The 24/7 Night and Day Prayer Movement
“We intend to bring about in the Church a movement of prayer, placing 24-hour continuous Eucharistic adoration at the centre.” – Cardinal Cláudio Hummes
Catholic Communities of Prayer is simply responding to the prayer movement that has been called forth by Cardinal Hummes and the Congregation of Clergy. The Holy Spirit is moving in the Catholic Church, and is calling Her to enter into the 24/7 night and day prayer movement. The Lord is awakening the hearts of thousands of men and women young and old to give of themselves to night and day prayer. The Church has responded to this call in the past, and now it is time for us to respond wholeheartedly again to the Lord’s desire. CCOP is here to help the Church move and respond to this call.
The History of 24/7 Night and Day Prayer:
The 24/7 night and day prayer movement that the Congregation of Clergy is calling forth today, is nothing new to the Church. Throughout Church history, there have been significant prayer movements in which men and women turned to God in 24/7 night and day prayer and praise and worship. Three examples of perpetual corporate prayer in Church History are listed below.
King David in the Old Testament:
The most vivid example of 24/7 night and day corporate prayer in the Old Testament is when King David appointed 288 prophetic singers and 4,000 musicians to minister before the Lord night and day.
- “Four thousand shall offer praises to the Lord with the instruments which I have made for praise." (I Chron. 9:33)
- "David and the chiefs of the service also set apart for the service certain of the sons who should prophesy with lyres, with harps, and with cymbals. The number of them along with their brethren, who were trained in singing to the Lord, all who were skilful, was two hundred and eighty-eight." (I Chron. 23:5)
- "Now these are the singers, the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites, dwelling in the chambers of the temple free from other service, for they were on duty day and night.” (I Chron. 25:1,7)
The same type of worship was embraced and reinstituted by seven subsequent leaders in Israel: Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, Josiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
The Apostles in the New Testament:
In the New Testament, God’s desire for unending corporate prayer is also clearly shown in the following four examples:
- First, the Early Church’s hierarchy structure shows that their first business was to corporate prayer. They had a time pressure problem. So, seven men were selected to do works of charity. The rest continued to devote themselves to prayer. “But we will devote ourselves to prayer.” (Acts 6:4)
- In addition, after the Ascension of Jesus, the apostles, “returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.” (Luke 24:52-53)
- The first account of the disciples in Acts shows that, “all these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.” (Acts 1:14)
- And, “they held steadfastly to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)
The Catholic Church and The Sleepless Ones:
The first example of 24/7 night and day corporate prayer after the time of the apostles was around 400 AD when Alexander Akimites and the Sleepless Ones, also known as the Acoematae, established Laus Perennis in Asia Minor. Alexander and his 300 Basilian monks devoted themselves to prayer and praise without intermission, night and day. With his monks he found the “great monastery” of Gomon near present day Istanbul, Turkey where perpetual praise went uninterrupted for hundreds of years.
- “The feature that distinguished the Acoemetae from the other Basilian monks was the uninterrupted service of God. Their monasteries numbered hundreds of inmates and sometimes went into the thousands."
- "With them the divine office was the literal carrying out of Psalm 118: ‘Seven times a day have I given praise to Thee,’ consisting as it did of seven hours: prime, tierce, sext, none, vespers, compline, nocturns and lauds."
- "The influence of the Acoemetae on Christian life was considerable. The splendor of their religious services largely contributed to shape the liturgy. Our modern perpetual adoration is a remnant of it.”
