Chapter IX: Daily Exercises of Prayer. — Morning Prayer

BUT you ask me, At what time should I pray?

I answer, Begin in the morning when you first get up. Then you are beginning a new day. A great number of things will take place during that day. It may turn out very much to your soul’s advantage, or it may be quite the other way. Then it is well early in the morning to make a good start for the day. If a good thought, a holy resolution, or a pious wish gets entrance first into your soul, it will go far to keep everything right during the day, and make it a fruitful one for the love of God and virtue.

Then, as soon as you can after waking, try to think some pious thought or make some pious wish. For example: “God keep me from sin this day,” or “May I pass this day so that I shall be more secure of heaven at night!”

When you wash your face and hands, say “Wash me more and more from my sins.” When you dress, say “Clothe me with justice, with true virtues, that I may be pleasing in Thy sight.” Such practices are very good; they have a greater effect than they seem to have at the time, and prepare the soul for prayer.

When you are dressed, try to get a little time to kneel down and make a prayer to God, to recommend yourself to Him, to beg His protection for the day, to make a good intention to please God in all you do or have to suffer.

“Oh! but I have no time for this. My work is so hard and so pressing. The breakfast must be got so early; I must get off to my work in a hurry.” Well, I know this will often be the case — a poor girl will hardly have time, as they say, to turn around; but for all that, take a little time to pray. God will accept a little under such circumstances, and give as much grace as if you had spent more time, for he sees that you have trouble to give Him even that little.

Get up five minutes earlier and give Him that five minutes, and you cannot tell what a benefit it will draw down upon your soul. If you had a dear friend who was going away early in the morning, how gladly you would leave your bed half an hour earlier to bid him good-by. Why not, then, devote at least a few minutes of your sleeping time, if necessary, in order that you may talk with the Blessed Saviour, and get your heart bent and inclined to spend the whole day cheerfully and joyfully in His service.