Divine Office In A Discerner's Life

[Rosa immaculata]

Ave Maria!

Dear all, I am wondering what place has or has to be the Divine Office in our life? Do you read it often or occasionely, and why do you like it?

Personnaly, I really like it and with the time, I begin to feel that he expresses the best the" feelings" of the Holy Church (Sorrow or Joy) and in reality my own feelings ... but I can't today read it entirely, I am just beginning to read it partly (some psalms, hymns etc). My favourite Office is the Matins (normal! I love the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate and Poor Clares!!), I really love the Hymn at the beginning, and also the Hymn in the Lauds... Every sister has to have a heart of a poetry, I think, because the Psalms are marvellous poems of Love... and as I am rather attracted by contemplative life, I am wondered by the fact that every day, always at the same hour, we go to the choir to praise the Lord, to afflict and rejoice with the Church in God, with the Angels, night and day...

So I would have like to have your opinions, advises and thoughts about this marvellous treasury of the Holy Church!

[emmaberry101]

You are reading A Right to Be Merry, it seems, and Mother speaks beautifully on the role of the Divine Office in the contemplative's life.

Many discerners find it beneficial to say Morning and Evening Prayer (if using the basic Christian Prayer book) of the Divine Office. Personally, I found that the Divine Office took on new flesh when I was accepted to my community, because throughout the day I know when they are praying the various hours..

[left]Also, for me, the Divine Office became extremely poignant after I fell in love with the Poor Clare Colettines. The psalms start to jump out at you:[/left]
[center]"Seven times a day I praise you." Ps 119[/center]
[center]"With praise will I awake the dawn." Ps 57[/center]
[center][size=4]"Let my prayer rise before You like incense,
the raising of my hands like the evening oblation." Ps 141[/size][/center]
[center][size=4]He "gives to His beloved while they slumber" Ps 127[/size][/center]
[center]but[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif].. "[size=4]At midnight a cry was heard:[/size][/font][/center]
[center][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=4]Behold, the Bridegroom comes:
go out to meet Him!" Mt 25:6[/size][/font][/center]
[center][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=4]"I will fulfill my vows to the Lord[/size][/font]" Ps 116[/center]
[center]"From the ivory tower comes music" Ps 45[/center]
[center]"I am under vows to you to give rendering of praise" Ps 56[/center]
[center]"Offer to God your sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High" Ps 50[/center]

[left]Even today's Office of Readings had some lovely verses that speak directly to the contemplative life:[/left]

[center]"Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?[/center]
[center]Who shall stand in his holy place?" Ps 24[/center]
[center][size=4]"How lovely is your dwelling place, [/size]Lord, God of hosts...[/center]
[center][font=inherit][size=3][size=4]My soul is longing and yearning,
is yearning for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my soul ring out their joy
to God, the living God...[/size][/size][/font][/center]
[center][font=inherit][size=3][size=4]They are happy, who dwell in your house,
forever singing your praises.
They are happy, whose strength is in you,
in whose hearts are the roads to Zion...[/size][/size][/font][/center]
[center][font=inherit][size=3][size=4]As they go through the Bitter Valley
they make it a place of springs,
the autumn rain covers it with blessings.
They walk with ever growing strength,
they will see the God of gods in Zion...[/size][/size][/font][/center]
[center][font=inherit][size=3][size=4]One day within your courts[/size][/size][/font][/center]
[center][font=inherit][size=3][size=4]is better than a thousand elsewhere.
The threshold of the house of God
I prefer to the dwellings of the wicked." Ps 84[/size][/size][/font][/center]

[center][size=4]"On the holy mountain is his city[/size][/center]
[center][size=4][font=inherit]cherished by the Lord.
The Lord prefers the gates of Zion
to all Jacob’s dwellings.
Of you are told glorious things,
O city of God!
Zion shall be called ‘Mother’
for all shall be her children.
It is he, the Lord Most High,
who gives each his place.
In his register of peoples he writes:
“These are her children,”
and while they dance they will sing:
“In you all find their home.”" Ps 87[/font][/size][/center]

I am going to stop now because there re just hundreds of these! It is so neat, for lack of a better word.

[font=inherit][size=3][size=4]The Divine Office is for everyone, but it is the first work-duty, more like-of the contemplative, and I feel that it is for them in a very special way.

Here's a snippet from the Roswell Poor Clare site on the Divine Office in the contemplative's life (I underlined the most important-I know it's a good chunk of text!):[/size]
[/size][/font]
[center][font=inherit][size=3][img]http://www.poorclaresroswell.com/PoorClareslinedpraying.jpg[/img][/size][/font][/center]

[indent=1][font=inherit][size=3]125][font=Times New Roman][color=#0F0B52][b]What is this Divine Office, of which the midnight prayer is the first hour? Even among the laity, the breviary is today regaining its place of honor, the place it held in medieval times when kings and queens retired to their private chapels to read it, or generals of armies paced up and down as they recited it before battle.[/b][/color][/font][/size][/font][/indent]

[indent=1][font=inherit][size=3]125][font=Times New Roman][color=#0F0B52][b]But it is to her priests and contemplative nuns that Holy Church entrusts the Liturgy of the Hours of the Divine Office to be recited officially in her name. Thus Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Constitution [i]Sponsa Christi[/i], said: “The Church deputes nuns alone among the women consecrated to God for the public prayer which is offered to God in her name … and these she binds under grave obligation by law according to their Constitutions to perform this prayer by reciting daily the canonical hours.”[/b][/color][/size][/font][/indent]
[font=inherit][size=3][u][b]Dom Columba Marmion has written powerfully of the grandeur of this Divine Office, explaining how all things are of value only in such measure as they procure God’s glory. And while some works, such as literary work, teaching, sweeping, cooking, nursing, working in the garden, have no direct relationship with God’s glory, although they give Him glory indirectly when transformed by the love and the intention of the one who performs them, there are other works which procure God’s glory directly. “Such,” says Dom Columba, “are Holy Mass and the Divine Office. From God’s point of view, these works surpass all other works.” It is to them that Poor Clares are primarily dedicated."[/b][/u][/size][/font]

[OnlySunshine]

I just started buying copies of [i]Magnificat[/i] with the Daily Office and Mass Readings. I didn't realize that the magazine had the daily Office in there (Morning and Evening Prayers) until after I got it. I just started praying it today. I'm thinking about buying either Christian Prayer or Shorter Christian Prayer which is like the Reader's Digest version of the Liturgy of the Hours. I cannot afford to buy the full 4 volumes even though I used to have one -- I actually sold the volumes I had on eBay because they were coming apart. I wished I hadn't gotten rid of them because I got them for like $45 and they were leather bound.

I often get asked by Vocation Directors or other Sisters if I pray the Divine Office and I usually have to say no because I don't pray it regularly enough. I really like praying it with a community. The good thing about the version in [i]Magnificat[/i] is that it is short with one psalm, one reading, and the intercessions. It's a good jumping off point.

[Rosa immaculata]

Ave Maria!

Thank you for your answers! Congratulations Mater Misericordiae for starting saying the Divine Office, even in a shorter version, that's normal, we are in the world yet... but like you, I love to pray with a community (or other persons because I never did a live-in , and I feel I need it more and more...). I did not know that the pirests and sisters asked if we pray it , oups!!

Emmaberry, your answer is fabulous, thank you for the many verses of psalms (I prayed the psalm 84 before going to bed yesterday...). Yes I am reading A right to be merry, this marvellous book, which makes me discover many aspects of the contemplative and Franciscan life, I am completly fond of it! It also puts words on certain feelings I have for a long time and deepens them: that is the case for the Divine Office that I really began to appreciate and pray (partially, above all the Hymns) some weeks ago before reading the book, and I say to myself that God is working in my heart, little by little, that's so beautiful to know that He is looking after us! and this book is a part of His Holy strategies!!

Your sisters are marvellous!! thank you for everithing! Contemplative life is definitely...I can't find a word to describe it!! I am praying for you and your entrance

[maximillion]

I loved the psalms long before I entered the convent, and prayed them often.
When I began to learn to chant the LOTH I fell in love with both the Chant and the psalms all over again.
It never failed to amaze me how often the psalm of the Office so closely related to my life, my feelings of the moment and my need.

Now, I often listen to one of the many recordings of the office I am privileged to have, and I still pray the psalms, though I don't use the LOTH.

[Rosa immaculata]

I think that as many of people on VS my favourite book in the Bible is The Psalms ... and yes Maximillion, I totally agree with you, the Divine Office is so intimate for each of us whereas it has been sung by a multitude of people for centuries... What a wonderful work of God!

[Blessed&Grateful]

[quote name='maximillion' timestamp='1352565977' post='2507769']
I loved the psalms long before I entered the convent, and prayed them often.
When I began to learn to chant the LOTH I fell in love with both the Chant and the psalms all over again.
It never failed to amaze me how often the psalm of the Office so closely related to my life, my feelings of the moment and my need.

Now, I often listen to one of the many recordings of the office I am privileged to have, and I still pray the psalms, though I don't use the LOTH.
[/quote]


This says everything I would say. I only discerned for a year and a half till I realized religious life wasn't for me. To this day the psalms and the Office hold a special place in my heart.

[LaPetiteSoeur]

I love the psalms! I have a very old breviary (1950s) that I don't use so often because I only have the only for advent and lent. I now use M Basil Penningtons Prayertimes, which is a "Pocket LOTH." It works well for my needs. I have a psalter that focuses on women in the Bible I use some days to mix it up a bit

[OnlySunshine]

My favorite Psalms of all-time are Psalm 50 and Psalm 23. 50 is more penitential and 23 is more about comfort and hope.

[Rosa immaculata]

hum, I like the Psalm 81 and definitely the 84... but all are marvellous (the 50 during the Lent... !); I have too a book of 1950's, in Latin and French, but it is tto big to pray psalms when I am going to college... so I will try to have a smaller one...definitely, many people pray with the Psalms, it conforts me to continue on this way...

[Catholicterp7]

I used to pray morning prayer somewhat regularly but once I experienced chanting LOTH in community I've since had a really hard time saying it by myself. I don't really know why, my mom and I have talked about it a lot because she prefers praying it alone, but I just have a hard time with doing it alone.
I'm hoping that starting tomorrow I'll be able to get back into the habit of praying it every morning and night because I'm hoping to readjust my sleep schedule so I can get up and go to bed at the same time every day. Please pray that it will actually happen!
JMJ+

[Kateri89]

I just downloaded a free app on my iphone called "Laudate". It's free and the most comprehensive Catholic app I've ever seen. It has the Divine office on it and it's wonderful! Just a suggestion

[nikita92]

SrKateri- I too have downloaded that same app..in this past year. It is so useful cause I can read it wherever I may be. I was going to make a suggestion to others on here about looking into downloading spiritual apps on their cell phones! Might even save ya some money in the long run!

[Rosa immaculata]

Ave Maria!

Thank you so much for the idea of the app! I really NEED an I phone now... It would be very practical, more than my great book, aha! It is very beautiful Blessed and Grateful that you continue to pray the Divine Office...it is the prayer of the Church.
Catholicterp7, be sure of our prayers for you!! You are right, the Divine Office is a collective prayer and we love to pray it with others ( those, including me, who pray it individually have to say it in communion with the Holy Church), specially your community!! I will pray for you and your success in readjusting your schedule... I am very far from doing that now , but I know that Gods proceeds little by little, and I never met my communities... Courage!! I think of you!
If it is not secret, what is your community?

[cmaD2006]

[quote name='Rosa immaculata' timestamp='1352495419' post='2507356']
Dear all, I am wondering what place has or has to be the Divine Office in our life? Do you read it often or occasionely, and why do you like it?
[/quote]

One important thing to say about the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) .. it isn't "read" it is prayed. It is the prayer of the Church done at all hours (i.e. at every hour, someone somewhere is praying some part of the Liturgy, so it is in a way the constant prayer of the Church).