Prayer routine

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My best friend and I have long been steadfast in prayer. Prayer is important to us. Now that we are Catholic, we have begun to alter our prayer routine. We are looking for suggestions on improving our prayer life, specifically recommendations of prayers.

Our morning prayers are as follows: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (of course. ) The Apostles Creed, glory be, our Father, Fatima prayer, then three hail Mary in English. I then say one Hail Mary in Latin, he has trouble with Latin. We then both end in Latin, “In nomine patris, et fili, et spiritus sancti, a-men.” Anything you would add or change? Today we also said the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi, and we might include that one in our morning routine.

We don’t have a bedtime routine, and we would like something which includes prayers of intercession for Pope Francis, our Bishop, the parish priests in our parish (we have three, as it is also an active Franciscan friary?) and intercession for all the people who give us prayer requests. Any suggestions?

Anything for afternoon prayers on days when I can’t say the whole rosary? I love the rosary!

Thank you for your (name removed by moderator)ut.
 
It’s fine that you came up with a prayer routine, but you needn’t have bothered. The Church already has one–The Divine Office/Liturgy of the Hours. It takes you through the Church seasons. It includes prayers, Psalms, and a reading for every hour of the day. Most lay people pray Morning and Evening Prayer and perhaps Night Prayer. I’ve made it my daily prayer and have found it sustaining, inspiring and an anchor for my private prayer life. You may add your own intentions after the intercessions and before the Our Father. 🙂
 
If you do decide to do the Liturgy of the Hours (LoTH), the easiest Hour to begin with is Night Prayer. I usually pray the Rosary before I go to bed and end my day with Night Prayer.

Most of the Hours take less than twenty minutes to recite, and Catholic Book Publishing offers a little book that is just Night Prayer:

catholicbookpublishing.com/products/109
 
newcalling said:
My best friend and I have long been steadfast in prayer. Prayer is important to us. Now that we are Catholic, we have begun to alter our prayer routine. We are looking for suggestions on improving our prayer life, specifically recommendations of prayers.

Our morning prayers are as follows: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (of course. ) The Apostles Creed, glory be, our Father, Fatima prayer, then three hail Mary in English. I then say one Hail Mary in Latin, he has trouble with Latin. We then both end in Latin, “In nomine patris, et fili, et spiritus sancti, a-men.” Anything you would add or change? Today we also said the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi, and we might include that one in our morning routine.

We don’t have a bedtime routine, and we would like something which includes prayers of intercession for Pope Francis, our Bishop, the parish priests in our parish (we have three, as it is also an active Franciscan friary?) and intercession for all the people who give us prayer requests. Any suggestions?

Anything for afternoon prayers on days when I can’t say the whole rosary? I love the rosary!

Thank you for your (name removed by moderator)ut.
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For the afternoons when you can’t pray a full rosary, you could pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet (at 3pm, if you can!). It’s found here: thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/praythechaplet.php

You can add prayers on to the end of the rosary for the Pope, the Bishop, and all your priests (usually it’s an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be just before you close the rosary with the sign of the cross). Also, if you’re looking for more prayers, I love the Anima Christi.

And my favorite part of the day is 30 minutes of mental prayer based on Lectio Divina. It’s a 30 minute period of meditation on a particular Bible passage and figuring out what God might be trying to teach me at that moment through the passage.
 
If you do decide to pray the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) as many suggested,
you can also go online here:universalis.com/
It is easy and straightforward to use.
 
If you want a book version of the Divine Office intended for lay people you can buy one or both of these: Christian Prayer and Shorter Christian Prayer. As you can guess CP has more in it that SCP. I recommended both, actually, because SCP is simplier to use in Ordinary Time.
 
As others have said, the Church already has the Liturgy of the Hours (LOTH) to honor the hours of the day and to fulfill St. Paul’s admonition to “pray unceasingly.”
Like physical exercise, let your prayer life develop naturally and slowly over time.
Like the LOTH, prayed by religious communities and recommended to the laity, many prayers have traditional times at which they are prayed. Don’t become too scrupulous about the time. It’s more important that you are praying. I don’t know Latin and always pray in English.
The Angelus, prayed at 6am, noon, and 6pm originated during the Crusades in France as a prayer for peace and tranquility in that country.
3pm is the hour of Divine Mercy. Many people combine praying the rosary and praying the chaplet of Divine Mercy. Of course the rosary can be prayed any time of the day.

The rosary began as a prayer of the people in response to the monks in the monasteries praying the psalms in the LOTH.
I now have a full set of the LOTH so that I have the non-Biblical daily readings at hand for the Office of Readings (Matins). It is how I begin my day. I combine the Office of Readings with Morning Prayer.

Just as Morning Prayer (Lauds) is traditionally prayed at 6am, Evening Prayer (Vespers) is traditionally prayed at pm. These are the main 2 hours of LOTH, called gateway hours. They are the 2 hours included in Shorter Christian Prayer, which is small enough to carry in a backpack or keep in a car’s glove compartment. There are also minor hours to complete the day (mid-morning, noon,mid-afternoon). Compline is the final hour of the day.

The Catholic Church has many traditional devotions that you may add along your journey. After Morning prayer, for example, I pray the Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

You have already made a good start.
 
Della said:
It’s fine that you came up with a prayer routine, but you needn’t have bothered. The Church already has one–The Divine Office/Liturgy of the Hours. It takes you through the Church seasons. It includes prayers, Psalms, and a reading for every hour of the day. Most lay people pray Morning and Evening Prayer and perhaps Night Prayer. I’ve made it my daily prayer and have found it sustaining, inspiring and an anchor for my private prayer life. You may add your own intentions after the intercessions and before the Our Father. 🙂
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^^^This pretty much says it all.

I too have made it a part of my life. It’s been so for the past 12 years, more intensely in the past 7 or 8 or so. As an oblate I’m obliged to pray at least a part of it but I’m so attached to it, I pray it all including, during the weekdays, the complementary psalter at Terce and None. I do try to respect the verity of the hours, but of course some flexibility is required for lay use as our lives are not as regimented as in a monastery. I typically start with the Office of Readings at 6 am except on Sundays when I combine the Office of Readings with Lauds at 7:30 am.
 
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