Matins: Pray without Ceasing

Matins are "morning prayers." In hopes of encouraging more "daily prayers," here are a Scripture, a meditation on it, and a prayer.


"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

One thing I can know for sure: It is God's will for me to "pray without ceasing." In the very least that means praying daily. Christ taught His disciples to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," and to pray as often as they had sinned--which for me, at least, is daily as well. If you are not praying daily, you can be assured you are not following God's will. And who wants to be living a life contrary to God's will?

The good thing about daily things--whether prayers or hugs or meals or baths--is that their daily-ness gets them done. We all know we should be praying. We all know we have a lot to pray about. We all should know that a life lived apart from trusting God through prayer is a life doomed to failure, that a prayerless life is a faithless life. Yet all too often prayer is passed by or squeezed out by "more important" things.

Indeed prayer should be as daily as our daily bread. If life cannot be lived for long without food for our bodies, how much more certain is the death creeping over our souls and lives when we let our prayers lapse.

Pray without ceasing. Pray daily.


"Great God in heaven above, I pray that I would pray without ceasing. Hear my prayer, O God, and grant that I would have both the desire and the will to do Your will every day, to pray every day. Help me to pray as Christ has taught us, to pray daily for the bread that keeps me alive, knowing my every breath depends on Your every-moment grace. Teach me how to pray, to desire to pray, to pray persistently, fervently, devotedly, daily. So I pray, dear God, through Christ our Lord. Amen."