In this article, Fr. wants to discuss about a special topic which many people have asked him about. The question is – What is the best time to pray? 

Is it in the morning? or afternoon? or is it in the evening? Biblically, what is the best time to pray? There are people who pray in the early morning at three o’clock which is the Divine Mercy chaplet hour. Some people spend time in the afternoon to pray. Some people pray in the evening. Some people pray before going to sleep. Some people pray when they sleep. Different people have different time to pray. But what is the best time to pray? In this article we will see, Biblically, what is the right time to pray. 

In the book of Job 1:10, we read, “¹⁰Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.”

In this chapter we read that, God has put a fence around the family of Job – all his family and his possessions.  What is the reason God protected his family? 

Job 1:5: “⁵And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt-offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’ This is what Job always did.”

In this we read that on the feast days, Job would send his family for sanctification. He would rise early in the morning and offer burned offerings. He used to pray early in the morning. Why this special activity? Why early in the morning? Does it have any meaning or any reason – getting up early in the morning and praying? Does it have any special significance? 

Fr. explains to us by giving some Bible passages so that we will understand it properly:

Sirach 39:5, “⁵He sets his heart to rise early to seek the Lord who made him, and to petition the Most-High; he opens his mouth in prayer and asks pardon for his sins.”

God has set his heart. God is inspiring everyone’s heart to rise early in the morning to seek the Lord who made him and to petition the Most-High and open his mouth in prayer and ask pardon for his sins.

This is what God is expecting from us – to rise early in the morning to seek the Lord.

Why do we need to get up early morning and pray? 

It is because we should seek the face of the Lord, before we seek the face of others. We should speak to the Lord before we start speaking to others. We should know the Lord before we know the politics and the newspaper or news channels of this world. We should see his face first, before we see the faces of someone else. We should be in his presence before we start being in the presence of someone else. So, the best time to pray is the morning time. Therefore, the Bible says ‘he sets his heart to rise early to seek the Lord who made him’. 

Another reason why the morning time is the best time to pray is because that is the most difficult time to get up. It is a difficult time because we feel sleepy at that time. We need to do some sacrifice. So, getting up for morning prayer is a sacrifice and that is why the Bible says ‘morning prayer is very important’. 

What happens when we pray in the morning?

Sirach 32:14: “¹⁴One who seeks God will accept his discipline, and those who rise early to seek him will find favour.”

Therefore, anyone who wants grace from the Lord, must rise early in the morning to seek his face. Then only we will find favour with the Lord. The Bible says this very clearly – ‘Getting up early in the morning and seeking his face will find favour’. We all know that in the Bible when the Israelites were on their journey to the promised land, they were staying in the wilderness; in tents in the desert area. There was nothing to do for them. No work, no responsibilities. There may be a possibility that they were sleeping all the time as they had nothing else to do. No work, no responsibility, no slavery and no agriculture. So, they must be sleeping most of the time. Therefore, God found the best way to make them get up early in the morning. He used to give them manna early morning. Once the sun rises the manna used to dilute and disappear. 

So, if anybody got up late, they never used to get manna. Only those who got up early in the morning used to get the manna to eat. That is why everybody started getting up early in the morning. This was the plan of God. Because God wanted them to get up early in the morning and pray and seek his face, seek his blessings, put intentions and petitions before God.

Exodus 16:21: “²¹Morning by morning they gathered it, as much as each needed. But when the sun grew hot, it melted.”

So, morning by morning God gave them manna. Early morning they received manna from heaven. Getting up early morning and praying to God, who blessed them with manna from heaven. Once the sun rose, it wouldn’t be there. That is why this manna was available only before sunrise. After sunrise, the manna. used to melt in the heat of the sun.

Wisdom 16:27: “²⁷For what was not destroyed by fire was melted when simply warmed by a fleeting ray of the sun.”

What is not destroyed by fire will be melted by the early sunrise. What does it mean? It means that whatever cannot be destroyed even by fire, can be destroyed or removed by getting up early morning and praying. We might be praying the whole day and with a lot of difficulties, lot of sacrifices and penances. But still the bondage does not go out of us. The terrible affliction does not go out of us.  Perhaps the sickness is not getting healed, even if we pray the whole day. Try getting up early in the morning and praying. Because there won’t be anything that cannot be removed by the early morning prayer.

The Bible says – ‘what was not destroyed by fire will be melted, when simply warmed by a fleeting ray of the sun’. It is the early morning ray of the sun. 

Wisdom 16:28: “²⁸to make it known that one must rise before the sun to give you thanks and must pray to you at the dawning of the light”

That is the meaning. That is why verse 27 says, if it is not destroyed by fire, it will be destroyed by the early morning rays. 

What does it mean? 

There are bondages, affliction, sicknesses that we are struggling to get out from. If it doesn’t get out of us even after praying and attending retreats and live streaming and many other things, try getting up early morning and praying. Get up early morning and sacrifice your sleep and pray. Everything will be melted. Every bondage will disappear. Every block will be removed. Especially when we are in crisis, – terrible crisis – when we really need an intervention of God, then take this decision – get up early morning and kneel down, lift up your hands and pray. 

Do penances and pray. There will be nothing that cannot be washed or removed from our life. What was not destroyed by fire was melted when simply warmed by a fleeting ray of the sun.

Verse 28: to make it known that one must rise before the sun to give you thanks and must pray to you at the dawning of the light.

Because then, anything that is not burnt even in the fire, will be melted in this morning prayer. Any bondage that is not going out with any other prayer will be gone with the morning prayer. That is what the Word of God says. That is the reason why the Church and the Bible speak about the most powerful time to pray – the best time to pray – is early morning before the sun rises.

Wisdom 6:14: “¹⁴One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty, for she will be found sitting at the gate.”

This is about wisdom. Wisdom means the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit himself is the wisdom. One who rises early to seek wisdom will have no difficulty. Anyone getting up early morning and praying, will have no difficulty to get wisdom Get up early and pray and we will find wisdom in front of us. Bible says this.

The following passages from the Bible speak about the importance of the early morning prayer. We can just go through them one by one and understand the importance of praying in the morning.

Psalm 143:8: “⁸Let me hear you let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul,

We should ask Jesus to teach us the way that we should go. Not in the evening but it should be in the morning. Because we are going on our way in the day time not in the night. So, we should get up early morning and ask God to teach us the way we should go. 

Psalm 90:14,”¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love. So, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

As the verse says, ‘in the morning the Lord satisfies me with his steadfast love’. In order to get his steadfast love, we should be awake in the morning and therefore the best time to pray is in the morning.

Psalm 5:3:”³O Lord in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch”

The Psalmist is repeatedly telling us “In the morning you hear my voice. In the morning, I plead my case to you”. 

Why is the Psalmist stressing on morning? Why can’t he say “I prayed, you heard my voice and I pleaded, you listened to me”? Why is he stressing on the time?

Because that is the time of prayer. That is the most powerful time to pray. That is why in one sentence, it is repeated two times. “In the morning you hear my voice”. Any prayer that we make in the morning will be heard. Any prayer that is made in the morning will be answered.

Whatever that is not burned in the fire, will be burned in the early morning prayer. Whatever that is not gone out from us – the bondages and afflictions – will go out of us in the morning prayer. This is the word of God.

Psalm 119:147: “¹⁴⁷I rise before dawn and cry for help. I put my hope in your words.”

David says in the Psalm, “I rise before dawn and I cry for help. I put my hope in your words”. Who is the Psalmist? It is King David. He went through a lot of crises all throughout his life. How did he overcome all these crises? He used to get up early morning and he used to pray. He used to get up early morning and cry even before the dawn. He used to cry and pray. Therefore, his prayers were answered. His prayers were heard and he was blessed and protected. 

Psalm 57:7-8: “⁷My heart is steadfast, O God my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody. ⁸Awake my soul! Awake. O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn.”

Getting up early morning and telling the whole body to awaken and awake the dawn. 

Psalm 57:9-10: “⁹I will give thanks to you. O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. ¹⁰For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the clouds.”

Isaiah 33:2: “²O Lord be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.” Be our arm every morning. 

Bible says, even Jesus used to pray. Jesus used to pray like this:

Mark 1:35: “³⁵In the morning, while it was still very dark, He got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”

Even Jesus found the best time to pray was early morning; before the sunrise in the morning. While it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place and there he prayed.

Lamentation 3:22-23: “²²The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; ²³they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Every morning, the steadfast love of God is fresh.

Psalm 59:16: “¹⁶But I will sing of your might; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been a fortress for me and a refuge in the day of my distress.”

I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning

Psalm 5:3: “³O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch.”

Psalm 143:8: “⁸Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul”.

Psalm 88:13: “¹³But I, O LORD, cry out to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.”

The morning prayer will surely come before the Lord. In the morning our prayer comes before the Lord. In the morning God hears our voice. Jesus went to the deserted place to pray in the morning. Early morning, David got up and prayed. 

Early morning God gives us wisdom. Early morning God listens to our prayer. So, getting up early morning before the sun rises, is the most powerful time of our prayer. Try to get up early morning and see. We will see the power of God manifesting in our life. Because it is biblical and it is the truth. It is real. We will experience it. 

There are so many examples in the Bible, not only about Job but also many other people. King David and all the prophets, even Jesus himself got up early morning and prayed.

His prayer was answered. His prayer was powerful. Because he got up early morning and prayed. 

Finally, speak to Jesus and say “Jesus, give me the grace to get up early morning before the sun rises. So that I may speak to you before I speak to anyone else. I may see your face before I see anyone else’s face”.

“I may listen to you before I listen to anyone else. I may know you before I know anything else – any news or any politics. Before I meet anybody let me meet you, Lord. Help me to get up in the morning and pray to you and spend time in your presence.”

Transcribed by Greta Furtado