You do not have to do it perfectly
There is no right way to pray these books, and no way to fall behind.
How To begin
Start by finding a place where you can be still and get away from noise as much as possible. This might be in a back bedroom, out in nature, or in the hidden corner of a library with noise-canceling headphones.
Each day of the book is broken into two halves — Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer — and they both follow a liturgy, or an intentional structure to a time of worship. You can give them the time you have, but these practices are all designed to take between 10 and 15 minutes.
Where the rhythm comes from
This rhythm gets its roots from the “Liturgy of the Hours”, a series of regular breaks for prayer throughout the day, an attempt to honor Paul’s instruction to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). That tradition eventually made its way into the Book of Common Prayer, first published in 1549 by Thomas Cranmer, which offers thorough guides for both community and individual worship and prayer.
While The Quiet Hours generally follows the flow of the Book of Common Prayer’s daily liturgy (of which there are centuries of revisions and variations), it is not simply that in a different package.
Mornings and evenings
The mornings focus more on soaking in Scripture, with a daily confession (of faith, sin, or thanks and praise), Old and New Testament lessons, and the Lord’s Prayer. The evenings begin with Psalms, then spend the rest of the time in experiential prayer, using one of three ancient prayer practices (Lectio Divina, the Examen, and the Jesus Prayer).
Both Morning and Evening also include time for your own personal prayer.
“But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
— Matthew 6:6
The pieces of a day
If you have never used a book like this, the small pieces can feel unfamiliar at first. They are simpler than they look.
Confession
A moment each day to confess — our belief, our sin, and our thanks and praise, in rotation.
Ancient prayers, made new
Written prayers from Christians across centuries and continents — revised and easy to understand — alongside some freshly created for The Quiet Hours.
Scripture
Two lessons every morning — one from the Old Testament, one from the New — and Psalms in the evening that echo the same themes.
Your own prayers
Space to bring your own prayers before God — following daily prompts, or through ancient Christian practices like Lectio Divina, the Examen, and the Jesus Prayer.
If it feels like too much
If you look at these pages and it feels like too much, that’s okay; don’t try it all at once. Break it up as you need. You could do the Mornings one month and the Evenings the next. (You can do them any time of day, too. No one’s keeping score.) You can go through it one time with just the Old Testament readings, and then go back for another round with the New Testament.
The point is not perfection. It is to build or deepen a daily time spent in prayer and Scripture with Jesus.
On repetition
Some of us are surprised, when first introduced to these older rhythms of prayer and liturgy, by how much repetition there is. Don’t be alarmed. That’s by design.
Praying the same prayer or Scripture passage over and over is part of how we slow down and enter the rest of God we are so desperately craving.
Don’t worry if it gets a little boring at times. Some days it might feel like nothing’s happening. You’ll read in the Psalms each evening that many times, their writers felt that way, too. Other times you may get swept in the story of Scripture, and find it to somehow be a mirror of your own.
Just keep showing up. God is the river; we are the banks. Over time, his rushing water does its work, sanding down our rough edges and clearing away the mud and debris, revealing more and more of who we were created to be.
There is no wrong way
Follow a book exactly as written, or spend one month with the Morning Prayers and again the next using the Evenings. If you miss a day, or a week — that’s ok.
You are not behind. You can begin again.
Something to listen to
A playlist of quiet instrumental music to accompany your time in prayer, contemplation or study. This includes original music created just for The Quiet Hours. Press play and begin.
A quiet place to begin again
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