Do you pray The Liturgy of the Hours?

[KitSileya]

One of the things I still find daunting is figuring (and remembering!) all the feast days and memorias and so on. I’m always forgetting to check if it’s a saint’s feast day that should be remembered (especially now that I try to honor the Dominican saints - St. Agnes of Montepulciano, please forgive me for forgettign your day yesterday.)

However, I’m always reminded by a scene in Rumer Godden’s “In This House of Brede” where the postulant sr. Hilary complains about “all these first-class feasts and seconds and third class and memoriae” and “all those propers and seasons!” This was before the second Vatican Council - at least it’s a lot easier now! And praying the LoH has become much more accessible for the lay Catholic with the translations.

 

[seremina]

I do pray the Liturgy of the Hours, but I used to be limited by the lack of the Little Hours in the one volume Large Print Christian Prayer and I can’t afford a 4 volume Large Print LOTH set yet. But Universalis has had a recent change. They now include the Little Hours too. So it should be easier to pray the entire Divine Office now.

 

[rkrispies]

Granted, I have only been praying Morning (and sometimes Evening) prayers for about 3 weeks now, but I started on Universalis and then bought myself Chrsitian Prayer. Because I wasn’t 100% confident of everything, I also bought The Divine Office for Dodos by Madeline Nugent. Didn’t realize that it went into agonizing detail on so many things. It is truly a basic text for the LOTH. But it does help quite a bit, especially when it comes to Sundays, Seasons, and Feasts/Memorials/Commemerations/etc. Both CP and Dods were about $45 on Amazon brand new and I got them in about 3 days.

Chris

 

[rudytoo72]

I bought a book from Amazon called the Catholic Book of Hours. It is very good. It is not complicated and works for me. You may want to start there.

 

[Sr_Sally]

Then I subscribed to Magnificat for several years, and used their shorter version of mp & ep, and it is still a great travel prayerbook, and with it in your purse or car, you are always ready when you get time for chapel or adoration, because it also has order of the Mass, daily readings, and an extra reading and saint.

I also use the Magnificat. I love it because of the additonal meditations and one page Saint intros. The artwork is also beautiful. We pray morning and evening prayers as a family using it and my daughter carries her copy in her backpack, so that she has the Mass readings with her during the day.

I do have a copy of SCP and several copies of the 1 volume LOTH. My husband and I started trying to use the LOTH but had trouble keeping track of the days–even with the little ‘cheat sheet’ booklet you can buy.

Summer is a good time to start up this habit because we usually have more time and during Ordinary time it is easier to keep track of where you are.

 

[kurtmasur]

Well, I think the traditional time for saying Lauds is 6am…again, I’m working on it

As long as Lauds is celebrated at a reasonable hour in the morning, it should be ok. The definition of “reasonable” should depend on your circumstances, whether that means that your schedule allows you to pray Lauds only at 5 am or at 11 am (but it shouldn’t be later than that).

I noticed that there are a few churches in Rome in which Lauds is celebrated at 9 am and in others at 10 am. Nobody seemd to start earlier than 9. Each Sunday morning a group of Cardinals and Archbishops gets together to pray Lauds at St. Peters Basilica at around 9:30 am in the choir chapel.

When I started praying the LOTH I used to think that Lauds should only be prayed between 5 to 8 am at the latest. Since my visit to Rome I learned to relax about the time of when to pray Lauds. As long as it is anytime in the morning, you’ll be fine.

 

[mattkubes]

As long as Lauds is celebrated at a reasonable hour in the morning, it should be ok. The definition of “reasonable” should depend on your circumstances, whether that means that your schedule allows you to pray Lauds only at 5 am or at 11 am (but it shouldn’t be later than that).

Yep, that’s my feeling on it as well - although 11am might be a little late if you plan on including the three daytime prayers since that would mean saying Morning, Midmorning, and Midday all in a row

 

[hilde_the_dog]

Matt that sequence happens to me or other combinations due to time constraints. And if Priest or Deacons can’t say them during the day they must try to say them that day even if its 11:30pm.

 

[kurtmasur]

Yep, that’s my feeling on it as well - although 11am might be a little late if you plan on including the three daytime prayers since that would mean saying Morning, Midmorning, and Midday all in a row

Yes, of course. If a person wants to include all three daytime prayers, he/she would obviously have to pray Lauds much earlier (before 9 am). But If lauds is prayed at around 9 - 10 am, then it should be clear that the only daytime prayers available to pray are now Sext and None.

Thanks to the flexibility of choice of how many and which, if any, Daytime Prayers to pray, Lauds doesn’t have to begin earlier in the morning than is necessary for a particular person.