Liturgy Of The Hours

[AuthorOfMyLife]

I usually pray Morning prayer and Compline--sometimes on Saturdays or special days I'll pray Evening prayer, too.

I don't have a way to pray aloud, really (not much privacy in my house, and praying in the church out-loud in the morning doesn't work, as other people are there)--so I pray without speaking.

I love the "Grant us a peaceful night and a perfect end" phrase, too. But I REALLY love (in "Compline") the invocation to God to send His angels to guard our house as we sleep. That one was taken out of the New LOtH except on solemnities, and I wish it hadn't been!

Some other phrases I love:
"...in Your light we see light..."
Psalm 47 (I think: "My soul is thirsting for the Lord")
"the Lord is a warrior! Lord is His Name!"
And so on!

My mind does wander a lot, and I do struggle with mechanically praying (speeding through it, without really thinking about WHO I am praying to), but I work with it.

I have never chanted the Liturgy of the Hours or prayed it with a group--this is one of things I am looking forward to if God calls me to a religious order. Speaking/chanting with others would be wonderful, I think.

However, I must confess, that I don't know the order of the prayers that well! The way I pray it is that I use Universalis (a Kindle, etc. program) or I use the Divinium Officium website (or iPod app). I prefer the DO, as it is much more beautiful, but it takes longer, and sometimes Universalis is more convenient.

I was reading yesterday (in the Catechism of the Catholic Church--the big green one, you know) that priests should try to foster the Liturgy of the Hours in their churches, especially having Vespers on I think Saturday / Sunday. We NEVER have that where I live--but I wish we did!

 

Thank you for starting this thread!

 

[Alberto Guimaraes]

Peace and Good!

Sometimes I pray the Liturgy of Hours with my wife. We pray in Portuguese language.

Jesus, Mary and Francis be with you and bless you!

Br. Alberto Guimaraes SFO

Secular Franciscan Fraternity of Braga - Portugal

[Lilllabettt]

When I entered, the LOTH was a serious challenge for me. No matter how many times it was explained to me I just couldn't get it. I was pretty much despairing, when all of a sudden *whooosh* all of a sudden one morning I understood how to do it. I felt it was kind of like becoming fluent in a foreign language ... its so hard until you get it and then its natural.

 

My diocese has Vespers in the cathedral on the last Sunday of every month. So guess where I will be tonight? :proud:

[OnlySunshine]

I remember when I lived with the Carmelite community as an aspirant for 3 days, one of the Sisters, who would become my Postulant Mistress if I entered, was assigned to direct me in community prayer and help me with the Liturgy of the Hours.  However, she was surprised that I did not need much help at all (except for a few page numbers) because I knew all the motions and when to bow.  The good thing was that I had visited 2 other convents (including the Motherhouse) so I was pretty familiar with it and I learn quickly.  Plus, I had prayed it on retreat with the CFRs and Sisters of Life.  All that practice really helped me.  :)

[NonNovi]

I just received my new pocket sized Diurnale Romanum today :) It's the 1962 breviary without matins.

Since I started to pray the Divine Office I usually prayed Lauds and Vespers, with one of the little hours during the day depending on when I had a moment to pray. When I have the time I add other prayer times, especially compline if possible.

[John Paul]

I love the office and TRY to pray all the hours I can get in.

[oremus1]

I just received my new pocket sized Diurnale Romanum today It's the 1962 breviary without matins.

Since I started to pray the Divine Office I usually prayed Lauds and Vespers, with one of the little hours during the day depending on when I had a moment to pray. When I have the time I add other prayer times, especially compline if possible.

​There is a huge difference between the 1962 office and the revised modern office. the old one says the same number of psalms in *one week* as the new one does in *a month*.

how does a layperson or priest fit in the entire 62 office AND rosary AND daily mass AND other forms of prayer and spiritual reading with a full time job? do they not sleep? matins takes me like 40 minutes alone, sometimes longer if it is one of 3 nocturns. how do priest do it?

 

 

[John Paul]

Theyy have to wake up 2 hours before the morning mass.

[oremus1]

Theyy have to wake up 2 hours before the morning mass.

​what do you mean, and cram the whole office into that gap? not sure I understand what you are saying

My question was, how does a layperson or priest fit in the entire 62 office AND rosary AND daily mass AND other forms of prayer and spiritual reading with a full time job? do they not sleep? matins takes me like 40 minutes alone, sometimes longer if it is one of 3 nocturns. how do priest do it?

[John Paul]

what do you mean 62 offices?

[puellapaschalis]

​what do you mean, and cram the whole office into that gap? not sure I understand what you are saying
My question was, how does a layperson or priest fit in the entire 62 office AND rosary AND daily mass AND other forms of prayer and spiritual reading with a full time job? do they not sleep? matins takes me like 40 minutes alone, sometimes longer if it is one of 3 nocturns. how do priest do it?

​I've had periods when I could pray the monastic diurnal (so no Matins) with daily Mass occasionally. It became quite a quiet, withdrawn life, but it was very hard to get everything done.

However, the diurnale/breviarium romanum - mandated for clergy before the reforms and in use in 1962 - was itself the product of a reform of the Roman breviary in (I think) the early 20thC. The scheme of psalms is different than that laid down by St. Benedict. The Compline psalms changed each day and an extra psalm was added to Vespers. This lightened the load of Matins somewhat.

Historically it was astonishingly rare that a lay person could manage the whole one-week breviary (or even the diurnal!) alongside the obligations of secular life. Hence the concept of the Rosary as the 'poor man's psalter' - 150 Aves corresponding to 150 psalms - and the development of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, which preserves the structure of the Breviary but greatly pared down.

I was, I think, against this backdrop that the post-Vatican II reformers made their changes. They (or was it Sacrosanctum Concilium itself? The difference is important!) wanted to 'open up' the possibility of praying the Breviary to lay people. In switching to a four-week psalter this was certainly achieved, but in my view it is debatable whether what was discarded, particularly the age-old pattern of the one-week psalter, was worth it, particularly when the Rosary and Little Office were already extant and in use.

[John Paul]

Does Oremus mean she needs to pray the office all in one gap of time.

[The Historian]

​There is a huge difference between the 1962 office and the revised modern office. the old one says the same number of psalms in *one week* as the new one does in *a month*.

how does a layperson or priest fit in the entire 62 office AND rosary AND daily mass AND other forms of prayer and spiritual reading with a full time job? do they not sleep? matins takes me like 40 minutes alone, sometimes longer if it is one of 3 nocturns. how do priest do it?

 

 

​Lay persons and secular priests can accomplish it quite easily.

Prime (without the martyrology), Terce, Sext and None should take at most 10 minutes.  Lauds and Vespers should usually be about 20 minutes at most, respectively.  Compline should be 15 minutes (including a chanted final antiphon).  Matins should take 30 minutes to 40 minutes and most secular priests anticipated Matins and even Lauds the night before after saying Compline.  The rosary should only take you about 15-20 minutes a chaplet, daily Mass should take about 30-45 minutes without a sermon (assuming a 1962 Low Mass).  Most spiritual authors recommend 15 minutes to 30 minutes of devotional reading and mental prayer a day.  And remember, for priests, the Divine Office is their full time job.  For those of us in the world, whether laity or secular priest, we just need to keep balance.