Case XXVII: Morning and Evening Prayers

Case.—James, who confesses about once a month, repeatedly accuses himself of omitting his morning and evening prayers on at least twenty days of the month. This has gone on for about two years; for despite renewed promises, there has been no improvement. The confessor is in doubt as to whether James fulfills his obligation of prayer.

Question.—What should be the confessor’s attitude?

Solution.—There is of course an obligation to pray and to persevere in prayer. Our Lord said we should always pray and never grow weary. But how should we interpret this command of Our Saviour? There can be no doubt that for adults prayer is an essential means to salvation. Without it we cannot save our souls. The reason for this is that God has determined not to give His efficacious graces to those who do not ask for them. It is clear that people who do not ask for grace, are not much concerned about their ultimate perseverance. They are indifferent alike to God’s rights and their own eternal welfare. In this neglect is involved a breach of God’s Law commanding men to pray. For there existed under the Old Law an obligation to address God in prayer even as such an obligation exists under the New Law. How often then should we pray in order to do justice to God’s decree? While no definite determination can be given on this point, it is certain in the minds of theologians that we do our duty essentially by frequent prayer. Hence our Lord’s words as given by St. Luke are to be interpreted in this sense. It is evident then that the omission of daily morning or evening prayer is not necessarily sinful, There are many ways of praying frequently other than by our night or morning prayers.

It remains true, nevertheless, that he who constantly neglects morning and evening prayer will eventually lose the habit and spirit of prayer, and so in time will not pray frequently. By this sinful negligence he will surely jeopardize his soul’s salvation. We can safely say that while per se the omission may not be sinful, the motive behind the neglect may be. Hence confession of the omission is to be permitted. The confessor should urge the penitent to use more care in the matter of daily prayer, not on the ground of the proximate prevention of sin, but on the usual theological basis, pointing out the necessity of prayer, its usefulness and so on. He should strongly encourage his penitent to form the habit of frequent and brief ejaculatory prayers; as these consume no time and can be made anywhere and at any hour, he can hope for a good measure of success, while by this practice he is making it easier for the penitent to get back into the Christian habit of morning and evening prayer.