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Summary
- To pray in the morning, thank God for the night, give him the day ahead and ask for his help; the Lord’s Prayer is enough on its own.
- The psalmist prayed at the start of the day, “in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (Psalm 5:3), and Jesus rose “a great while before day” to pray (Mark 1:35).
- No morning prayer is more powerful than another; Jesus warned against thinking people are heard “for their much speaking” (Matthew 6:7).
- Martin Luther’s morning blessing, from his Small Catechism of 1529, begins with the sign of the cross, the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer; a short prayer of thanks for the night may follow.
- St Seraphim of Sarov gave lay people a short rule: the Lord’s Prayer three times, the greeting to Mary three times and the Creed once.
- Twelve longer prayers cover thanks and praise on waking, the day ahead, and the people you will meet.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture in the King James Version (public domain), from BibleGateway: Psalm 5:3; Mark 1:35; Lamentations 3:22-23; Psalm 143:8; Matthew 6:11; Matthew 6:7. Passage referred to: Galatians 5:22-23.
- Martin Luther, The Small Catechism (1529), Appendix I, Morning Prayer, in the English of Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), p. 557, from BookOfConcord.org; checked against the 1921 scan at the Internet Archive, whose historical introduction dates the Small Catechism to 1529.
- Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, “Luthers Morgen- und Abendsegen”.
- Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, Los Angeles, “Uncovering of the Relics of the Monk Seraphim, Wonderworker of Sarov”, Lives of the Saints, 19 July.
- Azbuka very, “The prayer rule of St Seraphim of Sarov”, Orthodox prayer book (in Russian).
- Orthodox Church in America, “Evening Prayers”, prayer to the Virgin Theotokos.
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