Divine office forum

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yosupman

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Hey everybody come over to the divine office group and we’ll talk about praying the divine office.
 
I am not sure about what it is you want to do. But I pray the Divine office as per my Descalsed Carmelite Secular order asks us members of the community to do. I have found it to be something that I now can not live without and it helps to bring God first and foremost day after day and night. That is God is first at the beginning of the day and God is the last thing at night.
 
I am relatively new to the Divine Office.

Does everybody who prays follow the same verses for each day, across the world?
 
I am relatively new to the Divine Office.

Does everybody who prays follow the same verses for each day, across the world?
More or less. There are some saints only celebrated locally. Many monastics pray a much more involved Divine Office; for example the basic Benedictine schema is 250 psalms a week; Schema B is all 150 psalms a week, while the Liturgy of the Hours spreads the psalms over 4 weeks and omits a few while a few are used only at Advent, Lent and Easter. Benedictines also have their own calendar. The collects though are the same except on days when a saint specific to the order is celebrated on that day, and there are some parts that allow some flexibility such as the intercessions, or where choices of antiphons are allowed.

There are also some options allowed in the rubrics.
 
I am relatively new to the Divine Office.

Does everybody who prays follow the same verses for each day, across the world?
Yes however different English speaking countries will translate the original Latin differently
And certain saints will be celebrated in some places but optionally not in others
 
I am relatively new to the Divine Office.

Does everybody who prays follow the same verses for each day, across the world?
Pretty much. Different countries, even different dioceses within a country, may celebrate the liturgical year slightly differently. Different religious orders have their own liturgical calendars, which supplement the Church’s calendar, populated with memorials, feasts, and solemnities celebrating saints and blesseds particular to that order.

As a Third Order Carmelite I celebrate a few more special days than most of my friends but I don’t fuss too much about it. When if I’m praying with the parish group for Morning Prayer I just follow the Church calendar and then catch up with the Carmelite calendar for Evening prayer.
 
Different religious orders have their own liturgical calendars,
Not just different calendars but a different ordering of the psalms as well. For instance there are 4 major psalm schemas for the Benedictines:

Schema A, as detailed by St. Benedict himself in his Rule and still used today, 250 psalms recited per week
Schema B, a post-Vatican II adaptation, with 150 psalms recited per week
Schemas C and D, on two-week cycles.

Some monasteries do use the 4-week LOTH (but with the Benedictine calendar) but the majority use of of the above schemas. Unless doing major external apostolates or traveling or attending Offices somewhere else while visiting, Benedictines are supposed to say all psalms on at least a 2-week rotation.
 
Hi, yosupman, I joined the Divine Office Group, when will you come back to it? Is it intended that you or others might answer questions about the daily liturgy?
 
Would anyone like to pray the divine office with me on skype early mornings or late evening uk time?

Im looking specifically at either “office of readings” or moring/night prayer.
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Hi, ngh, I hope you find a soulmate. At my age many images aren’t very friendly–I often “watch” the TV news from the next room, while multi-tasking on the computer (ok, or playing solitaire). I don’t skype even with family. Remember though, there are thousands upon thousands of people (maybe millions?) praying and reading the Office with you.
 
When I was 17 I first came into contact with the Divine Office in a Benedictine convent (this convent was founded by Hildegard of Bingen herself) and soon took the habit of praying it daily, starting with the Compline (hah, had to look that one up) and soon adding Lauds and Vespers.

The Divine Office has always remained very close to my heart although I hardly pray it nowadays, it’s difficult when you have children and many other obligations… I have the “Antiphonale Monasticum”, the “Vesperale Monasticum” and a book with all Masses throughout the year, so theoretically I could even sing it 😉 learned a bit to sing Gregorian Chant in “my” convent.

I think I’ll make an effort and re-start tomorrow, just for Holy Week and (perhaps) Easter.
 
It’s nice reading about such good fruit coming from lay recitation of that Divine Office. I once prayed it daily and at different times used the “Christian Prayer” edition of the LOTH, a pre-Vatican II layman’s Roman Breviary, and the 1961 Little Office of the BVM. I’m getting back into it now starting with the Little Office and you all are encouraging me.
 
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