This whole upending of the clocks and the routine have invited me this week to think again about how God sanctifies time, setting it apart for his own purposes.
Christians inherited from the Jews the regular marking of the day with prayer in the morning and in the evening. They also added other "hours," such as the noon hour to mark the remembrance of the Crucifixion.
So, whether you are thrilled for the time change or still adjusting to it, I offer this prayer called "The Dial" by Lancelot Andrewes who lived from 1555-1626. It marks the hours of the day in a way that involves our "regular days" in the context of God's grand plan of salvation. I find it helps me to raise my mind and heart toward the things of God, even as I live on this earth and in this time.
Anyway, here it is. I have updated most of the language in the copy I have (for example the "Thees" and "Thous" to "You", etc.), hopefully to make it more readable/pray-able.
*References to the hours, (example: "the third hour," etc.) can be best understood if you think of "zero hour" as being about 6 a.m. So, the third hour is 9 a.m., the sixth hour is noon, etc.
The Dial by Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626)
You who have put the times and seasons in Your own power: grant that we make our prayer unto You in a time convenient and when You may be found, and save us.
You who for us and for our salvation was born at dead of night: give us daily to be born again by renewing of the Holy Spirit, till Christ be formed in us unto a perfect person, and save us.
You who very early in the morning while the sun was yet arising did rise from the dead: raise us up daily unto newness of life, suggesting to us ways of repentance which Yourself knows, and save us.
You who did at the third hour* did send down Your Holy Spirit on the apostles: take not away the same Spirit from us, but renew Him daily within us, and save us.
You who at the sixth hour and on the sixth day did nail the sins of the world with Yourself on the Cross: blot out the handwriting of our sins which is against us and taking it out of the way, save us.
You who at the sixth hour did let down a great sheet from heaven to earth, a figure of Your Church: receive us up into it, sinners of the Gentiles, and with it receive us up together into heaven, and save us.
You who at the seventh hour did will that the fever should leave the nobleman's son: if anything abide of fever or sickness in our soul, take it away from us also, and save us.
You who at the ninth hour hour for us sinners and for our sins did taste of death: mortify in us our earthly members and whatsoever is contrary to Your will, and save us.
You who willed the ninth hour to be an hour of prayer: hear us while we pray in the hour of prayer and make us to obtain our prayer and our desires, and save us.
You who at the tenth hour did will Your Apostle, when he found Your Son, to declare with great joy: "We have found the Messiah": make us also in like sort to find the Messiah and when He is found in like sort to rejoice, and save us.
You who at evening did will to be taken down from the cross and buried in a tomb: take away our sins from us and bury them in Your sepulchre, covering with good works whatever we have committed ill, and save us.
You who did grant even at the eleventh hour of the day to send workers into Your vineyard and to fix a wage, notwithstanding they had stood all the day idle: do unto us like favour and, though it be late, as it were about the eleventh hour, accept us graciously when we return to You, and save us.
You who at the hour of supper did will to institute the most sacred mysteries** of Your body and blood: make us mindful of the same and partakers of the same, and that, never unto judgment but unto remission of sin and unto acquiring the gifts of the new covenant, and save us.
You who late in the night did by Your breathing confer on Your Apostles the authority as well to forgive as to retain sins: make us partakers of that authority, yet that it be unto remission, not unto retention, O Lord, and save us.
You who at midnight did awaken David your Prophet and Paul the Apostle to praise You: give us also songs by night and to remember You upon our beds, and save us.
You who with Your own mouth has declared that at midnight the Bridegroom shall come: grant that the cry "The Bridegrooms comes" may sound evermore in our ears, that so we be never unprepared to meet Him, and save us.
You who by the crowing of a cock did admonish Your Apostle and make him return to penitence: grant us also at the same admonition to do the same, to go forth and weep bitterly the things in which we have sinned against You, and save us.
You who has foretold that You will come to judgment in a day when we look not for You and at an hour when we are not aware: make us prepared every day and every hour to be ready for Your advent, and save us.
Amen.
**"Mysteries" was the term used by the early church for the sacraments.
