Day and Night

Here is a short sentence that conveys the urging of nearly every religious tradition: “Pray.” Human beings—perceiving the reality of God, and desiring a connection to God—reach out to God in prayer. The first-century Jewish Benjamite and zealous Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, switched gears. Saul became Paul, Apostle, to the Gentiles for Jesus, and coached his early communities of faith. To Christians in Thessalonica, he wrote, “Always be joyful; pray continually; give thanks whatever happens; for this is what God wills for you in Christ Jesus.” Traditional Jewish practice has three formal times of prayer: Shacharit (morning), Mincha (afternoon), and Arvit (evening). So, there is a common emphasis to adhere to a regular structure of prayer at appointed times. There is also an emphasis, in the Christian faith, that one should strive to pray always.

In the development of Benedictine monastic tradition beginning in the sixth century we learn of a sevenfold office of prayer, stemming perhaps from the influence of Psalm 119:164, “Seven times a day do I praise you. * because of your righteous judgments.” This, the monks upheld in practice. However, we read in the Rule of St. Benedict of eight periods of prayer with Latin names: Matins or Vigils, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. Sixteenth Century English reformer and Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, set about creating a prayer book for all, even folks who weren’t in monasteries. And wasn’t it merciful of Cranmer to condense the prayer hours into two regular offices, Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer? It gives an achievable rhythm for folks working in the world. He wanted liturgy in the language of the people and the pattern of prayer to fit realistically with the lives of the people.

The eighth chapter of Luke preserves a parable about a woman persistently petitioning an uncaring judge about her case. I am interested in pondering the opening and concluding phrases of Jesus that bracket his parable:

Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. … And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"  (Luke 8:1, 7-8)

So, two declarations emerge: 1. pray always and do not lose heart, and 2. God will grant justice to his chosen ones. From all of the influences above we see that prayer is a way of life, more than a means to a limited, specific, human end. More than getting us what we want in our limited awareness, prayer makes us different creatures. It forms us. In a letter to St. Augustine of Hippo, he speaks on the topic provocatively. He addresses the verses from Philippians 4:6-7— "Do not be anxious, but in everything make your requests known to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Then the peace of God which is beyond all understanding will guard your heart and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” Augustine offers this insight:

Therefore, when the Apostle says: “Let your petitions become known before God,” this should not be taken in the sense that they are in fact becoming known to God who certainly knew them even before they were made, but that they are becoming known to us before God through submission and not before human beings through boasting.

He goes on to say it is not wrong or useless to pray even for a long time when there is an opportunity. When it does not keep us from performing the other good and necessary actions we are obliged to do, prayer is a good thing to do. Benedict would later teach that the actions of work are a kind of prayer, and that prayer is a kind of work: Ora et labora. Augustine, again in the Letter to Proba quoted above, further points to Jesus as our model, since we know that he spent the night in prayer and he prayed at great length. “Was he not giving us an example by this? In time, he prays when it is appropriate; and in eternity, he hears our prayers with the Father.”

Let us lift again the word of Jesus in the opening line of Luke 8, and then let us mold our lives accordingly… “pray always and not to lose heart.”