UPWARD DISCIPLINE
FIXED HOUR PRAYER
DESIRE
to stop my work and pray throughout the day
DEFINITION
Fixed-hour prayers call for regular and consistent patterns of attending to God throughout the day.
SCRIPTURE
“One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer— at three in the afternoon.” (Acts 3: 1)
“Seven times a day I praise you.” (Psalm 119:164)
“About noon the following day, . . . Peter went up on the roof to pray.” (Acts 10: 9)
PRACTICE INCLUDES
- interrupting work at set times for prayer
- following the prayers in the Liturgy of the Hours
- following a personal liturgy for prayer at set hours of the day
- stopping at the top of every hour for prayer
GOD-GIVEN FRUIT
- keeping company with Jesus throughout the hours of the day
- turning the heart and mind to God at specific hours of the day and night
- growing detached from the all absorbing compulsiveness of work
- integrating being and doing in your daily life
- developing the ability to hear a word from God in the
midst of daily activities
- joining the timeless prayer rhythms of the church throughout the ages
RESOURCES
Receiving the Day by Dorothy C. Bass
The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle
Spiritual Disciplines / Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
“It is a paradox of human life that in worship, as in human love, it is in the routine and the everyday that we find the possibilities for the greatest transformation.”