A Biblical Pattern of Prayer
Scripture instructs us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We are to cultivate a prayerful posture in all of life, and to call upon God as our faithful friend and Father in all times and circumstances. Most Christians, however, struggle to have a consistent and meaningful prayer life until their spontaneous prayers are rooted in some fixed habits of prayer. God’s people have always stopped at appointed hours throughout the day to praise and petition the Lord as one. The ancient habit of fixed-hour prayer, also called the daily office or divine office (from the Latin officium divinum, meaning “divine service” or “divine duty”), establishes sacred rhythms of prayer that sanctify the whole day to God and unite our voices with the communion of saints in our local church and throughout the world. Those who persist in the daily office have found it to be a transformational spiritual discipline.
In the Old Testament, Daniel observed three prayer hours, even when the king forbade it: “He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God” (Daniel 6:10). David also marked three hours of prayer, which sustained him through the difficult seasons of life: “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice” (Psalm 55:17). The Psalmist had a habit of praying many times a day: “Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules” (Psalm 119:164). By the time of Christ, the Jews offered common prayer at the third hour, around 9 AM; the sixth hour, around noon; and the ninth hour, around 3 PM. Jesus would have participated from childhood in this pattern of morning, midday, and evening prayer.
In the New Testament, the Church continued to observe the Jewish prayer hours. They were gathered for morning prayer at “the third hour of the day” when the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost (Acts 2:15). “Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray” (Acts 10:9). Peter and John healed the lame beggar on their way to the temple “at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour” (Acts 3:1). Under the law, the priests offered morning and evening sacrifices (Exodus 29:38–39; Numbers 28:2–8); under the gospel, the whole Church, a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), continually offers the sacrifice of prayer with praise and thanksgiving (Hebrews 13:15).
A Tradition of the Church
The early church followed the apostles’ example of praying the hours. In the late first or early second century, the Didache taught Christians to say the Lord’s Prayer “thrice a day,” undoubtedly at the accustomed times. Tertullian commended the “common hours” and explained, “we pray at least not less than thrice in the day, debtors as we are to three—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Hippolytus instructed Christians to pray “on rising, at the lighting of the evening lamp, at bedtime, at midnight,” as well as “the third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day, being hours associated with Christ’s Passion.”
The hours of prayer have always included appointed prayers for all God’s people to say together. Appointed prayers are not a replacement for spontaneous prayers, but they are an integral part of a robust prayer life. The Jews prayed the Shema, the Ten Commandments, and a series of petitions called the Amidah, as well as selections from the Book of Psalms—Israel’s prayer book. When Jesus told his disciples to say the Lord’s Prayer “when you pray” (Luke 11:2), his disciples would have understood him to at least mean, “When you say your morning, midday, and evening prayers, recite this.” The Christian church replaced recitation of the Shema, Israel’s Creed, with the Apostles’ Creed: “be daily saying it to yourselves; before you sleep, before you go forth, arm you with your Creed.” Christians also regularly said or sung other great prayers such as the prayers of Zechariah (Luke 1:68–79), Mary (Luke 1:46–55), and Simeon (Luke 2:29–32). To bring together the appointed prayers in one place, with a cycle of selected Psalms, the church produced beautiful prayer books. In the Anglican tradition, the Book of Common Prayer includes services for morning and evening prayer, which were intended for corporate use, but could also be prayed in private.
How to Use the Offices
The Whole Counsel of God catechism book includes the three major “offices” or prayer hours. Daily Morning Prayer (also called lauds, from the Latin for “praise”) may be observed between 6 and 9 AM (e.g., when you rise or responsively at breakfast with your family). The order for Midday Prayer may be observed between 11 AM and 2 PM (e.g., when you have a break from work or responsively at lunch with your family or Christian coworkers). Daily Evening Prayer (also called vespers, from the Latin for “evening”) may be observed between 5 and 8 PM (e.g., with your family after dinner). The Confession of Sin is separated from the morning and evening offices to be prayed at any time, as needed (e.g., directly before morning prayer). An order for bedtime prayer (also called compline, from the Latin for “complete”) is also included.