Fixed-Hour Prayer

“Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.”

PSALM 55:17 (NIV)

●  LOVE GOD

What if prayer shaped the hours of your day?

What is your most important work? We might say it’s the job we have; we might say it’s raising our kids or our family. Fixed-hour prayer is a way of scheduling regular times of prayer into our rhythm of life and work, allowing our most important work to be permeated by a rhythm of prayer.

THE RHYTHM

Morning, noon, and night

Fixed-hour prayer has roots in biblical history but was formally developed by the early church fathers, who created eight times of prayer, roughly one every few hours. For most of us, this is an unsustainable rhythm. But while that many fixed times of prayer may be beyond what we can do right now, the practice of fixed-hour prayer has immense value for all of us today.

For most, the easiest way to practice fixed-hour prayer is to have three times we pray: morning, noon, and night. We begin our day with a short prayer, we spend a portion of our lunch break in a time of prayer, and then we finish our day with a final time of prayer.

RESOURCES

Companions for the journey

The Divine Hours
Book series by Phyllis Tickle. Ready-made prayers for morning, midday, and evening.

Lectio 365
Free app from 24-7 Prayer. Guided morning and evening prayers.