10 short morning prayers to start the day
Prayers Christians have said at sunrise for centuries, a few new ones for hard and hurried mornings, and a way to keep one in view all day.
The MySavior teamUpdated · 10 min read
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
Psalm 3:5 · BSB
The best morning prayers are short enough to say before your feet touch the floor: thank God for the night, give him the day ahead, and ask him to stay close in it. The ten below do exactly that, from Martin Luther’s Morning Prayer and the Collect for Grace to a single line you can keep on your Lock Screen.
Mornings are rarely quiet. The alarm goes off twice, someone needs breakfast, the phone is already full of messages. The old prayers were made for that kind of life. Luther wrote his for the head of a household to teach the family. The Morning Offering began with a group of young Jesuit students. Angel of God is the first prayer many children ever learn.
Below are four traditional prayers with their sources, a line from the Psalms, and five short prayers written by the MySavior team for the mornings the old books did not quite foresee. Pick one and pray it for a week before you try another.
The traditional prayers are quoted from older English editions, so some keep “Thee” and “Thou.” Pray them as written or in your own words. God understands both.
The first ten seconds
A prayer before your feet touch the floor
Good morning, Lord. Thank you for the night and for this new day. It is yours before it is mine. Stay close to me in it. Amen.
MySavior
Say it with your eyes still half closed, before you reach for the phone on the nightstand. It does the three things every longer prayer on this page does: it thanks God, it hands him the day, and it asks for his company.
If this is the only one you manage, you have still prayed.
A psalm for waking up
Psalm 3:5
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
Psalm 3:5 · BSB
The heading of Psalm 3 says David wrote it when he fled from his son Absalom. He had every reason to lie awake all night. Still he slept, and woke, and saw God’s hand in both. Waking up this morning was not something you managed on your own either.
The Psalms are the oldest prayer book the Church has. If you want a second line, Psalm 5:3 is a good one: “In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice.”
Lutheran, since 1529
Martin Luther’s Morning Prayer
I thank Thee, my Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Thy dear Son, that Thou hast kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray Thee to keep me this day also from sin and all evil, that all my doings and life may please Thee. For into Thy hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Thy holy angel be with me, that the Wicked Foe may have no power over me. Amen.
Martin Luther, Small Catechism (1529)
Luther put this prayer in his Small Catechism, in a short section on how the head of a family should teach the household to pray morning and evening. His instructions are plain: when you rise, make the sign of the cross, say the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, and then, if you like, this little prayer. After that, he writes, go to your work with joy, singing a hymn.
The English here is the 1921 translation in the Triglot Concordia, which is why it says “Thee.” The line about commending yourself into God’s hands borrows the words of Psalm 31:5, which Jesus prayed from the cross.
Anglican, since 1549
The Collect for Grace
O Lord, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings, being ordered by thy governance, may be righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer (1928), Morning Prayer
This collect was already part of Mattins, the morning service, in the very first Book of Common Prayer, in 1549, and a version of it is still in the Prayer Book today. The wording above is from the 1928 American edition. The 1549 spelling looks older (“graunt that this daye wee fall into no synne”), but it is the same prayer.
Notice what it asks for. Not a successful day, but a safe and a good one: no sin, no danger, and everything you do “ordered by thy governance.” It is a prayer for being steered.
Catholic, since 1844
The Morning Offering
Jesus, I give you this whole day: my prayers and my work, my joys and my troubles. Use all of it, even the small and dull parts, for the good of your people. Amen.
MySavior, after the Morning Offering
On December 2, 1844, the eve of the feast of Saint Francis Xavier, a French Jesuit named François-Xavier Gautrelet, spiritual director of the Jesuit students at Vals-près-le-Puy, suggested a simple practice: each morning, offer up the whole day to God. That practice grew into the Apostleship of Prayer, known today as the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, and its prayer became the Morning Offering.
The Morning Offering begins “O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” and goes on to offer God the day’s prayers, works, joys and sufferings. Its wording differs a little from one prayer book to the next. The card above is our own short prayer in the same spirit. Both rest on one idea: no part of an ordinary day is too small to give away.
Irish, about 1,300 years old
Saint Patrick’s Breastplate
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left.
Saint Patrick’s Breastplate, tr. J. H. Todd (1864)
This Old Irish prayer is traditionally credited to Saint Patrick, though scholars date the text as we have it to the early eighth century, a few centuries after him. Its first five sections open with “I bind to myself today,” which is what makes it a morning prayer: you are getting dressed for the day, and Christ is the armor. Its Latin name, Lorica, means a breastplate. In 1889 Cecil Frances Alexander turned it into the hymn “I Bind Unto Myself Today.”
Say the lines slowly, one direction at a time, as you look around the room. By the end there is nowhere left where Christ is not.
The first prayer many children learn
Angel of God
Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.
Traditional
Many Catholic children learn this before any other prayer, and it rhymes so that they can. Its Latin original, Angele Dei, was long credited to Saint Anselm; scholars now link it to his contemporary, Reginald of Canterbury. The Latin asks the angel to watch over you “hodie,” today, or “hac nocte,” tonight, so the same prayer serves both ends of the day.
Teach it to a child over breakfast. Then say it yourself. Nobody outgrows being looked after.
When you wake up already tired
A prayer for a morning you dread
Lord, I do not want to face today, and you already know why. Give me enough strength for the next hour, and then for the hour after that. Go into the hard conversation before I do, and be waiting for me at the end of the day. Amen.
MySavior
Some mornings begin with a knot in the stomach: a hospital appointment, a hard meeting, a letter you are afraid to open. You do not have to pretend to feel brave. This prayer asks for strength one hour at a time, which is about as far ahead as anyone can see on a bad day.
If the worry is still there at lunch, these Bible verses for anxiety are a good place to turn next.
When there is no quiet minute
A prayer for a full house and a busy road
Jesus, there is no quiet here this morning. Be in the noise with me: at the breakfast table, in the car, at the door as everyone leaves. Give me patience before I need it. Amen.
MySavior
Not every morning prayer is said on your knees. This one is for the kitchen, the school run and the train. Say it under your breath while you look for the other shoe.
Mark tells us that “Early in the morning, while it was still dark,” Jesus slipped away to a solitary place to pray, after an evening when the whole town had crowded at the door. If you cannot find an hour of that quiet, find thirty seconds of it.
On your iPhone
A one-line prayer to keep in view
The hard part of a morning prayer is not saying it. It is remembering it by ten o’clock. One help is to put a prayer where your eyes already go. In MySavior’s wallpaper maker you can write a line of your own over a photograph and save it to Photos to set as your Lock Screen wallpaper, like the one on the phone below.
For your Home Screen, the app’s Bible Verse widget can show short prayers alongside verses, reflections or affirmations, in a design you make. You choose how often it moves on, from once a day to several times a day, so the prayer that meets you at breakfast is not the one waiting at lunch. Here is how to add a widget.
Sunday, November 8
9:41
Lord, this day is yours. Go ahead of me, and stay beside me. Amen.
A morning prayerKeep a morning prayer on your iPhoneWrite your own prayer over a photograph with MySavior’s wallpaper maker, and add a Bible verse and prayer widget to your Home Screen that changes by itself through the day.
★ Rated 4.9 on the US App StoreLoved by Christians in 60+ countries8,000+ people every month
A small practice for this week
Choose one prayer from this page and copy it onto a card. Put the card where your hand goes first in the morning: on the nightstand, by the coffee, on top of your phone. Pray it every morning for seven days, word for word, before anything else. By Thursday you will know it by heart, and by Sunday you may find yourself saying it before you are fully awake.
Then close the day the way you opened it. For the evening, try these Bible verses for sleep.
Let a prayer meet you through the day
Bible verse and prayer widgets you design yourself, which change by themselves on the schedule you choose, and a wallpaper maker for the words you want on your Lock Screen.
★ Rated 4.9 on the US App StoreLoved by Christians in 60+ countries8,000+ people every month
Questions
What is a good short morning prayer?
One you can say before you get up: thank God for the night, give him the day, and ask him to stay close. For example: “Good morning, Lord. Thank you for the night and for this new day. It is yours before it is mine. Stay close to me in it. Amen.” Traditional choices include Luther’s Morning Prayer, the Collect for Grace and Angel of God.
What is the Morning Offering?
A Catholic prayer that offers God the whole day ahead: its prayers, works, joys and sufferings. It goes back to December 1844, when the Jesuit François-Xavier Gautrelet proposed the practice to the Jesuit students at Vals-près-le-Puy in France. It became the prayer of the Apostleship of Prayer, known today as the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
What did Martin Luther pray in the morning?
In his Small Catechism (1529), Luther tells families to make the sign of the cross when they rise, say the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, and then, if they wish, a short prayer thanking God for keeping them through the night and asking him to keep them from sin and evil that day. Then, he writes, go to your work with joy.
When should I say my morning prayers?
As soon as the day begins for you, ideally before the news, the messages and the to-do list get there first. Many Christians pray in bed or while the kettle boils. Doing it every day matters more than the hour: a short prayer said daily does more than a long one said once.
Which Bible translation is quoted here?
The Bible verses in this article are quoted from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB). The traditional prayers come from older English editions, named under each prayer.
