Daily Prayer

Today's readings at Mass were all about prayer, and so was Fr. Jim's Homily. It got me to thinking about my prayer life and how hard I have found getting to grips with morning and evening prayer. I found it easy to take my prayer book with me when I went away and it was always beside the bed when I was at home and yet it was seldom opened. Not because I didn't want to pray but because I could always find something else to do. Part of the problem for me was making sure I got it right, find the right day, the right saint, marking all the pages. I managed to add 20mins of preparation to 10-15mins of prayer and this meant I normally didn't even start.

To force myself to I invited some friends at work from the Christian Union to join me for prayer before work on a Friday. Because they didn't have prayer books I printed a version from the Internet and week all prayed together. I lead the sessions and always talked through the reading just to make sure we all had all the pages. This really helped me, a bit like Moses today having his arms held up by those next to him when he lacked the strength himself.

Now with the increased use of gadgets I have found at least one knew way to organise myself. I have started using a iPhone app by Universalis. The app automatically constructs the readings into a single page based on today's date. So all I have to do is open the app. It made all the difference to me and I now find it easy to complete the office in the car park before going into work each morning and again in the evening before I plug my phone in to charge overnight.

So after 4+ years of working on the office it now something that builds me up to do the work of the Lord and not a duty I was struggling to complete. Find your own way with the office, for me it's developed into a wonderful gift, if it's not already I am sure it will be for you as well.

Some links to the sites I have mentioned above:
http://www.universalis.com/
Great online resource, and they have 2 iPhone apps one free if you have a network connection, and 1 for about £20 that gives you access to the entire breviary and also the grail translation we are used to in the black books.

http://www.ebreviary.com/
This is the site I used to share the office with people at work. For Friday morning you can download a nicely formatted PDF booklet, free of charge.