Divine Office and being lazy

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Recently, I feel lazy praying certain hours of the office. Among them is daytime prayer and the OoR. Yet I still make it a point to pray Lauds, Vespers and Compline except when I will attend the 8 am Sunday Mass in my Parish or the 6:30 am daily Mass in the school chapel (on which I forego praying Lauds).

Am I doing something wrong or sinful? (Considering that I am a lay person) If so, should I set a strict schedule for praying the hours? Thank you.
 
GoGoDiego said:
Recently, I feel lazy praying certain hours of the office. Among them is daytime prayer and the OoR. Yet I still make it a point to pray Lauds, Vespers and Compline except when I will attend the 8 am Sunday Mass in my Parish or the 6:30 am daily Mass in the school chapel (on which I forego praying Lauds).

Am I doing something wrong or sinful? (Considering that I am a lay person) If so, should I set a strict schedule for praying the hours? Thank you.
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No…if you have not assumed an obligation to say the Office, then it is not sinful to not say the Office.

The Divine Office is a beautiful form of prayer…but not everyone profits from it, or at least praying it in its entirety.

Some people who were greatly benefited at one season of life by it may find themselves more enriched by something else at another season of life. As a lay person you would have that freedom to make that self-adjustment that we who are clerics do not.

If you have time constraints, it is understandable that you use the time in the morning that you are able to budget for prayer to make Mass and then, at other times of the day, pray the Office.

The Office of Readings has the advantage that is it ordered so that it can be prayed at any time during the day or even the evening before.

There are always moments in the spiritual life when we have to push ourselves, as we can pass through moments of aridity and, when that is the case, we may not always feel like praying but you or your spiritual director could better judge that circumstance than people on a forum who do not know you.

On the other hand, we should not tie up for ourselves burdens too ponderous to reasonably carry by setting a prayer routine that exceeds what we can do and that leaves us discouraged.
 
I am a lay person not bound to the LOTH, yet I do strive to pray most of it daily (the exception, on the encouragement of my spiritual director, being the OoR). However, I also lead a very busy and sometimes chaotic life. There have been times when I have set aside the entire LOTH due to considerable demands on my time for other activities. It is not sinful to do so. Be at peace.

If your omission of praying the LOTH is purely due to laziness (in other words, you have the time but just refuse to use it in this way), there may be something in that laziness that warrants closer scrutiny. Anonymous people on the Internet cannot do that for you. Only you and your confessor and/or spiritual director can say.
 
UpUpAndAway said:
I am a lay person not bound to the LOTH, yet I do strive to pray most of it daily (the exception, on the encouragement of my spiritual director, being the OoR). However, I also lead a very busy and sometimes chaotic life. There have been times when I have set aside the entire LOTH due to considerable demands on my time for other activities. It is not sinful to do so. Be at peace.

If your omission of praying the LOTH is purely due to laziness (in other words, you have the time but just refuse to use it in this way), there may be something in that laziness that warrants closer scrutiny. Anonymous people on the Internet cannot do that for you. Only you and your confessor and/or spiritual director can say.
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I’m in the same situation, and sometimes I feel since retiring my life is even more chaotic. So the LOTH helps give it structure. I therefore pray it faithfully. As an oblate I have promised to pray at least part of the office; our old oblate director used to recommend Lauds, Vespers and Compline from the abbey’s monastic schema; our new one recommends the secular LOTH, and that’s what I do. In winter I even do all three daytime hours if I’m at home,otherwise only one, and only one in summer when I’m out more.

The exception is on vacation when I get a bit lazy, and tend to find time for only combined Lauds and OOR, and Vespers. For my wife and I, vacations are always very active with lots of hiking and/or cycling, so carrying a book isn’t practical, nor is incurring data charges in a foreign country for an on line version.

Not being bound to the Office, I don’t sweat it.
 
As a Third Order, I pray the Divine Office daily. For me I find it to be peaceful prayer at certain times of a hectic day. I look forward to that guiet time of prayer that I work into my days daily routine.
 
I try to pray Divine Office according to the Ordinariate Customary, the traditional language suiting me more. This is more focused around Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. there is also Compline, with some other optional offices throughout the day. I don’t pray all of it, my target is one major office (Morning or Evening Prayer) per day, but I don’t always manage that. If I’m doing some other devotion instead, I don’t sweat it too much.
 
tawny said:
As a Third Order, I pray the Divine Office daily. For me I find it to be peaceful prayer at certain times of a hectic day. I look forward to that guiet time of prayer that I work into my days daily routine.
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Me too. Even when I don’t feel like praying it. That’s often when I’m touched, unexpectedly, by the Office in a special way. That’s why for me perseverance, even in times of wavering faith, is so important. Since I sing in a schola, when at home I chant the Office in Latin Grogorian chant, which soothes me when I’m anxious about something. I chant first in Latin, then read the psalm silently in French which is my mother tongue. The Latin acts as a “mantra” to meditate the psalm in a language I understand.

Lauds and Vespers take me about 25 minutes each that way.
 
I’m kind of in the same situation, I prayed Lauds, Vespers and Compline daily but right now it seems more like a chore to me, not that I’m being lazy I guess 🤷 however I’m focusing myself more on the rosary and just daily prayers from a small prayer book I have 👍
 
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