I once posted an entry about what people around the world have for breakfast. It’s a fascinating topic.
Here is something else that is breakfast related.
What do you do before breakfast?
I think this has to do with having a “rule of life”.
This question comes because of a piece I read at Fast Company: What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast
Excerpt:
Mornings are a great time for getting things done. You’re less likely to be interrupted than you are later in the day. Your supply of willpower is fresh after a good night’s sleep. That makes it possible to turn personal priorities like exercise or strategic thinking into reality.
But if you’ve got big goals–and a chaotic a.m. schedule–how can you make over your mornings to make these goals happen?…
2. Picture the Perfect Morning
After you know how you’re spending your time, ask yourself what a great morning would look like. For me, it would start with a run, followed by a hearty family breakfast. After getting people out the door, I’d focus on long-term projects like my books. Here are some other ideas for morning enrichment:For personal growth:
Read through a religious text: Sacred texts can teach us about human nature and history, even if they’re not from a religion you subscribe to. If they are, pray or meditate and get to know your beliefs in a deeper way.
Train for something big: Aiming to complete a half-marathon, a triathlon, or a long bike ride will keep you inspired as you take your fitness to the next level.
Do art projects with your kids:. Mornings don’t have to be a death march out the door. Enjoy your time with your little ones at a time of day when you all have more patience.
For professional growth:
Strategize: In an age of constant connectivity, people complain of having no time to think. Use your mornings to picture what you want your career and organization to look like in the future.
Read articles in professional journals: Benefit from other people’s research and strategic thinking, and gain new insights into your field.
Take an online class: If a job or career change is in your future, a self-paced class can keep your skills sharp.….
So…. your turn.
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Write.
Early mornings are the most productive time for hard mental work.
Prayers
Make Mystic Monk coffee
Read email and write to my dad as he’s 3,000 miles away
Read Fr. Z. / various others on occasion
Start our home schooling when everyone is ready to go
Oh, and breakfast is usually a piece of whole wheat toast with Trader Joe’s crunchy peanut butter and occasionally I add a thin layer of Nutella under the peanut butter.
Well, I’ll walk you through a morning.
Up between 4:30 and 5:00
Shower 10 minutes or so, cold (it’s my penance for sins against human life)
Say Matins, Lauds, Prime
Pray rosary on the way to work (about a 20 minute drive)
Arrive at work between 6:30 and 7:00
Various things. Will use this morning as an example (in at about 6:45am)
—-
Prepped Chemicals to go out for sprayer (roughly 50 gallons)
Loaded Chemicals onto tender truck (housed in 2.5 gallon jugs)
Did inventory of Roundup Weathermax
Calculated rest of season’s needs for Weathermax
Updated Chemical logs
Ate some toast and got a soda around 8:30.
That is a fairly light morning for me.
I do one thing in the morning hardly anyone does, I bet: I sing. I have a terrible singing voice and I have this software called “Singing Coach” (Unfortunately, they have gone out of business.) I used to use it a lot to practice singing different songs. Anyway, nowadays, in the morning, I use it to sing one octave, ascending and descending, and then I listen to myself singing the one octave. That is about the only unexpected thing I do in the morning.
Go to Mass.
I’m laughing out loud at the suggestion to do art projects with the kids before breakfast. Clearly the author never saw a child, let alone raised one.
Before breakfast, I feed the cats, and I go downstairs to the kitchen. That’s pretty much how the day starts. :-)
5:15: Rise, shower, iron.
5:35: empty dishwasher, while praying also fix breakfast for kids.
5:50: Sit, with coffee, morning offering, act of Faith, Hope, Love; spiritual reading for 10 mins; invocation of favorite saints for family, Church, world.
6:25: talk w. wife before she goes to work
7:00: read, check blogs.
8:00: housework.
8:30: off to Morning Mass down the street.
PS–I am a teacher, “off” for summer.
Nurse headache
Glass of water
Remember previous night’s conversations
Regret previous night’s conversations
Pint of Guinness
Since I moved into my new apartment, I have devised my own ‘morning schedule’:
Get up usually between 5:15-5:30 am
Shower and dress
Morning prayers (ones I’ve said since my childhood, plus Litany of Loreto, Memorare to Our Lady, Prayer for the Pope, Prayer to Ven. Pauline Jaricot for Philip Gerard Johnson [been offering the last two ever since you had them printed here, Father Z] ). I offer these standing and ‘facing the East’ at my balcony window
Daily Rosary (seated in my rocking chair next to the window)
Rarely have breakfast. Get up at 9:30am, shower if not before bed. Then off to work. My body has never been a morning lover. If I could I would sleep till noon and work till midnight.
Most people a dreary eyed at Midnight Mass. I am wide awake as if it was daytime. Maybe I was born under a full moon or something?
I wake up to the sound of either a noisy toddler or a crying infant. I change the toddler’s diaper, bring her downstairs, buckle her in her booster seat, warm the breastmilk for the baby, give the toddler a bowl of cereal, load the breastmilk into the bottle, take the bottle upstairs, change the baby’s diaper, feed baby the bottle, burp the baby, change baby’s clothes, go downstairs, cleanup the mess the toddler made, change the toddler’s clothes, go upstairs and change my own clothes– oh, wait… breakfast??
Lol, lately the only thing I can do before breakfast is puke. If I don’t eat breakfast right when I wake up, I get to dry heave and throw up stomach acid. (I apologize for the lovely mental picture). But that is only when I am pregnant. (2 more weeks till due date!!) Otherwise, I normally shower, get dressed, do my hair and get ready for the day. All other things must wait until after breakfast. (I am a big breakfast eater, cold cereal). However, with kids now waking up at unpredictable times (5:50 this morning) I am usually changing diapers, taking kids to the toilet, and getting the kids dressed, before puking and then eating my own breakfast before the kids break down and demand their own.
@Philangelus, I agree, making a kid do anything before breakfast is like trying to herd cats. My eldest is one of those slow to wake up, and will wander around like a zombie for at least 30 minutes after getting up, where the next child is cranky and whiny until he gets his breakfast.
Run
Morning Prayers
Feed children
My breakfast
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich and coffee, which, by the way, go very well together
Morning Offering
Turn on computer and check weather forecast (95 today, 102 Fri, 106 Sat. Good times)
Print out NYT crossword puzzle
Check the news and blogs
Drink a glass of water
Go to daily Mass
Come home, eat breakfast and do puzzle
I don’t do anything before breakfast. It’s the first thing I do.
Am I the only one who showers at night before going to bed? Midwesterner go to bed very clean.
Morning Schedule varies according to Mass time
Get up 6:oo take medication which must be taken same time daily on empty stomach. Brush teeth, Dress (am already clean).If Mass is later time, or if I have been on skype to various younguns late, I get up at 7:00
Say few morning prayers. Look at emails and blogs, I fast until after Mass. I read mail before Mass to pray for intentions sent or news to pray about at Mass.
Mass at 7:00 or 8:30 or 10:00 depending on priest, so I work around Mass.
Back by 9:30 at the latest usually. Eat and drink something light like porridge and coffee, or a banana and coffee after Mass. Pray,rosary with no distractions, if I have not prayed it in the Church.
10:00 ish, start working on writing, checking email, sources, cell phone messages, etc.
If I have to shop, I do it in the morning, as I walk everywhere and do not like going out at night by myself. This morning, I did food shopping, cleaned the bathroom, and did laundry in the am-which is done in a sink by hand. As I mentioned, shopping consists in walking to the shops.
Work, read, until 12 when I say the Angelus by myself. The English do not eat lunch until 1:00.
Have lunch about 1:00, usually a working lunch while reading or doing something else-I eat very lightly. No longer morning. Afternoon is similar, except I get my extended prayer time in. I have a tendency to go to bed late, as I am living with students, and it is not quiet, so I have been sleeping in later this week until they leave, bless them, I talk to them off and on in the hallway….or my ex-American students phone me on skype late, as they are six hours different. I do not get much sleep. I used to be hyper-active, but now I am just active. And, I take my shower at night….very interesting we have different customs.
Usually breakfast IS the first thing I do in the morning while reading an article or two in Catholic Answers or Lay Witness magazine. Then I read the daily readings and reflection in Magnificat. Before starting work I check my personal emails and try to weed out blog posts in Google Reader.
Looks like s0me new universal legislation is needed to implement Vatican II, regarding lay participation in the Liturgy of the Hours–that all Catholics say Lauds before breakfast. Who ever heard of Lauds after breakfast? Noon Mass is common, but noon Lauds? Absurd on its face. So if Lauds not said before breakfast, it never gets said, and the fullness of Catholicism prayer is missed.
But it seems to me that Vesper can be said either before or after supper. Right?
Most mornings, when I’m good, the first thing I do is pray. I ask for God’s help, for Jesus to be with me, and I place all my life in the loving hands of Our Blessed Mother.
Recounting this now has reminded me that I’ve been remiss in this lately.
Wake up between 4:30 and 5:00
Morning prayers (from 1962 Missal and Father Harden prayerbook)
Shave/Shower
Rosary on the way to work
Check morning emails
Catch up with the news and Father Z over a breakfast of string cheese followed by raisin bran.
Life is good!
Henry Edwards, I agree, but I mislaid my breviary in my travels Three months ago, I would have written the following.
Get up, take medicine, brush teeth, say Lauds/Vigils, then go to Mass. breakfast after Mass, no matter what time it is in the morning. Sadly, I cannot afford to replace breviary. I always said Vespers after dinner in America, but as dinner is late in England, so before din-dins, and then Compline at bed time.
I am open to someone replacing my St. Michael’s Monastic Diurnal….
Dress
Matins, Lauds, Prime
Dig weeds in the yard, water the tomatoes (dying), think about a fall garden, laundry, clean up kitchen if needed
Sometimes change clothes (depends on the work in the yard) — We shower at night. too, Supertradmum… I can’t imagine all those dirty feet in bed!!
Open emails and read Fr. Z first and then several other blogs/news sources
Start work (self-employed CPA, office at home)
Terce at 9:00 or thereabouts – unless I’m DEEP in work and forget :-(
Breakfast is usually about 10:00 a.m. Today it’s after noon and it hasn’t happened yet.
4.30am: rise and shamble to kitchen to make coffee. . .growl at coffeemaker to Hurry UP!
4.34am: first cup of coffee
4.45am: Begin writing the day’s homily
4.50am: second cup of coffee
4.55am: Begin writing the second paragraph of homily
5.15am: third cup of coffee
5.30am: delete second draft of homily, start over
5.31am: stare at screen, pray, question vocation
6.00am: begin third draft of homily
6.05am: resist urge for a fourth cup of coffee
6.06am: fourth cup of coffee
6.15am: check blog to see if I’ve preached on the day’s readings before
6.20am: No luck, begin fourth draft of homily
6.30am: shower, pray, question vocation, pray some more
6.45am: allow pressure to build until Something Homily-like appears on the screen
7.35am: email “homily” to self, don habit, go to the office
7.45am: print homily, open church, prepare books
8.00am: hear confessions
8.30am: begin Mass
8.45am: preach “homily”
9.00am: flee to the sacristy and pray that the Spirit used my “homily” to help someone
9.05am: breakfast
Fr. Philip Neri, OP
Supertradmum, I’m with you, showers at night are a great part of the night-time ritual.
When my eyes open, I usually thank God for preserving me through the night, and ask Him to bless my family and country for the day.
Clean up for the day, then breakfast. It’s usually a blueberry bagel with butter and a nice cold glass of OJ. Breakfast out is superb, complete with eggs, but I rarely do it.
I admire the prayer practices many of you have, and Mass.
Shave
Shower
Lauds
Private prayers and intentions
Rosary
Prime
Breakfast
Rise, shower, dress, clean bathroom sink & toilet, make coffee, start laundry, lauds, drink coffee.
Morning Offering, Consecration to the BVM, and Prayer to St Joseph
Check email, headlines, etc.
Shower and shave
Lauds, followed by daily reading from the old Martyrology and “Divine Intimacy”
Feed animals
Feed me (usually nothing but a granola bar and water)
Work begins…
I’m with the cleaning poopy diapers and breastfeeding crowd.
Immediately upon rising I say a prayer that St Bernadette wrote to a friend in a letter: “I rise in the name of Jesus who redeemed me by His Precious Blood, may all I do and suffer this day be for love of Him.”
Shower, dress
Lauds
Veni Creator for priests
Lectio Divina with the readings for Mass
Rosary (now or later)
A few domestic chores
Mass, followed by one hour of Adoration when possible. Father has begun to expose the Blessed Sacrament after daily Mass. Deo Gratias!
Breakfast
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Not every morning to be sure in mine, but married life offers one more option than others have mentioned.
Henry Edwards: I should have mentioned that I pray the Liturgy of the Hours in the church before daily Mass.
Supertradmum: I take my showers at night. After a day in the high 90’s or triple digits, I can’t imagine going to bed without one! Even in the winter, though, I prefer my shower at night. I was born in the Midwest so perhaps that’s why I prefer it that way.
Fr. Neri: LOL! I pray for priests in my daily prayers – perhaps I should add a specific prayer for homily preparation!
5:30 Rise, remember to thank the Lord for getting me through the night
Shower, dress, feed the cat
6:30 Off to Mass
The general plan: Rise, 2 cups coffee, Matins & Lauds, Holy Hour, shower etc, Mass, Prime.
6:25am: out of bed, feed cats, Morning Offering
6:30ish-6:45: coffee, breakfast, read WDTPRS, email, news
6:45-7:25: shower, hair, make-up, get dressed
7:25: grab the lunch I packed the night before and (usually) walk to work
A couple prayers I say upon waking which I haven’t seen many mention here is the Prayer to My Guardian Angel, “Angel of God my guardian dear to whom God’s love commits me here . . . .”
and the Morning Offering. Guardian Angels exist and it helps to ask them for help everyday!
Wake at 0501: brush teeth, wash face, put on scruffy clothes, first cup of coffee, check a few websites, walk the dogs (if I’m going to the office 2.5 mile walk, otherwise 4.5 mile walk) during which I pray a rosary, a litany and a few other prayers; on returning home, feed the dogs, then my own breakfast around 0700. Reading these others I’m feeling like a schmuck for not praying the LOTH more often.
Oh yes, PostCatholic, once in a while my better half tells me off before breakfast too, usually deservedly so. Isn’t that what you meant? ;-)
Before last November, woke up at 5:45 (or near it), went downstairs, took my medicine, milked the cows, feed the animals, came in and showered and dressed, then ate breakfast.
Since November, due to recurring bouts of illness, it’s been wake up at seven or after, unload the dishwasher, and do anything from write a paper to knit to make rosaries, before I ate, since my medicine says an hour before you eat. Some days, I forget to eat at all!
Because of problems with blood sugar, I eat my breakfast right away, in the first hour.
After that, I say my prayers.
Thank you, RichardC! I too have a terrible singing voice and aspire to sing chant, of all things. I’d been tearing my hair out, trying to learn solfedge. (Those of you who find this ridiculously easy, try not to laugh–chant is simple only if you have a schola available.) I did find “Singing Coach” online–yep, they’re still in business–and am downloading their XP/Vista/Windows 7 lite version for a test drive. You did me a very good turn today. May God bless you for it.
I forgot! I do have a quick ritual that I follow in the a.m. when I awaken–I pray to God and thank him for seeing me through the night and ask him for his help in the day. I resolve to do good and avoid evil, with his grace and Our Lady’s as well. Then I sprinkle myself with holy water, THEN I eat breakfast. Rich, that peanut butter and jelly sandwich and IS a good breakfast. Very nutritious.
-Open Eyes, realize I’m still alive, thank God. Pray the Anima Christi.
-Play a few games of Internet Scrabble using the Sowpods dictionary, and most of my morning opponents are in England. (Play the Australians in the evening–depends who is awake!) The American dictionary is TWL and is too constrictive. Go http://www.isc.ro to join the fun.
-Make lunches for husband and children (when school is in session).
-Today made husband a breakfast burrito.
-Get breakfast for elderly mother-in-law and clean her cat’s litterbox.
-Clean the kitchen, make the beds
-Pray the rosary
-Coffee and breakfast. (Love Frosted Mini Wheats with bananas or strawberries).
Clarification: Play speed Scrabble…my preferred total game time is 10 minutes.
Wash
Stretching exercises
Dress
Walk the dog
Daily Mass
Feed the dog
Breakfast
If it’s a good day, I sleep until my alarm clock goes off at 8 a.m. (don’t judge me–I stay up late) and my three-year-old comes to turn it off.
If it’s a bad day, my three-year-old is jumping around on my bed long before 8 a.m.
Usually the crucifix at the top of the stairs reminds me to say a quick prayer. Need to improve my prayer habits big time.
I take my thyroid medication, and then have to wait an hour before I eat. Hate that.
Let the dog outside.
My son is allowed to watch some PBS while I go through emails and read the news online. My son permits me about 15 minutes of this before I am pestered into sitting on the couch with him and watching Dinosaur Train.
Morning offering.
Review readings for Mass.
Attend Mass
wake at 5:30, dress and go to Dads and milk cows for hour and a half, coffee maker in barn keeps me going, then home to eat breakfast by 7:30, check email and read Day by Day cartoon and of course check up on Fr Z and a blog I post on “Over the Rhine and into the Tiber” repeat 7 days a week 52 a year. Then I go to work for the rest of the day, Oh yeah, constantly ask to St. Isidore to keep me in mind in his prayers and also ask my deceased son Anton for his prayers too. He was only 3 so I figure he has a good chance of being a saint, I need all the help I can get with this drought we are in
I do have a rule of life with the privilege of being a member of a Third Order. Before breakfast I pray, attend Holy Mass, and spend some time at the tabernacle. Some days have other duties to be completed before breakfast but that is the main schedule.
wake up.
Say: “good morning God”or “Good God, morning”, depending
get coffee and newspaper
say the daily offering and the consecration to the holy spirit.
log onto wdtprs !
5.15a Awake; sitting at computer, reading email, watching for Vatican Bollettino
5.20a Enter Bollettino data into databases; do a website build
6.00a Upload website update; send normal notices of update
6.22a Walk to Bus (to work)
7.30a Arrive at work, startup computer, and finally – have breakfast
8.00a Work starts …
“For personal growth:
Read through a religious text: Sacred texts can teach us about human nature and history, even if they’re not from a religion you subscribe to.”
Ah, the demonic pablum of the worldly view. When flirtation, or worse, with misunderstandings and foolishness actually becomes the virtue, the committed practice, of one’s own religion.
Because here in silicon valley, all spokes of a wagon wheel lead to the Center, whatever that is…or, as those serious Christians believe, Whomever that is. But for us fast companyists, it’s the lite approach to religionS, plural. After all, who can say. I mean, we don’t subscribe to ritualized blood satanism, but should we include that even still in “sacred”, according to someone, somewhere, texts that do in fact quite reveal human history and nature? Well, I guess so, by our own logic! So why do we feel so uncomfortable reading this? Hmm…what’s that you say, natural law? What…? God of Jacob…? His Son…? The…cross…?
“…but the Son of Man having come, shall he find the faith upon the earth?”
@Brad: I’m sorry but I have no idea what you just wrote.
At night I set three alarms on my phone at five minute intervals, starting about two hours before my muster time.
Generally, my mornings go like this:
Wake up, turn my alarm off, lay in bed, drift off another five minutes before the next alarm. Turn that alarm off, lay in bed, drift off another five minutes. Last alarm goes off. Set a new alarm for half an hour later. That alarm goes off. I look at the time and ask myself yet again why I keep doing this to myself. Lay in bed another ten minutes. Finally force myself out of bed. I take a shower and shave. Sometimes, I’ll shave before my shower if my roommate is already in the shower. I shave using a safety razor (with Proraso), which takes me about fifteen minutes if I want a good shave that’s relaxing. I can do it in about eight if I’m really pressed for time. Rinse out and wipe down the sink. Get dressed and pretend to make my bed by pulling the top blanket over the mass of sheets on top of the mattress. Look at my boots and decide they don’t look bad enough to attract attention and promise myself I’ll shine them that night. Head out the door and say my first prayer of the morning (“Please God, don’t let me be late…”) Get into formation, and march to breakfast.
Just two more months (God willing) until I’m not at a training command anymore…
Children – grown and gone. Wake, let dogs out, wash, dress, pray, let dogs in, fix coffee, eat Greek yogurt with honey and Kashi. Wait for hubby to rise and then have more coffee. Days alternate with outdoor gardening, indoor laundry, general cleaning or off to church to clean, and prepare for next time a priest will come. Two days a week, up at 4:45 to take husband for medical treament -125 mi one way. We have breakfast and the Rosary on the way…God is good to us!
Who has time in the morning? I usually have precious little time in the evening after finally getting the kids to bed, then I wake up at 6 to go in to work (I’m a teacher). No time at all.
If I did have time?
Real prayer time, a quality breakfast, and some quiet time staring at nature’s morning.
@Supertradmum
Am I the only one who showers at night before going to bed?
No. I do too. My hair is too long and healthy to shower in the morning. It takes me close to an hour to blow dry it because it retains so much water.
I suffer from a nasty case of stress/anxiety-induced insomnia so I typically don’t sleep well at night, leaving me chronically tired. In order to maximize the amount of possible time I have to sleep, I keep my mornings pretty basic. Wake up, get dressed, brush hair, brush teeth, etc. If there’s time I eat breakfast, but I try to get to work by 7:00 before everyone else gets there so I can put in an hour or so of work in before my phone starts ringing.
I’m being transferred to a rural office soon so I’ll have a nice 130 km commute one way each day which will give me time to do something sanctifying on my way to and from work each day. One of my biggest beefs about my current situation is that my commute to work isn’t long enough. (I’m the person who used to always work the afternoon shift because I liked to start my day with a long morning drive.)
• Morning offering
• Lately, a spontaneous “I adore Thee O Christ and I bless Thee because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world” has been popping out, too.
• Walk/run + interlude halfway for spiritual reading, meditation on same, & general glorying in God’s morning–in blessed, precious solitude
• Breakfast
• The rest of the day
First I figure out “Am I waking from a nap or is it the AM?”
OK. It’s the AM
Shake my knees a little to get the kinks of the night out. (OK, I’m in my “golden years” OK?)
Sit up and say my morning offering
Rush (as much as my arthritic knees let me rush) to the WC (not the wayside chapel) before I have an “accident” (Am I being too explicit?)
Come back and finish morning prayers.
Repeat my morning offering to make sure I’m paying attention
My 3 Hail Mary prayers asking Mary to keep me from Mortal Sin this day and venial sin, too (if possible).
2 OF’s, 2 HM’s and 2 GB’s in Honor of Our Lords Precious Blood lost along the way to Calvary,
while looking at the Crucifix and meditating on His Sufferings for us to remind myself that anything that crosses me this day is absolutely nothing.
Magnificat for Bishop Finn. (we were requested to do it for the month of May but I shall continue until his problems are solved)
Turn off the outside lights, (unless my husband beat me to it.)
Fridays start wash going (unless my husband beat me to it)
Set breakfast table
If husband is up and about we’ll have breakfast and computer Church news. together
If not, I’ll do a little bookstore bookkeeping/ordering/ticketing/etc. chore OR get on the glider OR say my first rosary of the day OR say my Catholic Answer Blog prayers, until husband comes out so we can have breakfast and computer news. (Fr Z, Pewsitter, Spirit Daily e-mail news from friends and newsletters) together .
ACardinal
That right, I forgot to mention that I also say my guardian angel prayer and St. Michael prayer right after the 2OF2HM2GBs and before my Magnificat.
Do a round of the blogs, including wdtprs ;)
Forgot to include:
• Novena prayer of Consecration of the Priestly Society of SSPX to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
I am not a member but I am profoundly grateful to the SSPX for holding onto the EF and for training the priest who brought me to it.
Our world desperately needs men who can pray like this: http://sspx.org/District_Superiors_Ltrs/2012_ds_ltrs/consecration_of_sspx_to_sacred_heart-english.pdf
Per this: http://sspx.org/District_Superiors_Ltrs/2012_ds_ltrs/novena_in_preparation_for_consecration_to_sacred_heart_6-5-2012.htm
!Viva La Corazon del Cristo Rey!
Check my phone to see if I can sleep longer.
Coffee for me, cocoa for kids. We recently adopted the “morning basket” which contains varying levels of living books on a variety of topics, including religion. We read a few pages from each, discuss, consume our morning vital fluids. It’s a way to do some learnin together across age groups. MB also includes our consecration to BVM, morning prayer and what I call mini-rosary. Mini-rosary is 1 hail Mary per mystery. This way even the 4 year old follows along and we learn the mysteries and prayers. Then breakfast, then nature walk!
PsJ
Ezra made me laugh. Prayers Ezra.
Resolving to pray Lauds before coffee after reading others posts.
Get up at about 6.30 am. Say Lauds followed by prayers to the Virgin, St Joseph, St Michael, my guardian angel, for priests and for the holy souls. Then breakfast. I can’t function any further without breakfast – it takes all my willpower to fully concentrate during the prayers. I used to say them after breakfast and showering sometimes but as I am usually running late, I’d end up missing them. So I now say them before anything else. Other things in the morning I can go without.
With all this being said, how do we end our day? What prayers do we say after our Examination of Conscience?? :)
I end the day with night prayers with my kids. Guardian Angel. Visit we beseech thee oh Lord this habitation and drive from it all the snares of the enemy. May thy holy Angels dwell herein to preserve us in peace and may thy blessing be always upon us. God the Father bless us, Jesus Christ defend and keep us, the virtue of the Holy Ghost enlighten and sanctify us this night and
forever. May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. May the Divine assistance remain always with us. Amen.