As mentioned in the Morning Prayer Part 1 post, my daily morning prayer begins with offering my day to God in a Morning Offering, a daily prayer of self-offering, either using my own words or those of one of the offerings provided on the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. My favorite one is:
“God, our Father, I offer You my day. I offer You my prayers, thoughts, words, actions, joys and sufferings in union with Your Son Jesus’ Heart, who continues to offer Himself in the Eucharist for the salvation of the world. May the Holy Spirit, Who guided Jesus, be my guide and my strength today so that I may witness to Your love.”
DIVINE OFFICE: LAUDS
The next and final piece of my morning prayer is the Divine Office. It is the official daily prayer of the Church, prayed “in common” (as a community) by priests, religious and laity throughout the ages and still prayed by them today. I always found this form of prayer difficult but have grown to appreciate its richness. When praying in a group the individuals need an agreed upon prayer and this, like the prayers of the Mass, contains the words we agree to use. The group then sets the pace and prays aloud. But when prayed in private, as I do in my current morning prayer, I let the words speak to my heart and I frequently pause, letting the words sink in and letting my heart speak to God, often without words and in silence letting God speak to me.
The Divine Office used at the beginning of the day is Lauds. It changes daily. See Universalis. It begins with a hymn. Often my prayer time ends before I finish Lauds because of my frequent stops, as in the Morning Offering, to ponder words. This is the opening Lauds hymn on the day I am writing this post. Try praying it, stopping when the words speak to your heart.
| Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal |
May your day be spent in an awareness of the presence of God.
Sister Loretta Fernandez RSM
