Divine Office question: Time of day for each prayer

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I have been praying the Liturgy of the hours (Morning and evening prayer) and I am obviously a member of the laity of course, but wondered what actual time of day should each be prayed?

I would like to also include the Night prayer and the Invatitory on occasional days when i have more time to pray aswell. Are these sunrise and midnight prayers, respectively?
 
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Traditional Hours are [approximately, it’s not an exact science and I’ve never heard of a monastery where every prayer was on the hour] (Modern Liturgy of the Hours times in parenthesis) :

Matins (Office of Readings): 12 MIDNIGHT [often combined with Lauds at 3AM] (In the modern Office at any time of day, possible to be said before any other Hour aside from Compline)

Lauds: 3AM. (In the modern office where Prime is abrogated, 6AM)

Prime (only 1961 office): 6AM

Terce: 9AM

Sext: 12 NOON.

None: 3PM

Vespers: 6PM

Compline: 9PM
 
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The Invitatory is not an Hour in its own right. Traditionally it was always the first Psalm of Matins (Psalm 94), but in the modern Office, it should either be said at the beginning of the Office of Readings or Lauds, depending on what prayer you say first. 😉 And you have four different Psalms to choose from.
 
SPONP4US said:
I have been praying the Liturgy of the hours (Morning and evening prayer) and I am obviously a member of the laity of course, but wondered what actual time of day should each be prayed?
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In general common sense is what should prevail. If you look at the websites of a number of religious communities you would see that they all pray the various Hours at different times. The Office has to fit in around everything else that has to be done. However, each office relates to a period of the day. Morning Prayer (Lauds) is obviously to be prayed in the morning. You need to find a time that suits you best. I recommend allowing yourself at least fifteen minutes for it. Likewise Evening Prayer (Vespers) is for the evening and is appropriate from late afternoon onwards. It is about the same length as Lauds.

Prayer during the Day only has to be said once. Many religious communities only pray it once. It is mainly contemplative communities whose day focuses on the round of liturgy that do it at all three possible times. Prayer during the Day can really be at the best time to suit you after Lauds and before Vespers.

The Office of Readings is not tied to a time of day as was Matins (a.k.a. Vigils) in the Extraordinary Form. It can be said at any time of the day. You can even anticipate the Office of Readings on the previous evening if that fits in with your schedule. For example, the Office of Readings for Tuesday can be said on Monday evening.
SPONP4US said:
I would like to also include the Night prayer and the Invatitory on occasional days when i have more time to pray aswell. Are these sunrise and midnight prayers, respectively?
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Night Prayer (Compline) is to be said at night as its name suggests and it is an office to be said before going to bed. However, that need not be strictly applied. Again, many religious communities do not go directly to bed after Compline. Because it is meant to be said before you go to bed you can do it after midnight even though technically that means the next day has begun.

The Invitatory is not a separate office. It replaces the Introduction to the Hour at the Office of Readings or Lauds, whichever office you say first. If the Office of Readings is the office you say first in the morning the rule is the Invitatory must replace the Introduction to the Hour. If Lauds is your first office the Invitatory should be used but, if my understanding is correct, you can simplify it to only its opening versicle and response.

There is a resident expert on the Divine Office on this forum. I hope he comes along and answers your question more thoroughly.
 
I should just add that I am using the Breviary app and it uses different titles for each set of prayers rather than the Latin versions.

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I also whish to try at least for one day to stay in line with the E.F routine Hours, but happy to know there bus still some flexibility allowed in the timing otherwise.
 
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Tom is pretty much spot on. Looking back to the history of the Office, as far back as the time of St. Benedict (6th century) it’s obvious there was some flexibility. St. Benedict even proposed different times for the same Office built around the time of the year; for example Terce and None were not always at 9 am and 3 pm: from October to Lent, he recommended that monks work until the second hour (8 am) at which time they would say Terce. Having. been to monasteries in Canada and Europe, as Tom notes there’s a huge variation.

The basic rule is that the verity of the hour be respected. That is, morning prayer is in the morning not the evening! Unlike the pre-VII Office where clerics would rattle it off all in one sitting to “get it out of the way” (abuses are not a post-Conciliar thing!). Here is my current schedule:

5:30 am: Office of Readings (Vigils), in two nocturnes (psalms of Wk 1&3, and Wk 2&4, two-week cycle… yes it is allowed)
7:30 am (6 am in summer): Lauds
8:45 am (optional) Terce
noon: mid-day prayer (Sext)
1 pm: None (optional)
5 pm: Vespers
7:45 pm (flexible) Compline
8 pm: chapter & martyrology (flexible; reading the day’s chapter of the Rule)

Sometimes, if I know I’ll have to be somewhere early in the morning, I’ll recite the Office of Readings the previous evening, or I’ll join it up with Lauds (also allowed by the rubrics).

For sake of comparison, this is the monastery I am an oblate of:

5 am: Vigils
7:30 am Lauds
9:45 am Terce
11 am Conventual Mass
12 Mid-day prayer (Sext and None combined; 3:45 pm on Sundays and solemnities)
5 pm Vespers
7:45 pm Compline followed by Grand Silence
9 pm: lights out.

On the invitatory question, the answer: no, the Invitatory is only used at either the Office of Readings, or Lauds, whichever comes first in the morning. Also, laity are not bound, so we can omit offices as needed. Also, unless bound to choir, only one mid-day Office is required even for those bound to the office, i.e. secular clergy. Also sometimes as life circumstances dictate, I will have to change my schedule, and sometimes I experiment just for the heck of it. One need not be rigid about these things.
 
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As others have said, make it work for you. I do my morning prayers at 7:30am and evening prayers at 8:30pm, but those are times that work for me. Yours may be earlier or later. Don’t worry, God’s not keeping score and you will not burn in hell if you do it too late or too early (I mention that as I used to think I could do these wrong, and that is not the case. God is pleased that you are doing them regardless of the hour, and the Church is all the better for it.).
 
Yes as long as you do morning prayer in the first half of the morning, and evening prayer in the evening, you’re in line with the rubrics.

Everyone’s definition varies (heck in St. Benedict’s time even the length of an hour varied with the season), but for me, morning prayer is good anytime from say 5 am through 9 am, then mid-day 9 am through 4 pm, then evening 4 pm 'till maybe 9 pm and Compline anytime from after dinner until bed time. The Office of Readings has no constraints though “traditionally” it would be said by anticipation the previous evening, or during the night anytime up until about the time of morning prayer. YMMV. Just don’t do morning prayer in the evening!

Shift workers have it tough though.
 
While I appreciate the references to the Old Office, my guess is that it isn’t particularly helpful for a beginner who may not know what some of these hours are. As others have said, there’s no hard and fast rule. Let common sense guide you.

Personally, I usually combine the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer, as is permitted in the GILH (General Instructions of the Liturgy of the Hours). In practice, it’s not ideal, but it’s what realistically happens sometimes, I pray Daytime Prayer (Mid-Afternoon) just prior to praying Evening Prayer. In an IDEAL day, I’d do something like this:

6:30 A.M. Holy Hour where I pray the Invitatory, Office of Readings (omitting the God Come to My Assistance…), Morning Prayer (omitting the final prayer (collect) of the Office of Readings, the conclusion, and the God Come to My Assistance…of Morning Prayer)

12:00 Daytime Prayer (Mid-Day)

6:00 Evening Prayer

11:00 Night Prayer

Again, this is an ideal. It doesn’t always, even usually, work out this way. We do the best we can. For someone who isn’t bound to the Office through a canonical obligation, I think it’s wonderful that you want to pray any part of it.
 
I would also suggest, in addition to the above, that until you’ve really got it “down” in your own way, don’t mix-and-match versions/translations/etc. even different tools (book vs app) can possibly throw you off, and developing a rhythm is probably better for you (is for me anyway) than trying all the flavors.
 
buc_fan33 said:
While I appreciate the references to the Old Office
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The OP also called them the Latin names. Neither is correct. Mattins (or Vigils), Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline are neither Latin nor are they the names used only for the Extraordinary Form and they are not old fashioned. They are still the current names of the Offices, along with the newer names, so there is no reason for this to confuse a beginner.

I also believe that just because someone is a beginner it does not mean they are not clever and highly intelligent. They can quickly pick up on the fact the Offices have different names.

On a personal note I prefer the names such as Lauds, Terce, etc. They seem less clumsy than the new names. I would prefer to say I’m going to pray None rather than Mid-Afternoon Prayer.

Of course, praying them is the important thing. Just don’t assume the names such as Vespers and Compline are obsolete.
 
I’m not assuming they’re obsolete. But, I’ve prayed the entirety of the Office, every day, for over 17 years. I’ve heard them used, but not often. Most people just say “Morning Prayer,” “Night Prayer,” “Office of Readings,” etc. I was trying to use language most accessible to someone who hasn’t been exposed to the Office before. Regardless, your points are well taken. Blessings.
 
I started using the My Daily Psalm Book from teh Confraternity of the Precious Blood recently. I’m still figuring out my routine but I do the Matins whenever I have time.
Lauds: whenever I get up around 6am
Prime: when I get into the office around 7am
Terce: 9am
Sext: noon
None: 3pm
Vespers: after dinner or after kids get to bed
Compline: right before I go to bed (around 11pm - midnight)

Terce through None are pretty flexible for me as I am in an office setting with meetings
 
A great book on the subject, “Music of Silence: A Sacred Journey through the Hours of the Day” by Ph.D. Brother David Steindl-Rast.

The author describes the hours as the seasons of the day.

Each hour in the Divine Office has an experience of the day and is not specifically the exact time on the clock.

Been rereading it !
 
You may certainly have heard a lot of people refer to the offices by those names but that is not the same as most people use those names. I would not claim either way as I have never seen any data on the matter.

Lauds, Vespers, etc. have been the names of the offices for a long time. They are still used today and will find them listed under these names when churches, etc. list services. I don’t think it can be said that name such as Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, etc. make the names more accessible to people.
 
SPONP4US said:
I should just add that I am using the Breviary app and it uses different titles for each set of prayers rather than the Latin versions.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
I also whish to try at least for one day to stay in line with the E.F routine Hours, but happy to know there bus still some flexibility allowed in the timing otherwise.
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Matins = Office of Readings: Anytime after Vespers of the previous day and before Compline of the current day. But traditionally before Lauds.

Lauds = Morning Prayer: ~6AM (or when you wake up)

Terce = Daytime Prayer - Midmorning: ~9AM (I tend to pray this as late as 11am and sometimes even pray Terce & Sext together or Lauds & Terce together)

Sext = Daytime Prayer - Midday: ~12 NOON

None = Daytime Prayer - Midafternoon: ~3PM

Vespers = Evening Prayer : ~6PM

Compline = Night Prayer: ~9PM or right before you go to bed. NOTE: when celebrating Compline in community or at a parish, it may be prayed earlier.

Also, these times are not exact. They are approx., used as a rule of thumb. Also, many people (diocesan priests included) only pray one of the Daytime Prayers and not all three, or they might only pray all three on solemnities/feast days.
 
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Pretty much every cloistered religious community I’ve seen or been to use the terms Matins or Vigils, Lauds, None, etc.

Even those using the modern Liturgy of the Hours, such as the Carmelite women in Montreal. On the French side, I’ve seen various LOTH books use both terminologies but I have never heard anybody in the Francophone world I live in call Lauds anything other than Lauds even outside religious communities.

It may be a cultural or geographical thing.
 
I think the keyword is “cloistered.” Every parish bulletin I’ve ever seen uses “Morning Prayer” and “Evening Prayer.” Regardless, we’re essentially talking about the same thing.
 
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“phil19034 said:
SPONP4US said:
I should just add that I am using the Breviary app and it uses different titles for each set of prayers rather than the Latin versions.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
I also whish to try at least for one day to stay in line with the E.F routine Hours, but happy to know there bus still some flexibility allowed in the timing otherwise.
Click to expand...
Matins = Office of Readings: Anytime after Vespers of the previous day and before Compline of the current day. But traditionally before Lauds.

Lauds = Morning Prayer: ~6AM (or when you wake up)

Terce = Daytime Prayer - Midmorning: ~9AM (I tend to pray this as late as 11am and sometimes even pray Terce & Sext together or Lauds & Terce together)

Sext = Daytime Prayer - Midday: ~12 NOON

None = Daytime Prayer - Midafternoon: ~3PM

Vespers = Evening Prayer : ~6PM

Compline = Night Prayer: ~9PM or right before you go to bed. NOTE: when celebrating Compline in community or at a parish, it may be prayed earlier.

Also, these times are not exact. They are approx., used as a rule of thumb. Also, many people (diocesan priests included) only pray one of the Daytime Prayers and not all three, or they might only pray all three on solemnities/feast days.
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Is Prime not a thing anymore?
 
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