do you wonder what to say? If you are asked to lead in prayer, it can be stressful.

The usual guidance is to just follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. This usually ends up with us saying whatever comes to mind. We are often at a loss for words.

Let me help you get a grip on prayer. By that, I mean that you will pray for five things for the person. To help you remember them, we will visualize them on the fingers of our hand.

The thumb will stand for the word HELP. This is a catch-all word. If you know what the person is struggling with, we ask God to help them in the situation.

The index finger will stand for the word SAVE. That, after all, was the whole point of Jesus coming and dying on the cross. If they are a Christian, we can pray that God saves them, or work out their salvation, or preserve them in eternal life.

The middle finger will stand for the word HEAL. It reaches the longest into our physical and emotional life. We can pray for healing for the body and the heart.

The ring finger will stand for the word GUIDE. We are married to Christ as Lord and Teacher. We should pray for his guidance and instructions.

The pinky finger will stand for the word PROTECT. It is a small detail that we often forget. We are weak, but God is strong. We should pray for protection by God and his angels.

So the five words are:

HELP,
SAVE,
HEAL,
GUIDE, and
PROTECT.

Just remember these five words. When you pray, follow this order, don’t mix them up.: help, then save, then heal, then guide, and end with protect.

Here is an example of how to put these five words into a prayer. It is a prayer for you.

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would HELP the reader understand and apply this lesson. That you would SAVE them from sin and confusion. If they are sick, I pray for their HEALing and health. Lord, I pray that you would GUIDE them into the truth and PROTECT them from all the snares of the enemy. I ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” ( 1 John 5:14-15 NKJV).

Prayer is usually thought of as a petition addressed to God asking for his help and intervention. Oxford English Dictionary defines a petition as “an appeal or request, especially a solemn or humble one to a deity or a superior.” Yet, how many Christians will tell you that they pray and pray and yet nothing happens. Why is that?

In the above passage, we see that the key to answered prayer is to ask according to God’s will. Usually our problem is not knowing God’s will in the matter. In that case, our first step is for wisdom into God’s will (James 1:5). And even when we receive that answers to our prayers, they usually don’t get answered they way we expected. Pray for patience, and you will quickly learn what I mean.

But prayer is not just asking God for things. In fact, it is a small part of what prayer is. When I think of prayer, I usually don’t think of it asking. Rather, prayer is more like a sharing together. Yes, a dialog, but more than that. It is more of a listening, a silence, a flow. It is an openness. I do not pray to God to bend his will to mine. As C. S. Lewis wisely noted, “Prayer doesn’t change God, it changes me.” I don’t believe prayer changes God, rather I believe it changes us. Or it should, anyway.

There are four kinds of prayer, beyond petition, that are useful. They are affirmations, thanksgiving, adoration, and confession. Each one of these changes us, but in different ways. Let’s look at each briefly.

First, prayer is affirmation. Affirmations are short phrases that are repeated in order to change the way we think and feel about ourselves. It is about replacing prideful self-talk with humble self-talk. It is not about positive thinking, but realistic thinking.

Second, prayer is thanksgiving. Gratitude is an important quality for any spiritual seeker. We can express this gratitude towards God, and towards beings that brought us benefit. “Bless us, O Lord, and these, Your gifts, which we are about to receive from Your bountiful goodness, through Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

Third, prayer is adoration. Worshiping God is about dying to self. The key to union with God is to empty yourself of I, me, and mine. God must increase, but I must decrease. There can be no selfish desire once there is no self left.

Fourth, prayer is confession. Confession is good for the soul. Confessing our selfish thoughts, words, and deeds helps break the habit of lying to ourselves. We are sinners. We fail and fall short of perfection. We need to own up to our mistakes, and confession is one way to do this. We don’t just need God’s forgiveness, we need to forgive ourselves and stop holding it against ourselves.

In all four cases, prayer does not change God, it changes us. God does not need our prayers, we need our prayers. Prayer opens us to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is a means for spiritual transformation.