Do the prayers in the liturgy of the hours have to be prayed at the exact time they are indicated?

[OraLabora]

I read that all 150 Psalms were to be said within a week, then that changed later on, so that all 150 Psalms should be said each month is that right? Do you think that was changed owing to Satan putting distractions in front of the people saying The Hours so there’d be less prayer?

No. The original tradition, that of the desert fathers, was that all 150 psalms be said in one day. Our world has become infinitely more complex then back then. Many monastics still say all 150 in a week. The LOTH simply recognizes that the needs of the secular clergy are different, and making the LOTH also accessible to laity is a gift from God, not the work of the devil. The devil doesn’t want us praying.

When the Breviary was on a one week cycle, it was never intended for the laity except for occasional attendance at the public celebration of Vespers.

 

[OraLabora]

So what’s the proper procedure if “early AM” and “before bed” are the same time?

I assume by this that you mean you work night shift. Alas the LOTH was not really “designed” around shift work, but around the canonical hours.

Without knowing your exact schedule, I would think something like this:

Lauds: upon arriving home in the morning
Vespers: before or just after dinner
Office of Readings and Compline: before leaving for work (the rubrics allow the combining of the two hours, and in many religious communities the OoR is joined to Compline in this manner). My rationale is that Compline is a prayer of confidence and protection in the night and surely that is highly appropriate for a night shift worker (having worked my share of night shifts, many, many years ago).

Mid-day is a bit more problematic. If you rise in the early afternoon, you could pray it at the hour of None (anywhere from 1-4 pm)

This is a case with no set answer, you would have to do as the Rule of St. Benedict says about monks away from the monastery, when it is time to pray an office:

On Brothers Who are Working Far From the Oratory or Are on a Journey

Those brothers who are working at a great distance
and cannot get to the oratory at the proper time –
the Abbot judging that such is the case –
shall perform the Work of God
in the place where they are working,
bending their knees in reverence before God.

Likewise those who have been sent on a journey
shall not let the appointed Hours pass by,
but shall say the Office by themselves as well as they can
and not neglect to render the task of their service.

(RB 50)

 

[TheOldColonel]

You can pray everything and at a time of your choosing. Go for it! It’s great!

 

[SunSeeker]

May I add to the question here? I’d love to start praying Lauds, Vespers and Compline but my shift at work will run past midnight so once I get home, it’s the next day. Which compline should I pray before bed at around 1am? The date that it is timewise or the day I have just finished though it’s after midnight? Or should I pray the just-past-midnight hour instead of compline at all? Hope that’s clear.

 

[DarkLight]

Yup, night shift. Praying during working hours would have to be flexible anyway - like many workers, my break times are set for me. Realistically, “dawn” was an exaggeration. I go to bed late morning and get up in the evening just before work.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

@sunseeker, I don’t know if there’s an official answer, but I would be inclined to pray Compline from the night before. So if I were going to bed at 1am on Friday, I would pray Compline for Thursday night.

 

[OraLabora]

I would make use of the option to pray the Sunday psalms every day, 4, 90(91) and 133(134). That leaves only the reading and collect as variable. And I would use the ones of the day that comes before Lauds to keep the sequence. The day starts at the invitatory, and ends with Compline. The Office of Readings is the only Office that can be anticipated.