Thursday, December 18, 2008

Bible Reading: Daniel 6:11

[Background: King Darius, at the behest of jealous advisers, prohibited all prayer for thirty days, unless it was prayer directly to him.]


Daniel 6:11
Even after Daniel heard that this law had been signed, he continued his custom of going home to kneel in prayer and give thanks to his God in the upper chamber three times a day, with the windows open toward Jerusalem.


[My commentary: Notice how Daniel routinely prayed to God and gave him thanks three times a day. How many Christians do that nowadays? And Daniel continued to do it when it was flat out prohibited at pains of death by the "government." So I point this out so that people can get back to noticing these types of positive role model examples in the Bible of how people "really lived." Daniel is not going to the temple, obviously, being among the captives, but the parallel is that Daniel by habit prayed three times a day and didn't just wait to go to "church" on Sundays, if you know what I mean.

Daniel had the mindset that I like and traditional Catholic keeping of the hours emulates. Thus, if things were arranged the way I would like, I would attend the morning hours, daily Mass and the evening hours.]