Soul Sculpting Project: Fixed-Moment Prayer

It was really early in the morning when the bell began to ring. Still dark. I am not a morning person. I got up, put on my clothes, strapped on my head lamp and set off. When I arrived I sat down and began my experience of fixed-hour prayer with the monks.

Praying at designated times of day is a practice that goes way back. For Christians it began with Jewish roots. Psalms mention praying seven times a day. (Psalm 119:164) Daniel was sent to visit the lions for keeping his fixed-hours of prayer. (Daniel 6:10)

Early Christians like Peter and John observed the practice of ninth hour prayer. (Acts 3:1) Cornelius received a life changing vision at his ninth hour prayer (Acts 10:30). Peter got a vision, too, but his was at noon-day prayer. (Acts 10:9)

Fixed-hour prayer continued on in the early church days when the practice of praying the Lord’s prayer three times a day was encouraged (Didache 8:3). Then monks and nuns organized their days around prayer schedules.

The practice of fixed-hours for prayer is still going on today. Somewhere, right now some one is praying a fixed-hour prayer.

What’s the point of creating a fixed-hour or set time to pray?

Can’t we just pray any time? Sure, God is always listening and communicating to us. There is, however, a practical function of the fixed time for prayer.

We are creatures of habit. 40% of our day is spent in habit mode.

Habits are very useful for us because:

• Habits require low amounts of our energy to maintain.
• Habits do not require that precious, limited, skill of will-power.

When we create a habit we create behavior change in the most efficient possible way.A habit of prayer can increase our connection with God.

For the next seven weeks of Lent we will be seeking deeper connection with God using historic Christian prayer methods.

Each Prayer Project will take about one minute a day to complete, so having ‘enough’ time will not be a problem for us.

But many of us will face a problem in doing these projects. Lent is a really loooong time. Lent is of marathon length and will-power is built for sprints, not marathons. Most of us cannot depend on will-power to get us through.

Habit does not require will-power, so it is the tool we will use to run the marathon to Easter. A fixed-hour prayer is a prayer of habit. Our Soul Sculpting Project to launch us into Lent is to establish a habit of a fixed-moment of prayer.

This week we will play with time and search for the moment we want to establish daily connection with God.

What time of day do you want to take a moment and connect with God?

• In the morning, just after getting up?
• At night before going to sleep?
• Mid-day near meals or work breaks?
• At a time you set your alarm for?

I have played with all of the above and am now trying out times connected to daily activities.

I am playing. And that is what I invite you to do. The ability to play and adjust is one of the fundamental skills to habit development.

For those of us who already have a regular habit of prayer at a certain time of day, our challenge is to find one more new time of day to connect with God.

What do you do in this moment of prayer? In future weeks I will provide the method. This week our primary task is to establish the moment for prayer, so how you pray is up to you.

I like to:

• Express gratitude to God
• Talk to God about what’s on my mind,
• Ask for God’s thoughts
• Recite a known prayer
• Sing a prayer

Soul Sculpting Project Fixed-Moment Prayer

1. Play with different times of day to choose a moment when you will set a prayer habit.
2. Create a When/Then statement to set your intention.

• When _______ Then I will do my fixed moment of prayer.

Examples:

• When I wake up in the morning, then I will do my fixed-moment of prayer.
• When my alarm goes off at 8:18, then I will do my fixed-moment prayer.

Tip: The power of social support

• Joining with others to do this project can be helpful. Ask a friend to join you and check-in with each other. You are welcome to join the Soul Sculpting Group on Facebook.

I stayed with the Monks for a couple more days and experienced a full round of seven fixed-hour prayers. We chanted Psalms, recited prayers, listened to sermons, did silent meditation. After the first day, however, I chose six not seven fixed-hour prayers. The very early bell did not summon me from bed again.

For more on the power of Tiny Habits see the work of Dr. BJ Fogg (Stanford)

Blog posts on habits: Soul Sculpting Project: Declaration of Hope  

 Soul Sculpting Project: Design a Habit