Opening Prayer - Morning Prayer

Prayer for the week *

 
            The night has passed,
            and the day lies open before us;
            let us pray with one heart and mind.

 
            [Silence is kept]

 
            As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
            so may the light of your presence, O God,
            set our hearts on fire with love for you;
            now and for ever.  Amen.

                     Opening Prayer for Morning Prayer - Common Worship Daily Prayer

A New Year and a new start.  Well, that’s the often repeated mantra, but we know deep down that if this kind of resolve is going to have staying power it will need to be refreshed every day.  What we need is a spiritually refreshing prayer to shape us and this is such a prayer.  It is part of the preparation for Morning Prayer in Common Worship Daily Prayer.  It first came into the Anglican liturgy through Celebrating Common Prayer, the version of the Franciscan Daily Office released for public consumption in 1992.  It acts like the Collect at the Eucharist, collecting together our hearts and thoughts that we may focus more fully on the presence of God with us.

There are four elements to it - all of which are important: a bidding, silence, prayer and the congregational Amen.

The bidding may seem obvious, the night has passed, but the obvious sometimes needs stating.  If we have been tormented in the silent hours, if we wish we could return to our bed for just a few more moments, if last night brought dreams that would entice us, reality must dawn.  Like the New Year, the day lies open and therefore full of promise and fresh possibilities.  United with our brothers and sisters in faith across the world - particularly reassuring if this prayer is being said alone - it is time to pray.

The silence is an important part of the prayer.  Here is space to focus on God.  Here is space to be open to the one who gives us the gift of the new day that follows.  Here we pause before the busyness of the day overtakes us.  The answer machine may already be clocking up the calls.  The post may be piling up on the mat.  The emails will be waiting - spam, enquiries, the obtuse, the annoying and the blessing.  Time to be still and know that in the silence all is God.

Time then to return to words and in them rejoice in the gift of the new day.  Every morning is a reminder of Easter new life.  Every day can begin with a reminder of baptism in the shower.  Every day can be commenced with the richness of God’s bounty in a welcome mug of coffee or tea, weetabix and toast.  Breakfast is the best meal of the day and this prayer is spiritual breakfast.

But time also for a bit of honesty.  I am a bit Jekyll-and-Hyde-like, particularly first thing.  I have a deep faith and trust in God.  Then, from this dizzy height, I look down.  Everything becomes frightening and I fear.  A gloomy outlook starts to cloud in.  The Church of England is under such severe threat from so many pressures - some self inflicted.  If Dr Jekyll is not going to be overwhelmed by these Mr Hydes, we need the light of God’s presence to be refreshed within us every day - once a year isn’t enough.  We can’t face the day until we have had our spiritual nourishing in this presence.

Once we have been refuelled by the light of God we are set on fire with the love that breathes life and hope.  Passion for the good news of God’s kingdom is kindled and we are ready for all the day can bring - even spammed emails and yet another questionnaire from some obscure group, and all the other tasks that without that fire of love mean we lose our purpose.

The prayer ends with Amen.  When said together it is the corporate assent.  When said on our own it is the affirmation of the final consummation of all things.  God’s will be done.  The spiritual blood sugar has been restored.

© Ian Black 2007

* An edited version of this reflection was published in the Prayer for the Week column in the Church Times on 5^th January 2007