Morning prayers are the set of prayers Orthodox Christians say when they wake up. They thank God for keeping us through the night, ask forgiveness for our sins, and request His help for the day ahead.
Think of them as the Church’s way of starting your day with God before you check your phone or pour your coffee. You’re orienting yourself. Remembering who you are and whose you are before the refinery shift starts or the kids need breakfast or you hit I-10 traffic.
What’s Actually in Them?
The prayers themselves come from a specific tradition handed down through the centuries. Most Antiochian parishes recommend the “little red” Pocket Prayer Book, which you can pick up at Ancient Faith Publishing or sometimes in the church bookstore. It’s small enough to keep on your nightstand.
The sequence usually goes like this. You start with the Trisagion Prayers: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” Three times. Then you move into prayers specifically for morning. “Having arisen from sleep, we fall down before Thee, O Blessed One, and sing to Thee, O Mighty One, the angelic hymn: Holy! Holy! Holy! art Thou, O God; through the Theotokos, have mercy on us.”
There’s the prayer to the Holy Spirit, “O heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of truth”, which asks Him to come and dwell in us and cleanse us from every stain. The Lord’s Prayer appears multiple times. You’ll pray for God to enlighten your mind and heart now that He’s raised you from your bed. You’ll ask the Theotokos to pray for you. You’ll ask your patron saint to intercede.
The whole thing takes maybe ten or fifteen minutes if you’re reading slowly and paying attention. Less if you’ve memorized parts of it.
Why These Prayers Matter
Sleep is a kind of little death. We lose consciousness. We’re vulnerable and helpless. Every morning we wake up is a gift we didn’t earn. The prayers acknowledge that. They start with gratitude, not demands.
But they also do something else. They ask God to forgive us for whatever we did wrong yesterday, “in word or deed or thought”, and to help us live better today. That’s the rhythm of Orthodox spiritual life. We don’t pretend we got saved once and now we’re fine. We’re being saved. Daily. And these prayers are part of that process of healing and transformation.
When you pray in the morning, you’re also joining yourself to the whole Church. Monastics have been praying the daily cycle of services for centuries. Morning prayers are the lay version of that rhythm. You can’t go to Matins at 6 a.m. every day if you’re working a rotating schedule at the plant, but you can say your morning prayers. You’re still part of that unceasing prayer.
How to Actually Do This
Stand if you can, ideally in front of your icons. If you don’t have an icon corner yet, that’s fine. Start where you are. Some people light a candle. Some don’t. The point isn’t perfect staging.
Read the prayers out loud or quietly. Don’t rush. Let the words mean something. If your mind wanders, and it will, just bring it back. This isn’t a performance. It’s a conversation with God, even if you’re doing most of the talking using someone else’s words.
You’ll probably feel awkward at first if you’re new to this. That’s normal. Most of us didn’t grow up with formal prayer rules. It feels stiff compared to spontaneous “just talking to Jesus” prayers. But there’s wisdom in using the Church’s words. They teach you how to pray. They keep you from only asking God for stuff. They shape your heart over time in ways you won’t notice until later.
Starting Small
If the full morning prayers feel overwhelming, talk to your priest. He might suggest starting with just a few prayers and adding more as you get used to the rhythm. St. Seraphim of Sarov told people that if they couldn’t do the full rule, they could say the Lord’s Prayer three times, the Hail Mary three times, and the Creed once. The point is to start, not to be perfect.
And look, some mornings you’ll oversleep or the baby will be screaming or you’ll just forget. That’s life. Say what you can in the car. Try again tomorrow. God knows you’re learning. The goal is to build a habit that roots your day in Him, not to add another thing to feel guilty about when you mess up.
