If you would like a much simpler version of the Daily Office, I encourage you to check out the one designed for families here. The collect prayer this morning is below. I especially love and appreciate the first line of this prayer: “you have brought us safely to the beginning of this day.” It speaks to me of God’s care and protection and our need for both.

Another element I love about this collect–and other prayers from the Daily Office–is that they put important theological and spiritual truths about our relationship with God into accessible words. They give me words to pray that I might not consider left to myself.

These prayers also allow me to bring my life before God yet without being self-centred. They draw me outside of myself and place my life within a larger reality of who God is and what he is doing in the world.

Lastly, these prayers are always profoundly rooted in the nature and character of God as revealed in Scripture. They’re deeply and structurally trinitarian, bringing me and my prayers into the reality of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Here’s the collect from the family version of the morning office from the above website:

“O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, you have brought us safely to the beginning of this day: Defend us by your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin nor run into any danger; and that, guided by your Spirit, we may do what is righteous in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”