Program / Course 3: The Rule of Life / Lesson 2.1
What you will learn
- Identify the biblical roots of praying at set times of the day.
- Describe Jewish daily prayer in the time of Jesus and in later rabbinic practice.
- Trace fixed-hour prayer in the New Testament and the early church.
- Explain why the church kept the pattern and what the hours mean.
The big idea
Praying at fixed times of day is older than Christianity. The Old Testament records morning and evening sacrifices, a psalmist who praises God seven times a day, and Daniel who prays three times daily. Jews of Jesus’ day kept set prayer, and the apostles are seen going to the temple at the hour of prayer. Early Christians continued the pattern, linking the hours to the life of Christ. The practice rests on one simple idea: the whole day belongs to God.
Key terms
- Hour of prayer
- A fixed time of day set aside for prayer, such as morning, midday or evening.
- Shema
- The Jewish confession beginning Hear, O Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4), said morning and evening.
- Amidah
- The central Jewish prayer, said standing, three times a day in later rabbinic practice. The word means standing.
- Didache
- A short early Christian manual, probably from the first or second century, which tells believers to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.
- Third, sixth and ninth hour
- In ancient reckoning, the day began at sunrise. The third hour was about mid-morning, the sixth about noon and the ninth about mid-afternoon.
- Canonical hours
- The fixed prayer times of the church’s daily cycle.
Background
Scripture does not give one rule for prayer times, but it shows a pattern. The law required a lamb to be offered every morning and every evening in the tabernacle and later the temple (Exodus 29:38-42). The psalms speak of prayer in the morning, in the evening and at noon (Psalm 55:17), of praise seven times a day (Psalm 119:164) and of rising at midnight (Psalm 119:62). Daniel, living in Babylon, knelt three times a day and prayed toward Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10). These texts are not all instructions, but they show habits that devout Jews kept.
By the time of Jesus, morning and evening prayer were established in Jewish life. Later rabbinic sources describe the Shema said morning and evening, and the Amidah said three times daily, matching the hours of the temple offerings. The rabbis themselves discussed whether the three prayers go back to the patriarchs or to the temple sacrifices, and they gave both accounts. The exact practice in the first century is not fully known, and scholars debate how much of the later pattern was already in place.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Jesus and the apostles
The Gospels show Jesus praying at dawn (Mark 1:35), in the evening (Mark 6:46) and at night (Luke 6:12). He taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2), and he attended the synagogue on the sabbath. The Gospels do not say that he followed a written timetable, but he lived within the Jewish rhythm of the day.
The Book of Acts shows the first Christians going on with Jewish hours. Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour (Acts 3:1). Peter prayed on a housetop about the sixth hour (Acts 10:9). The believers gathered at the third hour on Pentecost (Acts 2:15), and Paul and Silas prayed and sang at midnight in prison (Acts 16:25). The early church was thus a community that prayed at set times.
Step 2: The early Christian writers
The Didache tells Christians to say the Lord’s Prayer three times a day. Later writers, including Tertullian in Carthage and Cyprian, also in Carthage, refer to prayer at the third, sixth and ninth hours, and to prayer at dawn and evening. They connect these times with events in Scripture: the Spirit descending at the third hour, Peter’s vision at the sixth and Christ’s death at the ninth.
Some writers added prayer at night. The point of these lists is not a legal duty. The writers present the hours as an opportunity to lift the mind to God at set points in the day. The details differ by place, and scholars distinguish between the prayer of ordinary believers, the prayer of bishops and clergy in a city church, and the prayer of ascetics, which grew longer.
Step 3: What the hours mean
The hours are tied to sunrise and sunset. Morning prayer greets the light and recalls the resurrection. Evening prayer thanks God for the day and asks protection for the night. Midday prayer remembers the cross and Peter’s vision. Night prayer recalls the watch that Jesus urged on his disciples (Mark 13:35).
These meanings are traditional and not found in one place in the Bible. They show how the church read time through the life of Christ. Orthodox and Catholic writers draw heavily on them. Protestant writers have been more cautious about fixing meanings but often keep morning and evening prayer.
Step 4: Why the church kept the pattern
Three reasons are given. First, set times prevent prayer from depending on mood. Second, they make prayer shared, since others are praying at the same hour. Third, they answer Paul’s call to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) by dividing the day into small sanctified portions. The tradition does not say that praying only at these times satisfies the command, but that the hours train a person for a continuing awareness of God.
A caution is needed. Jesus warns against prayer done to be seen (Matthew 6:5), and Paul warns against observing days and times as a mark of status (Galatians 4:10). Fixed hours serve prayer. They do not replace the heart.
- At what times of day am I most easily distracted or tired, and what might a short prayer do there?
- What do the morning and the evening mean to me?
- Which of the biblical examples, Daniel, the psalmist or the apostles, is closest to my own situation?
- Do I trust prayer more when it is spontaneous or when it is scheduled, and why?
- How might others share my hour of prayer, even if I am alone?
- What would it mean to pray as a way of sanctifying time and not just as a request?
Examples
Daniel’s three times
Daniel prayed three times a day with his windows open toward Jerusalem even when it became illegal. His habit was set and visible enough that his enemies knew where to find him. The story does not command the practice but shows its depth.
A modern three-hour pattern
A clerk says the Lord’s Prayer when she wakes, at her lunch break and before bed, as the Didache recommends. The whole practice takes about two minutes. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
The Jewish view
Jewish tradition holds that fixed daily prayer is a commandment of the rabbis, linked to the daily temple offerings or to the patriarchs. The three daily services are morning, afternoon and evening. Christian fixed-hour prayer is in many ways a development of this pattern.
The Catholic view
Catholics regard the Liturgy of the Hours as the prayer of the whole church, based on this long practice, and encourage lay people to join in morning and evening prayer at least.
The Orthodox view
Orthodox Christians view the daily cycle of prayer as a continuation of apostolic practice, sanctifying the hours of the day and night, with the day beginning at sunset as in Jewish reckoning.
The Protestant view
Protestants generally hold that no particular hours are commanded in the New Testament. Many value morning and evening prayer for households, and some, including Anglicans and Lutherans, keep a formal daily office. Others stress freedom to pray at any time.
The scholarly view
Historians such as liturgical scholars distinguish between the cathedral office of city churches, which was brief and public, and the monastic office, which was long and made of many psalms. They debate how early each developed and how far they mixed.
Why it matters
The practice of fixed hours is common to Jews and to Christians of every tradition, though kept in different strengths. Knowing its roots shows that praying at a set time is not a monastic invention but the habit of the people of the Bible. For a beginner, it also answers the question where to start: with the oldest times, morning and evening.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The New Testament commands specific hours of prayer.
Correction: It shows believers praying at set times, but contains no formal command. The hours developed in the church from Jewish habit and from the words of Scripture.
Misunderstanding: Fixed prayer is mechanical and therefore empty.
Correction: It can become so, as can any practice. Jewish and Christian teachers answer that fixed times hold prayer steady when feeling fails, and that attention can be trained.
Misunderstanding: Praying at set hours was invented by monks.
Correction: The pattern comes from the Old Testament and early Christian life. Monks lengthened and organized it.
Knowledge check
Name two Old Testament texts that show set times of prayer.
Examples: Psalm 119:164, praise seven times a day; Daniel 6:10, Daniel praying three times a day; Psalm 55:17, evening, morning and noon; Exodus 29:38-42, morning and evening offerings. Any two are correct.
What does Acts 3:1 show?
Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. It shows that the first Christians, who were Jews, continued the set hours of prayer in the temple. It is evidence that fixed-hour prayer was part of the earliest church.
What does the Didache say about prayer?
The Didache, an early Christian manual probably from the first or second century, tells believers to say the Lord’s Prayer three times a day. It is one of the earliest direct witnesses to a set pattern of Christian prayer.
Why did the church keep fixed hours?
Set times keep prayer from depending on mood, make prayer shared with others who pray at the same hour, and help train the continuing awareness of God that Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. The tradition adds a warning that prayer must come from the heart and not be done for show.
Think it through
- What difference might it make to treat the whole day as belonging to God?
- Is there a time you already pause each day that could become a time of prayer?
- What do you think of the idea that you are joining others who pray at the same hour?
Independent assignment
Three times
In your notebook, write 250 to 400 words. Choose three times in your day that already exist, such as waking, a midday meal and bedtime. For each, write the shortest prayer you could say, such as the Lord’s Prayer or a verse of a psalm. For one week, say these prayers and note in two lines each evening whether you kept them. Do not post this.
Further study
- J. B. Lightfoot, ed., The Apostolic Fathers Read the Didache, chapter 8, on the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.
- John Cassian, The Institutes Read Books 2 and 3 for Cassian’s account of Egyptian psalmody and hours.
- Jewish Publication Society, The Hebrew Bible in English (JPS translation) Read Daniel 6 and the Psalms mentioned above.
- Psalm 119:164 Seven times a day I praise you.
- Daniel 6:10 Three times a day.
- Acts 3:1 The hour of prayer.
- Psalm 55:17 Evening, morning and noon.