Divine Office question: Time of day for each prayer

[edward_george1]

Is Prime not a thing anymore?

Prime was suppressed in the post-conciliar reform of the office.

 

[TheMortenBay]

Every parish bulletin I’ve ever seen uses “Morning Prayer” and “Evening Prayer.”

The Danish Liturgy of the Hours refers to all the Hours by the Danish name except for “Vesper” which gets to keep its “Daneified” Latin name. I think it makes sense to refer to Lauds as “Morning Prayer” because it practically takes the place of both Prime and Lauds. Vespers are still only referring to the 6PM Hour.

Is Prime not a thing anymore?

Unfortunately it is not a thing anymore.
Similarly the obligation to pray Terce, Sext and None is now just an obligation to pray one of the Midday Prayers. Therefore the Office also only has three midday psalms per day. If one wants to pray all three prayers one can use the Gradual Psalms and different readings.

 

[OraLabora]

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.

Cloistered and Francophone. Our parish bulletin always called it “Lauds”. When we sing Lauds or Vespers at the cathedral, they are called just that (with French spelling: Laudes, Vêpres) in the bulletin and our song booklets. I’ve never heard it called “Prière du matin” or “Prière du soir” in conversation, it sounds kludgy in French. Both terminologies are used in the breviary though. But even the official Francophone liturgy site put out by the Francophone bishops, use Lauds, etc.

AELF — Accueil : lectures du jour

Le site de l'Association épiscopale liturgique pour les pays francophones est le fournisseur officiel des textes en français pour la liturgie catholique.

www.aelf.org

In short though, both nomenclatures are just fine and “official”, I’m sure if it were culturally more usual to use PdM and PdS instead of Laudes et Vêpres, that’s what I’d use. But it ain’t so I don’t

Unfortunately it is not a thing anymore.

As someone familiar with monastic life, I can say many monks say "fortunately it is not a thing anymore.

Take our abbey for instance, Vigils is from 5 am to 6 am, Lectio and breakfast from 6 to 7:30, and Terce at 9:45. Adding in Prime makes for a busy morning and takes out time from lectio which monks feel is really important. During the day, they can’t do lectio as they work, in between the other hours. Early in the morning has always been best for meditating on Scripture.

In the days when there were choir monks and lay brothers to do the physical work of the monastery, it may have made more sense as there would be time for study during the day for the choir monks. But now that distinction no longer exists and all have to work to keep the monastery going. It’s getting harder too, with dwindling numbers and increasing average age.

 

[TheMortenBay]

As someone familiar with monastic life, I can say many monks say " fortunately it is not a thing anymore.

As someone who usually prays all of the" new" Liturgy of the Hours every day and occasionally pray the 1961 Divine Office, I definitely don’t mind the shorter, simpler structure of the new Liturgy of the Hours. I think the choice regarding the midday prayers makes sense, but I miss the format and themes of Prime when I don’t pray it for a period of time.

 

[OraLabora]

I too pray the whole thing daily (chant it actually). I think that the “theme” of Prime of consecrating the day to God has been taken over by the morning intercessions of Lauds.

I’m also glad for the shorter Office. However when I have more time or am more peppy, I use our abbey’s monastic schema. It does all psalms in a week but I use a variant that allows me to spread Vigils over two weeks and repeat the same psalms at Compline every night (4, 90, 133).

 

[TheMortenBay]

I think that the “theme” of Prime of consecrating the day to God has been taken over by the morning intercessions of Lauds.

I think you’re right. The intercessions and the daily consecration is my favourite part of the new Office.

 

[phil19034]

Is Prime not a thing anymore?

It was suppressed because there was a desire to return to the hours being 7 times, as they were in the Old Testament and in the very early Church.

In St. Benedict’s time there were only 7 hours:

• Prime – 6am
• Terce – 9am
• Sext – Noon
• None – 3pm
• Vespers - 6pm
• Compline - 9pm
• Matins - Midnight

St. Benedict then added Lauds as an eight’s hour in the morning - originally prayed at the same time as Prime (6am)

Over the years, Lauds became a “major hour” and Prime a “minor hour” and the times shifted to:

• Matins – 2am
• Lauds – 5am
• Prime – 6am
• Terce – 9am
• Sext – noon
• None – 3pm
• Vespers – 6pm
• Compline – 7pm or right before bed.

So when the Second Vatican Council decided to restore the LOTH to 7 hours by removing one of the morning hours, they decided to remove the minor hour of Prime instead of the Major Hour of Lauds.