daily prayer

Gathered together on this page are several beautiful and uplifting prayers for saying in your daily devotional times with the Lord. Here you can discover prayers to read as you rise in the morning, prayers before work, graces for meal times, and in the evening, prayers which reflect on the day and prepare us for sleep. There is also the famous "Day by Day" prayer by St Richard, Bishop of Chichester, and a look at how you can write your own daily prayers using the "ACTS" model of prayer.

An Early Morning Prayer with Sunrise in the picture

morning prayer

To read more uplifting prayers for the morning on our website, click here for prayers for the dawn (for the early risers!) and follow this link for some inspiring daily morning prayers.

A morning prayer for work with sunrise over trees in the foreground

prayer before work

Read more prayers for committing your working day to the Lord on this page of our website.

Grace Before Meals Prayer

Lord, thank you for this day,
For work and play, family and friendship.
Thank you for this food, may you bless it to our bodies.
In Jesus name,

Amen.

daily meal prayers

Pausing for a moment before we eat is a good time in the day to remind ourselves of God's goodness and generosity. In doing this we model Christ's attitude to eating - for he stopped for a moment to give thanks for the bread before passing it around at the last supper (Luke 22:19). Click here for more short prayers and graces.

a night time prayer poem with sunset in background

afternoon and evening prayers

Read more inspiring afternoon and night time prayers. Some of these are short thanksgivings for day, others offer petitions to God for the night ahead - for his safe-keeping, care and protection.

Prayer of St Richard

(a daily prayer)

Thanks be to you, our Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits which you have given us,
for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us.

Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother,
may we know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
day by day.

Amen.

The "Day by Day" Prayer

The prayer of St Richard, Bishop of Chichester (1244-1253). An uplifting reading of this prayer made famous by the hit musical "Godspell"

"Each morning you listen to my prayer,
as I bring my requests to you
and wait for your reply"

(Psalm 5:3, CEV)

The importance of daily prayer

American speaker, writer and sociologist Tony Campolo observers that we must seek daily renewal in God, otherwise we are likely to "burn out". He notes the words of the old testament prophet Isaiah, which begin by meditating on God ("those who hope in the Lord"). Here is where our strength is found. According to Isaiah, what follows is a gradual progression of events which require less and less agility - soaring, running and finally walking. Hence meeting with God in the morning is incredibly important, for this fuels our walk with Him for the rest of the day. Listen to his thoughts on this here on Youtube.

how to pray daily

the ACTS model of prayer

The ACTS model of prayer is a very simple approach to learning how to pray. It stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. If you would like to find out more about what these words mean, then take a look at this page. Here there is also a sample prayer to get you started!

going deeper

This section of the website also has two pages which explore different elements of prayer. Christians often speak of the importance of "wearing" the full armor of God (written about by the apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians) and this page offers a prayer were we consciously become aware of these different elements that Paul refers to. Finally, you may also like to read and meditate on some popular and beautiful prayers from the Christian heritage, such as the "Serenity Prayer" and prayers from the Celtic era.