Does your parish (or faith community, if you prefer) offer regularly scheduled liturgy of the hours?

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otjm said:
Mine doesn’t and that is in part due to the fact that almost no one knows what the LOTH is.
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I think that is true in many parishes.

Someone with a better knowledge of the history of the LOTH may be able to help me here, but in the USA, I think historically, the LOTH was not a regular part of parish life; this is only since VII, right?

When I was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, lay - led prayer in my (very conservative) Polish-American parish meant recitation of the rosary, PERIOD.
 
The_Prodigal said:
I see…

I wonder if anyone shares my impression that since the LOTH is, well, a form of liturgy, the laity expects a priest or deacon to lead. And therefore may be less likely to participate if it is lay-led.

And this suggests the question of whether a lay person can lead if an ordained minister is in the congregation?
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While the LOTH is an official liturgy of the Church, not a form of liturgy, it is not required that a memeber of the clergy lead it. If religious houses and in the seminary, lay people (religious and seminarians are still lay) lead it all the time and the priests participate. Actually, the presider has a very small part, most of the “work” is done by the cantor and assembly and if there is no cantor, except for the psalm prayers (which are optional) and the collect at the end, all of it is done by the assembly. The only difference between a priest leading it and a lay person is that a priest gives a blessing at the end.
 
Phemie said:
I’ve found that it’s not even really Mass they want, it’s Communion. Some would be happy if they could just come in, say the rosary, get Communion and go. It’s all about private, not corporate, prayer.
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Unfortunatly I believe you are right.
 
Joannm said:
While the LOTH is an official liturgy of the Church, not a form of liturgy, it is not required that a memeber of the clergy lead it. If religious houses and in the seminary, lay people (religious and seminarians are still lay) lead it all the time and the priests participate. Actually, the presider has a very small part, most of the “work” is done by the cantor and assembly and if there is no cantor, except for the psalm prayers (which are optional) and the collect at the end, all of it is done by the assembly. The only difference between a priest leading it and a lay person is that a priest gives a blessing at the end.
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I don’t know how kosher it was but, in my course, when I was learning how to lead Morning Prayer by leading Morning Prayer I had a priest as my assistant.
 
If you’ve seen any of my other posts about my parish on these forums, you’ll know I am in a very reverent NO parish that manages to pull off altar girls, scheduled EMHCs, sometimes 70s music, etc, and still stay orthodox. A smidge atypical, I’ll admit 😉

We have morning or evening prayer every single day before daily Mass! And have for years. My confirmation gift from our deacon (who became my spiritual director) and his wife was a copy of Christian Prayer.

Generally the priest leads one side and the deacon has the other. On the rare occasion that both of them are gone, I have led.

I would be over the moon with joy if we chanted instead of reciting, but I don’t know that it would ever happen. Our new priest is a big chanter, so I have asked if I may chant the psalm on the evenings I am lector at Mass, and he has agreed. LOTH is hard enough for people to pick up, though, that I wouldn’t want to make it harder.
 
EvelynEVF said:
I would be over the moon with joy if we chanted instead of reciting, but I don’t know that it would ever happen. Our new priest is a big chanter, so I have asked if I may chant the psalm on the evenings I am lector at Mass, and he has agreed. LOTH is hard enough for people to pick up, though, that I wouldn’t want to make it harder.
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It’s so easy to pick up though! The hardest thing is figuring out the LOTH works. Once you’ve got that down, picking up the chanting is a piece of cake. I had never seen or heard of the LOTH when I was plonked into it twice a day, everything sung. It was such a powerful thing that I longed for it when I came back to my parish.
 
Where can I find the sheet music for chanting LOTH?

When I say it’s hard to pick up, I mean LOTH, however it is done. But I wonder if we might chant on a particular day, when a number of people come especially for LOTH, and not just by accident because they are early for Mass. Hmm.

The chanting would slow it down and keep us in unison, which is sometimes as issue.
 
EvelynEVF said:
Where can I find the sheet music for chanting LOTH?
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This is not actually an answer to your question. But now that you mention the LOTH music, I would like to take this opportunity to point out that the LOTH in Latin is available each day on Vatican Radio–all chanted. They have Luads, Vespers and Compline only:

radiovaticana.org/en1/on_demand.asp?gr=ltg

Once you start praying to this music you “never go back”.

On a separate note I wonder if there is any similar website with the chant in English for the vast majority of people on this forum who actually pray in English?
 
EvelynEVF said:
Where can I find the sheet music for chanting LOTH?

When I say it’s hard to pick up, I mean LOTH, however it is done. But I wonder if we might chant on a particular day, when a number of people come especially for LOTH, and not just by accident because they are early for Mass. Hmm.

The chanting would slow it down and keep us in unison, which is sometimes as issue.
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We always did the Psalms either CANTOR/RESPONSE or each side alternating chanting the verses. If you use a psalm tone it shouldn’t be too difficult. Unfortunately I have no idea where to find those. I just used the same psalm tone that we use at Mass 90% of the time.

We used the Byzantine chant for the Prayers of the Faithful that’s in our Catholic Book of Worship III and sang the Canticle of Mary or the Canticle of Zachariah from settings in the CBWIII.

The rest is dialog that takes only a few times to master. If one or two people meet with the Priest/Deacon/Leader of Prayer ahead of time and learn it it makes everything run smoothly.
 
Around here, we are lucky if the parishes actually open for servicee listed on the schedule. Outside of visits to Benedictine monastaries, the only time I've been able to attend a communal celebration of the Hours was in a home for the homeless being conducted over the objection of "the powers that be" by a group of Mother Teresa's followers.
 
EvelynEVF said:
Where can I find the sheet music for chanting LOTH?

When I say it’s hard to pick up, I mean LOTH, however it is done. But I wonder if we might chant on a particular day, when a number of people come especially for LOTH, and not just by accident because they are early for Mass. Hmm.

The chanting would slow it down and keep us in unison, which is sometimes as issue.
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Try the Mundelein Psalter.

I know very little about chant but its very easy to learn with this psalter. The psalm tones are all available for downoad on the webpage.

Main Page: Mundelein Psalter

Psalm tones: here.

Sample Evening Prayer from the psalter: here (PDF).
 
The_Prodigal said:
Try the Mundelein Psalter.

I know very little about chant but its very easy to learn with this psalter. The psalm tones are all available for downoad on the webpage.

Main Page: Mundelein Psalter

Psalm tones: here.

Sample Evening Prayer from the psalter: here (PDF).
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Thanks for those links! I was impressed with the music from the audio files.

But what really caught my eye was in browsing the description of the Mundelein Psalter. One of its features includes “A Pastoral Implementation Guide for the progressive implementation of the Liturgy of the Hours in a parish setting.”

With “progressive implementation”, perhaps they suggest a gradual implementation of the LOTH on the parish level? As I mentioned before in an earlier post, I think a gradual implementation of the LOTH might actually work in successfully establishing and maintaining perpetual interest in the LOTH by ordinary parishioners. If this is so, then it looks like this book can and should be used by all those wanting to start this prayer in their parishes.
 
kurtmasur said:
Thanks for those links! I was impressed with the music from the audio files.

But what really caught my eye was in browsing the description of the Mundelein Psalter. One of its features includes “A Pastoral Implementation Guide for the progressive implementation of the Liturgy of the Hours in a parish setting.”

With “progressive implementation”, perhaps they suggest a gradual implementation of the LOTH on the parish level? As I mentioned before in an earlier post, I think a gradual implementation of the LOTH might actually work in successfully establishing and maintaining perpetual interest in the LOTH by ordinary parishioners. If this is so, then it looks like this book can and should be used by all those wanting to start this prayer in their parishes.
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In this section of the Psalter, the recommendation is essentially to incorporate the LOTH into the things the parish is already doing. For example, the pastor could lead Morning Prayer before Mass. If your parish council meets or the choir rehearses in the evening, make it a habit to say Evening Prayer before getting started.
 
I live in the Fort Worth, Texas diocese. It has been offered for years at St. Patrick Cathedral. Itonly had 2-3 people praying it for most of the time. It was offerd daily before morning Mass.
When I lived in Guam during the earky 1990’s, Morning and Evening Prayer was offered at most churches.
I have considered entering religous life in order to have a faith community to pray the various hours.
 
I attended a Catholic university in central MN. The Benedictines there offered the LOTH to the community all except compline.I really enjoyed evening/vespers as that was the only one i really able to get to. The monks would always notice if you were new and help with the books and what week they were on. They alternated chanting and reciting the prayers in English.
It was great, and I really miss the LOTH and daily mass that i got when at college. =)

Pax
 
About 4 months ago, our parish started offering a first-Sunday-of-the-month evening LOTH sung prayer using the music of Taize; banners are hung from our perimeter fence at the entrances to the parking lot a week in advance advertising “Taize Sung Prayer / Sunday 7:30 PM / All are welcome” or something to that effect. We’ve had several members of local Protestant congregations come up to us saying they came the first time because “it was the first time they had ever been invited to any kind of service at a Catholic church” and they have looked forward to coming every month ever since.
 
My pastor has suggested that we should do so, so hopefully we will get started on it soon. He would probably order a number of copies of Christian Prayer for starters.
 
Yes. We have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with Morning Prayer before morning Mass each weekday (except Sunday). Unfortunately, as you say, only half dozen or so people attend - with the majority of Mass goers arriving 5 or 10 minutes before Mass starts.
There’s no slot for Evening Prayer in the Parish (except in Advent when we have sung Vespers occasionally) - but I always say this and Night Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours alone at home.
 
Is “Shorter Christian Prayer” the same as LOTH?
What about the Little Office of the BVM?
 
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