Godspace

Prayer roots you for the day

The primary role of a priest is to administer the sacraments. That and pray. Prayer should be an ingrained and constant thing within your life. Whilst exploring my vocation one of the things I have found most difficult to do initially was find time for prayer, yet I know at theological college and throughout curacy it will be at the very least a twice daily event. With this in mind I thought I’d discuss some of the methods I have found that help. 

Panoramic picture of my godspace on Morecambe prom, taken this morning

First things first, you need an area for yourself where you can pray, or just be with God in quiet contemplation, a Godspace if you will. This could be a specific chair in your living room, your bed, an area you’ve set up in a spare room or even a place you go on a morning walk. For myself I do the last one. I’m blessed to live right next to Morecambe promenade and there is a small jetty with a bench on it right out into Morecambe bay so I go sit there to think and pray of a morning (see the panoramic view above.)  In the evening  or at night I tend to pray when I am comfortable in bed, just before sleep. 

My tools for worship on my phone

I don't just randomly pray either,  I like to use the pre-assigned text for the day to do my prayers. I am quite a devout technophile so if I can find a way to do something through my phone I shall!  There are a few apps out there that provide this.  The free ones I know of are Daily Prayer by the CofE and iBreviary. The former brings you the text directly from the book of common prayer for morning, evening and compline. The latter is similar, though from a more Catholic standpoint.  Both of these require you to have signal or to have pre-downloaded the texts for the day in order to use them, though they have paid methods to receive the entire library and additional features.  

I tend not to use either of these as I find the BCP to be a tad too verbose and I dislike the layout of iBreviary. 

There's nothing wrong with the old fashioned way either! 

As I like the psalms I use a service called Universalis. It is very much in the Catholic stance so won’t be to everyone’s taste but it has a website where you can view all that day’s prayers for free or for a tenner you can access it on your phone through the app without requiring an Internet connection. It tells you the days readings and services as well as some background into important events from the churches history and people (usually saints) from that day. 

I go to my bench on the prom and I read the days office of readings followed by morning prayer (if it's cold or wet I'll do it indoors or will only do the morning prayer) and find it sets me up well for the day. Then in the evening or at night I read the evening prayer or compline depending on the time to see the day out. I don’t always find the time to do this every day and when I don’t I just ensure I find time to pray in some other way.   For instance whilst stuck in traffic in the way into work I’ll pray for God’s guidance for the day to come, or on the way home will thank him for the day that’s gone by.