One of the daily duties of the Jewish priests, was the burning of incense night and morning in the temple. In holy scripture, prayer is likened to incense. Let my prayer (says the Psalmist) be directed as incense in Thy sight. God looks for it from us Christians. But how often is this offering of the incense of prayer omitted? How many hurry off in a morning, into the cares of life and the temptations of the world, without prayer, or with only an hurried form of words, uttered without earnestness or heart, without intention or thought, and it is scarcely, if at all, otherwise at night. What a contempt of God is this! What a loss to themselves! The spirit of prayer, in those who are seeking to live to God and please Him, will indeed go much beyond this morning and evening incense of prayer. It will burn on, like the lamps in the temple, without going out; though not always with form of words, or outward bodily devotion. As we walk in the spirit, we shall pray in the spirit. But negligence, as to private morning and evening prayer, is not only dangerous to the soul, but often the commencement of a sad fall into sin, of departure from religion and God, and of final ruin. A prayerless man or woman treads on the verge of the precipice of Hell.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp