Prayer for the Day is the best thing to wake up to

As the owner of a radio alarm clock, I could theoretically start listening to the Today programme before I’m even awake, but I rarely do. I tell myself it’s too much for first thing; that it’s bound to put me in a bad mood with some interview or other; that Today can wait until tomorrow – or at least until I’ve had my breakfast and a blitz of the somewhat jollier Times Radio. The levée, I say in a Bertie Woosterish sort of way, demands something light.

But then I find myself waking up unintentionally early, switching to Radio 4 and discovering that Prayer for the Day is about to begin. Prayer for the Day is never light, and it certainly isn’t Woosterish, but it sounds gentle enough for the sixth hour, and so I lie there and listen.

There is something quite wonderful about having a bishop or spiritualist or whoever else speaking prayers in your ear when you’re in bed and well. In many ways Prayer for the Day is easier to relax into than Thought for the Day because it’s slightly more predictable. You never know what you’re going to get with the latter. It’s part of its charm, of course, that it jumps around from topic to topic, so that in the space of a few days you may be ushered between acts of modern martyrdom in Kenya and the sentient potential of AI in Buddhist thought. But when you crave something thought-provoking but also comforting in its vague familiarity, nothing beats a few minutes of prayer. 

Take an example from a couple of weeks ago. The guest, author Steve Taylor, spoke of an experience he had had at a railway station. He felt a sudden urge, he said, to love and connect with everyone around him.