Praying the Lauds - Your Daily Christian Morning Prayer

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - August 09, 2023 | Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Virgin, Martyr “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” - Matthew 15:28 How inclusive are we in our action? In life we go through many rejections, but Jesus wants to empower us to "beg" for what we need, like the Canaanite woman in the Gospel today. An episode like th...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - August 08, 2023 | Memorial of St. Dominic de Guzman, Priest "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." - John 1:49 St. Dominic was born in Castile (part of modern Spain) and became a canon of the Cathedral of Osma. In 1216 he founded the Order of Preachers, dedicated to saving souls by preaching and persuasion. Like the Franciscans, founded a few years b...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - MONDAY, 07 August 2023 | Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time "He looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds." - Matthew 14:19 Do you have your own meaningful encounter with Jesus? Today we see a totally different kind of behavior in Jesus when he receives news about the death of John. He withdra...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - August 06, 2023 | Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." - Matthew 17:5 The Transfiguration gives us a fresh opportunity to renew our faith in the lordship of Jesus. Jesus is exalted above all and His dominion will last forever. Today is a day of testimonies. God bears witness to the fact that Jesus i...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - August 5, 2023 | Saturday Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary "The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness: come, let us adore him." - invitatory antiphon In the Gospel we see how many people are affected by just one true sentence of john the Baptist; it is against the law for you to have your brother’s wife. That sparks off violent reactions in Herod, Herodias and then her...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - August 04, 2023 | Memorial of St. John Mary Vianney, Priest "Come, let us worship Christ, chief shepherd of the flock." - invitatory antiphon St. John Vianney, also known as the Holy Curé de Ars, was born May 8, 1786 in Dardilly, near Lyon, France to a family of farmers. He was ordained a priest in 1815 and became curate in Ecully. He was then sent to the remote French co...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - August 03, 2023 | Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time "The Kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad." - Matthew 13: 47-48 Jesus is reminding us through the parable above that while there is time, let us seek and prac...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - August 02, 2023 | Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” - Matthew 13:44 What is your ultimate desire in life? We are on a constant journey in life towards wholeness. This search takes us each to different walks...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - August 01, 2023 | Memorial of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church "The Lord is the source of all wisdom: come, let us adore him." - invitatory antiphon St. Alphonsus Liguori is a doctor of the Church who is widely known for his contribution to moral theology and his great kindness. He was born in 1696 in Naples to a well-respected family, and was the ol...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - MONDAY, 31 July, 2023 | Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest "Come, let us worship Christ, chief shepherd of the flock." - invitatory antiphon St. Ignatius Loyola was born in 1491, one of 13 children of a family of minor nobility in northern Spain. As a young man Ignatius Loyola was inflamed by the ideals of courtly love and knighthood and dreamed of doing great dee...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 30, 2023 | Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." - Mt. 13:45-46 What do you consider as the highest value in your life? Solomon valued wisdom over material wealth and power and God was pleased with Him. God...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 29, 2023 | Memorial of Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus Martha was the sister of Mary of Bethany and Lazarus. In the West, her feast day comes a week after that of St Mary Magdalene because of the old and probably erroneous tradition that Mary Magdalene was the same person as Martha’s sister. Modern scholarship having made matters clearer, Martha, Mary and Lazarus have...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 28, 2023 | Friday in the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time "However, the seed sown in rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirty times what was sown." - Mt. 13:23 How are you cultivating the gifts God has bestowed you? Each one of us carries the potential to grow and bear fruit a hundred tim...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 27, 2023 | Thursday in the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time "Harden not your hearts today, but listen to the voice of the Lord." - Ps. 94:8 How do you encounter God each day? God is always inviting us to a relationship with Him and since we cannot fully grasp His teachings, He needs to talk to us in parables before we can actually understand him. The more we grow in t...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 26, 2023 | Memorial of Sts. Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary "How wonderful is God among his saints: come, let us adore him." - Invitatory antiphon Today is the Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also the grandparents of Jesus. It was in the home of Saints Joachim and Anne where the Virgin Mary received he...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 25, 2023 | Feast of St. James, apostle "The Lord is the King of apostles: come, let us adore him." - Invitatory antiphon The Feast of St. James, the Apostle, known as the Greater, is celebrated today. The designation "the Greater" is in order to distinguish him from the other Apostle St. James, and it indicates he was chosen first before the other James. James the Gr...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 24, 2023 | Memorial of St. Sharbel Makhlūf, Priest "Let us rejoice in the Lord, with songs let us praise him." - Invitatory antiphon The Optional Memorial of St. Sharbel Makhlūf (1828-1868) is celebrated today. He was a Lebanese monk, born in a small mountain village and ordained in 1858. Devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he spent the last twenty-three years of his...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 23, 2023 | Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field... Let both grow together until the harvest." - Mt. 13:24,30 We are entrusted with the task of guarding what God has sowed in each one of us. Let us be vigilant in guarding ourselves against the subtle lies of the evil one by holding firmly to God's Word...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 22, 2023 | Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles "Let us sing praise to God, as we acclaim Saint Mary Magdalene." - Invitatory antiphon Mary of Magdala was healed of “seven devils” by Jesus. She ministered to him in Galilee and was present at his crucifixion. She was in the group of women who were the first to discover the empty tomb, and it was to her...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 21, 2023 | Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Priest and Doctor of the Church Today is the Optional Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619), the first Capuchin Franciscan to be honored as a Doctor. St. Lawrence was born in 1559 at Brindisi, a town located on the Adriatic coast of the heel of Italy. Educated from his youth by the Conventual Franciscan Fria...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 20, 2023 | Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time "Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." - Mt. 11:28-29 No load will be too heavy for us to carry if we take on the yoke of Christ. Jesus pr...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 19, 2023 | Wednesday in the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time "I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and have revealed them to infants." - Mt. 11: 25 All around and within us, we see the manifestation of God's loving presence waiting to be acknowledged. But it is to simple and open hearts that t...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 18, 2023 | Tuesday in the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time "Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent." Matthew 11:20 Despite the many ways God has manifested His love for us in our lives, we would at times persist in our hardness of heart especially when his teaching challenges our way of livi...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 17, 2023 | Monday in the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37–38 The strongest challenges to our faith are our very own personal relationships....

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - July 16, 2023 | Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening: you have the words of eternal life." - 1 Samuel 3:9 How do you nurture the seed of God's Word in your heart? If we want the Word of God to grow and bear fruit in our lives, we have to make room for it and to nurture it in our hearts. Jesus invites us to be faithful and humble listen...