Daily Bible Reflections for
Morning Prayer
Concise, Bible-based, Jesus-focused reflections on the readings from the Church of England’s Morning Prayer Readings.
For over four years, since the first covid lockdown, our Vicar has been writing Daily Reflections on the morning readings from the Church of England’s Daily Lectionary. See below for more details. These are now emailed to people in a variety of countries and can also be found on Twitter at this link.
This page is updated every 4 or 5 weeks with PDF files of the morning reflections. These include suggestions for prayer, connecting the daily Bible reading with the Lord’s Prayer.
Readings and Reflections for Monday 11th March to Saturday 13th April 2024.
Readings and Reflections for Monday 15th April to Saturday 11th May 2024.
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EARLY MORNING AND NIGHT PRAYERS
To to receive a regular email with the reflections
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More about our daily bible reflections
These reflection are based on the Morning Prayer readings from the Church of England’s Daily Lectionary. The reflection usually focuses on the Old Testament reading. When the Daily Lectionary is replaced by a Festival (e.g. a major Saints Day) then the reflection will use the Lectionary readings, so that we can prioritise reading books of the Bible. When the Daily Lectionary gives a reading from the Apocrypha our Reflections are based on the alternative Old Testament reading given by the Lectionary.
PDF File of the Daily Lectionary
Click here for a PDF file giving you Morning and Evening readings (Old Testament and New Testament, not the Psalms) for Advent 2023 to Advent 2024, in a convenient easy-to-print format.
If you open the file in LibreOffice Calc (and possibly in MS Office Excel) you can access the embedded LibreOffice spreadsheet.
On certain Special Days (around Christmas) the spreadsheet gives:
Readings from the Third Service for Morning Prayer;
Readings from the Second Service for Evening Prayer.
HOW TO ENGAGE WITH MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER
“Morning Prayer” and “Evening Prayer” are basically ways to help you read the Bible and pray. This rhythm of prayer has its roots in Old Testament times.
Here are five ways of doing this:
the very simplest
As you start, ask God to speak to you. Read the Bible and the reflections. Talk to God in response. Finish with the Lord’s Prayer.
2. simple daily prayer
We have a Daily Prayer leaflet, particularly suitable when you are praying on your own. The Lord’s Prayer, Apostle’s Creed and Te Deum remind you of your connection with your Heavenly Father, the historic Christian Faith, and the Universal Church. Download it as large print (4 A4 pages) or as a double-sided leaflet.
3. morning prayer from the book of common prayer
We have produced a booklet which contains Morning Prayer from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Ask and we can get one to you.
4. EVENING PRAYER AT OUR 5pm service
We hold Evening Prayer in church every Friday and Sunday. On Mondays it is done via Zoom: contact us if you wish to join in. We use a simplified Evening Prayer service sheet. Some examples are below. Contact us if you want to see the other sheets.
On the first Sunday of the Month, Evening Prayer is replaced by a Holy Communion Service (from the BCP). On the last Sunday, we pray Compline.
Evening Prayer liturgy during Eastertide:
5. use the ‘daily prayer’ app on your smartphone
“Daily Prayer: from the CofE” can be found in Android and Apple app stores, and is free. The Daily Readings will appear as part of Morning and Evening Prayer each day. Traditional (BCP) and Contemporary (Common Worship) options are available.
EARLY MORNING AND NIGHT PRAYERS
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)
How can we make this a daily reality? These prayers were put together to help us begin and each day with a form of prayer that, as well as asking the Lord for help, also shapes our minds and hearts.
These are designed to be printed as a booklet or brochure. Doing so will take these documents - 8 or 12 pages of A4 - and turn them into a 2 or 3 page booklet that can be folded and stapled.
about the prayers
These take prayers from the Book of Common Prayer, the Compline service, our own church liturgy, and also prayers from the Orthodox Church, Martin Luther and John Stott.
how to use them
The first part of the Morning Prayers could be said as soon as you wake up. The rest could be said a little later - perhaps you are a person who makes a cup of tea and sits in bed for a while, or you could use these after getting up and making a coffee. Make sure you do not go long into the day before using them.
Similarly with Night Prayers - you might use them all just before you lie down. Or perhaps you often sit in bed and read (or scroll your phone!) for a while. Use some of the Night Prayers as soon as you are in bed, then the final prayers before turning off the light.
The Morning Prayers begin with Lamentations 3:22-23 - or rather, the words as they have been turned into a song we sing every other week at St George’s. To learn the song - and memorise the words - watch this video.