Praying the Lauds - Your Daily Christian Morning Prayer

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 21, 2023 | Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religous "How wonderful is God among his saints: come, let us adore him." - antiphon St Aloysius was the eldest son of a Mantuan nobleman, and was intended by his father to be a soldier. Aloysius, on the other hand, had determined to be a missionary, and even to die for his faith. He renounced his birthright in favour of h...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 20, 2023 | Tuesday in the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." - Mt. 5:44 Love is the greatest commandment that Jesus left us. His love does not discriminate but embraces and loves everyone with the same measure He loves us. As God's beloved children, let us imitate Jesus' way of loving. It may cost us our pride and...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 19, 2023 | Monday in the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time "Brothers and sisters: As your fellow workers, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain." - 2 Cor. 6:1 God has given us the greatest gift we could ever receive: His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die and rise again for our salvation. This grace is not cheap. It demands a response from us. Let us re...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 18, 2023 | Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest." - Mark 6:34 The world today is in dire need of healing. This is no different from Jesus' time. He took pity on those who were yearning to see and encounter the Lord like lost sheep and He longs to gathe...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 17, 2023 | Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary "I am the good shepherd, says the Lord, I know my sheep, and mine know me." - John 10:14 In the midst of the second world war Pope Pius XII put the whole world under the special protection of our Savior's Mother by consecrating it to her Immaculate Heart, and in 1944 he decreed that in the future the whole Church sh...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 16, 2023 | Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus "I am the good shepherd, says the Lord, I know my sheep, and mine know me." - John 10:14 Today is the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, designated the Friday after the Second Sunday of Pentecost. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church 478: "Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his a...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 15, 2023 | Thursday in the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven." - Mt. 5:20 Seeking the "spirit" of the Law, as God intended from the start, is more crucial than becoming righteous for the sake of adherence. Jesus challenges us to sincerely keep G...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 14, 2023 | Wednesday in the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time "I have come not to abolish but to fulfill." - Mt. 5:17 Jesus was a faithful Jew who followed the Sabbath rest and the traditional forms of piety. However, he also puts more importance to delivering people from their ailments and torments even if it means healing on a Sabbath. May we learn to adhere to the spiri...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 13, 2023 | Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church St. Anthony of Padua was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1195. He became a canon regular and then a Franciscan preaching the Gospel everywhere in Portugal and Italy. Both as a theologian and as a popular preacher, he fought vigorously against heresy. His preaching was inspired by the love of God...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 12, 2023 | Monday of the 10th Week in Ordinary Time "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord." - Ps. 34 When we persevere through the hardships of life while loving, serving, praising and glorifying the Lord, then we will be blessed by the reward promised to us by the Lord. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to persevere and remain strong in faith especially in times w...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 11, 2023 | Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ "While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, 'Take it; this is my body.' Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, 'This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.'" - Mt. 26:26-28 Th...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 10, 2023 | Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday "Praise God and tell everyone about the good things he has done for you, so that they too will honor him and sing his praises. Let everyone know what God has done. Never stop praising him. - Tobit 12:6 How do you thank God for all that He is and all that He has done for you? The gesture of the widow in today'...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 9, 2023 | Memorial of St. Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor of the Church The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Ephrem, Deacon (306-373), called "the Harp of the Holy Spirit." Ephrem is the great classic Doctor of the Syrian church. As deacon at Edessa, he vigorously combated the heresies of his time, and to do so more effectively wrote poems and hymns about the...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 8, 2023 | Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." - Mark 12:30-31 Love is God's greatest command to the human heart. All of us ac...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 7, 2023 | Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is the God of the living, not of the dead." - Mark 12:26-27 When we physically die in this life part of us lives on forever. For those who trust in the Lord, Christ promises eternal life. Let us seek to nurture that which no moth on this earth c...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 6, 2023 | Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time "Pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." - Mark 12:17 God is the source of everything, and we owe him our gratitude and appreciation for everything he has given us. Since He is the Lord of Creation, He deserves to be truly praised and acknowledged always, even when circumstances are no...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 5, 2023 | Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr For the first forty years of his life Boniface was known as Wynfrith. He was born in Devon and educated at the monastery at Exeter, and then joined the Benedictine abbey at Nursling, near Southampton. He was a teacher and preacher, but he desired to preach the gospel in a foreign land. In 718, Pope Gregory II comm...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 4, 2023 | Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity The fundamental dogma, on which everything in Christianity is based, is that of the Blessed Trinity in whose name all Christians are baptized. The feast of the Blessed Trinity needs to be understood and celebrated as a prolongation of the mysteries of Christ and as the solemn expression of our faith in this triune life of...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 3, 2023 | Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs Today is the Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions (d. 1886), the companions numbering twenty-one other Ugandan martyrs. They are the first martyrs of Sub-Saharan Africa and true witnesses of the Christian faith. Charles Lwanga, a catechist and a young leader, was martyred in 1886 with a group o...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 2, 2023 | Memorial of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Martyrs Pope St Damasus I dedicated his life to establishing and strengthening the Church after the great persecutions, and took much care over the restoration of the Roman catacombs and the proper burial of the martyrs there, including Marcellinus and Peter. As a boy, Pope Damasus had heard the story of these marty...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - June 1, 2023 | Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest On the first Thursday after Pentecost, the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest is observed on the particular calendars in Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Czech Republic and England and Wales. Approval for this feast was first granted by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discip...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - May 31, 2023 | Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary "The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby within me suddenly leapt for joy.'" - Luke 1:44 Is your presence a cause of joy for others? God's presence in us is life-giving. Joy accompanies those whose feet walk in the ways of God. Like Mary's and Elizabeth's, this joy is not easy and pain-free. A...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - May 30, 2023 | Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time "Peter spoke up and said, 'We have given up everything to follow you.'" - Mark 10:28 Everything we have is a gift from God. He sees our acts of generosity and He promises to reward us in abundant measure. God doesn't match our generosity. He surpasses it a hundredfold so that our joy may be full. Join the universa...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - May 29, 2023 | Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church "Go, sell what you have and give the money to the poor and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow me." - Mark 10:21 We can be obedient to God when we follow His commandments. But He calls us beyond obedience. As disciples of Christ, we are called to give Him all that we have and are in...

LISTEN | Morning Prayer - May 28, 2023 | Pentecost Sunday "Receive the Holy Spirit." - John 20:22 God cannot be outdone in generosity. By sending us the Holy Spirit, He too invites us to live a life of generous service to our brothers and sisters by sharing our giftedness to build His Body, the Church. How do you glorify God in and through the Holy Spirit? Join the universal Church in praying the...