Are there people who have written or spoken about this? Why isn't the Liturgy of the Hours more common among lay people?

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We can use whatever form we want because we’re not obligated to pray it in the first place.
 
That’s not the question. The question is whether you need to pray a particular form in order to be part of the public prayer of the Church. No doubt you can pray anything you want on your own.
 
Ah, I see. I’ve wondered the same thing, as I’ve been praying the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary this year.
 
Praying the part of the Office which is in Magnificat is a personal prayer, as it is not a full part of one of the “hours”, e.g Morning Prayer, or Lauds.

From some of the comments, it looks like people have been intimidated by the extent of the full Office, and look at it somewhat like an “all or nothing”, or a task too big to take on.

I entered college seminary in 1964, and we had a small paperback book which was then called Morning Praise and Evensong, first published in 1963; texts from the NT were a translation in 1956, and the OT from 1948.

Liturgists had been discussing the Breviary well before Vatican 2; in the Assisi Conference on Pastoral Liturgy Cardinal Lecaro Archbishop of Bologna spoke of a restored Office in which people could once again participate. MP&E was an early attempt to introduce Lauds and Vespers, and we chanted it daily. Eventually the new LOTH was produced using different translations from several sources (including ICEL and Grail); my small Shorter Christian Prayer is dated 1974.

A significant part of the problem is that in many, if not most areas, people have not been introduced even to on of the hours (e.g. Lauds, Vespers, or Compline), so in short, ignorance reigns. I suppose we culd lay that at the feet of the priests for the last, oh, say 44 years; and if at the priests, we can perhaps also include the bishops for their leadership in showing us the beauty of this liturgy (or lack thereof).

I don’t mean to be harsh, but I honestly do not recall any of the bishops of my archdiocese providing any leadership in the matter (which is now 5, if I don’t include the one whose tenure ended in 1974). While it most certainly is not a requirement for the laity, one might think that encouragement of getting it started would be forthcoming somewhere along the line.

In any event, it seems to be scattered as to what parishes might have it to some degree in community out here; undoubtedly some do, but it is not widespread.

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As to reciting it individually, it is initially intimidating unless someone has some sort of background or has participated in communal recitation. If they have had that, then finding one’s way through Shorter Christian Prayer is not at all hard, particularly if one has the yearly “cheat sheet” for it - which of course requires a bit more $$.

and I suspect that those who are enthusiastic about it on more tha a rare occasion can intimidate the daylights out of neophytes r would-be neophytes. In past threads herein, people have inquired and been met with overwhelming “help” (I do not find extended commentary beyond SCP to be in the least bit helpful).

I obtained SCP when it was published, moving to the official LOTH for Lauds, Vespers and Compline, eventually moved to the one volume LOTH, and then to the 4 volume set (I was gifted that). For someone with a family and a day job, many would be lucky to use all of SCP. And lucky would be the husband and wife who both would appreciate saying the psalms daily.

The complaints I read in this thread are the usual; it takes too much time. I disagree, as they are looking at it as if there is some requirement to spend 40 or 50 minutes a day doing this. If they would pick just one - Lauds, in the morning; or Vespers, in the evening, it is a whole 15 minute requirement. One does not have to say all of the hours, or even two; in fact, it takes about 10 minutes at most to say Compline before or as one is going to bed. They presume too much; even one of the hours is participation in the Liturgy of the Church; so you don’t say it all - except for personal choice, not everyone goes to the longest Mass on Sunday, either.

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But it does take discipline, and it is not the same day after day (which I find a true blessing); one does not say it on autopilot (another true blessing).

And while I learned to chant the office in seminary, I am not convinced at all that chanting it in a parish (with the possible exception of Sunday) is going to make sense to most people). I dropped in on the seminary a few months ago as I was in the area, and joined them in Vespers; it was recited, not chanted.
 
  1. Cost. Copies of the full divine office are hundreds of dollars (last I checked). I got myself a copy of Christian Prayer, a version without the Office of Readings that keeps the cost down, but money is an obstacle.
  2. Unfamiliarity. Most US Catholics today might not even know what the Divine Office is. Many of those who do know might not know where to start, or even know that it’s appropriate for the laity to join in.
  3. Time. Even with the shorter book that I own, it takes a lot of time if you’re going through all of the readings, and the fact of the matter is that people these days seem to have less time on their hands than those of other generations.
 
And I don’t, for a very simple reason: You are committed to the Office. Someone starting out would be not only lost in the amount of material, but seriously intimidated.

Further, people who are busy (and having had premie twins and a law practice at the same time, I can speak to that) may not have more than 15 minutes out of a day they can devote to it.

I would far rather see people say only Lauds, or only Vespers and do their best to do that most of the days of the week, than to buy the one volume edition and set a bar so high that it guarantees failure. The one volume set is fine for someone who has said the LOTH for a long enough period of time that they can make the committment to using all or most of what is in the one volume set.

I realize that discussions on threads tend to wander, and when we start talking about the 1 and 4 volume set, we are having a conversation which neophytes, or hope-to-be neophytes are not engaged; and if they are listening, are likely intimidated.

One crawls before one walks; and one walks before one runs; and if one is racing, one has been training for a long time.

And I have the 4 volume set and use it, so the bit about the t-shirt… Oh, and the twins are now 36.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
That’s not the question. The question is whether you need to pray a particular form in order to be part of the public prayer of the Church. No doubt you can pray anything you want on your own.
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I think the expectation is that we pray the LOTH. Those bound may pray the 1962 breviary. Those not bound of course participate if praying it in a public setting, say Sunday Vespers in an FSSP parish. For private recitation it’s a grey area for those not bound.

Of course many religious communities have their own usages: the Benedictines have 4 official schémas one of which is the very traditional psalter described by St Benedict himself some 1500 years ago.

Oblates, tertiaries and the like can pray the variant of the order they are attached to. In our oblate manual we can pray either the LOTH or any of the monastic Breviaries. Normally the non-oblate laity wouldn’t, unless they regularly attend offices at a monastery, in which case it would make sense, for the sake of continuity, to continue with the monastic.

There is no hard and fast rule though, and some grey areas. In spite of what one may read on CAF, there is really nothing wrong with the LOTH. Lots of laity criticize it but the vast majority of priests like it. The laity complaining about a breviary designed primarily for clergy (but laity are encouraged to pray it too) seems a bit to me like passengers telling the pilot how to fly the plane!
 
Thank you. I haven’t really noticed LotH complaints on here (other than some people think it’s too long or complicated) but I haven’t been looking at all the threads on it.

I find the really old Benedictine one, that’s online somewhere, to be intriguing.
 
otjm said:
The one volume set is fine for someone who has said the LOTH for a long enough period of time that they can make the committment to using all or most of what is in the one volume set.
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Oh, I agree 100% with this.

Use the online resources first before buying A book. I prayed online first on & off for a couple years before I finally started to devote myself to it and bought Christian Prayer
 
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