All Christians are called to a life of prayer. Many of us learn in childhood various formulas or devotions of prayer to repeat in our hearts or to recite together in community. As followers of Jesus, all prayer is communal in that our baptism connects us to Christ and the Church. Even our prayer that is spoken silently in the depth of our hearts is connected to Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. We don’t stand alone in our search for meaning in our lives.
As Holy Cross priests and brothers, we pray Morning Prayer, also called Lauds, together to begin our day. In most of our houses, we pray from an “Office Book,” a red-bound book that provides prayer texts to begin our day. Our office book, “Christian Prayer,” contains a rich formula of prayer from which we recite various psalms, read other scriptures, and offer petitions of prayer for the Church and the world. The texts for our Morning Prayer are varied and even complicated depending on feast days or seasons of the year. The formulas for the prayers take time to get used to, but our voices come together to make the psalms part of the rhythm of our lives.
In many of our houses of residence and ministry, Morning Prayer begins our day of common life. It is our obligation as professed religious in the Church to recite these prayers, either alone or in our local community. Our common prayer in the morning helps us wake from our solitary sleep of the night. We fill our lungs with air to warm up our voices and our singing; each breath is a reminder to offer every aspect of life in praise of God. Our voices filling a chapel remind us we are not alone in our vocations or in our ministries. The sound of our common recitation of the psalms or singing a hymn keeps our lives focused on the gift of the day as we prepare our hearts for ministry or the tasks we have been assigned.
We pray together for around twenty minutes, but the effects of the prayer last throughout our day. The prayer reminds us to focus on God no matter where we are called to be or what work is waiting for us. Our common morning prayer is a way of listening to God so that our ears and hearts may focus on God’s grace for us. We then carry the echoes of our prayer into the silent corners of our ministries throughout the day. Just those few minutes of prayer help us accomplish the smallest things in life, depending on God alone.
Our common prayer is not an obsession about speaking every word of the text. The words and texts of our ancestors are meant to flow into our hearts and help us be absorbed into the mystery of God’s love for us and the world. When we pray the psalms, our lives, our hearts, our imaginations are called to be open to the ways Christ Jesus longs to remain incarnate in our daily routines, our actions and relationships. Sometimes in the singing of the psalms, canticles or hymns, the Holy Spirit opens new doors to our longing for the gift of God’s peace, forgiveness and joy.
In Morning Prayer, I am often overcome by God’s desire to heal me and to find a home in my heart. Sometimes my heart is opened to being silent, and I find myself in a moment of grace that leaves me behind in the reciting of the texts. Our prayer together is more than words; it is the action of the Holy Spirit to heal and generate hope in our world. The words often grab me and take me into the depth of self-reflection, a place where I admit my wrongs, or I realize the healing of regret or shame that I long to let go of. The words of the prayers become food for our souls, encountered with hope and joy.
I received my copy of “Christian Prayer” when it was first printed in 1975, and it has been displayed in every room in which I have lived over the years. As I look through the book, yellow marks on the pages reveal that I have been more faithful to Morning Prayer than Evening Prayer. I view the prayer cards I have inserted throughout the years, even a card of remembrance from my First Communion in 1964, and read again the death cards from friends in the community and former pastors. I see the history of my life in the Congregation of Holy Cross by examining the cards and notes I have inserted between the pages of our common prayer book.
I hold my book in my hands and feel at home. After paging through the book in all the liturgical seasons for over 50 years, my heart still longs to feel Jesus, who invites me into love, into a deeper relationship with Divine grace. This longing grows in my life, to belong in community prayer, to be a support for those who struggle in their vocation. I now view our daily prayer, Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer or Night Prayer, as a rhythm of love manifest in our hearts. Even though I may not always be faithful to all the prayers that support our days and our deeds, I know God’s fidelity is offered to me as I open the book to begin or end another day. After nearly a lifetime, the richness of these prayer texts reveals to me that God remains steadfast, and each word is open to the possibility of Divine wonder and grace for the Church and for the world.
Our prayer books have taken on a deeper meaning for me in recent years as Religious Superior at Holy Cross House, our medical facility and retirement home. I now journey among men who, toward the end of their lives, can no longer hold the red-bound book or turn the pages to recite the psalms in community. I see their heartache as they grapple with arthritic hands or the beginning stages of dementia. As I witness our men letting go of our “Christian Prayer” book, I feel deeply the love of God taking over, well beyond any words on a page or hymn that the ritual suggests singing. God’s faithfulness remains deeply present, and our awe becomes the prayer of the day when one of our Holy Cross religious finally closes his prayer book for the last time.
For all who believe in Jesus, prayer is our lifeblood toward divine union all the way to heaven. The more we pray, in silence or in community, the greater our desire for God becomes, and such desire will provide a life of great purpose and joy. Yet we all struggle along such a path, and we all need one another to find our way. As we reflect in our daily prayer on our longing for God, let us carve out a place in our hearts for the needs of all people under heaven.
May God give you peace.
Let us pray…
For all who ache to grow closer to Christ Jesus. May we all be patient with God’s grace and fidelity toward us. May we voice the prayers of the Church with consistency and hope toward being in union with God. May our voices be open and our hearts be free in offering our lives to daily prayer in search of eternal love. We pray to the Lord.
For unity in our Church. May our common prayer help us grow in our unity and be sustained by God’s love for us in every country and land. May the sacred scriptures reveal the ancient union of our baptism, and may we be patient in our collective longing for the common good. We pray to the Lord.
For those who pray bearing a broken heart. May all people who wake from sleep or end the day in despair and loneliness find true love of God. May every heart be healed in our common praise of God’s faithfulness. We pray to the Lord.
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About:
Rev. Ronald Patrick Raab, C.S.C., serves as religious superior of Holy Cross House, our retirement and medical facility at Notre Dame, Indiana. He is an award-winning author, blogger, and visual artist. Learn more: ronaldraab.com
Artwork:
Fr. Ron created this colorful collage of “Christian Prayer” a few months ago for this article. Fr. Ron’s artwork has been published in parishes, dioceses, and ecumenical settings around the world.
Provided by Rev. Ronald P. Raab, C.S.C., September 2026.
