First time using the Divine Office

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pulchraesamicamea

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Hello everyone. I’m a fairly new convert (converted 5 years ago) and I want to start the Divine Office.

Would you help me out on how this works? Are there certain amount of times the Divine Office must be prayed?

Thank you for your help.
 
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I recommend that you find a community that prays a portion of the Divine Office and join them in prayer.
 
It’s a HUGE prayer to learn.

I’m a cradle Catholic of 50 years, and I can do it, but I still find it easy to get lost and hard to follow. And that’s normal amongst many lay people.

One easy solution might be to get a copy of the St Joseph’s Guide to the readings. They’ll help you to set everything up before you read it. You follow the rubrics and then read it.

There’s also the question of which hours you want to observe, and which feast days, hymns, etc…

I’d give yourself room to not always get it 100% right.
 
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Yes the pole hours are the most important. Our oblate constitutions strongly recommend Lauds, Vespers and Compline, but nothing is mandated.

Many monks however will say that Vigils is the most important hour, as it is a “night watch” where monks are on prayer guard duty for the entire world. It is also the richest in terms of texts, in particular the Bible and patristic readings. The vestige of this Office in the Liturgy of the Hours is the Office of Readings, which as the General Instruction says retains the character of a night office, and can most definitely be used as such. It is what I start my day with, at 5:30 am.

If there was only one office that I could find time to do, it would be the Office of Readings in the wee hours.
 
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Using an app is the easiest. That is country specific as is the Divine office. You dont say which country you are in so I can’t recommend one but I think the first poster is American so you can take their advice if you are too.
If you want to buy a book then make sure you get one suitable for your country for instance, America and England do not use the same book. The book comes in many volumes but if you were only doing say Morning, Evening and Night, you could get these all in one book and would not need to have all the volumes. I do those 3 which are the main and taught myself to use the book with relative ease. The front of the book has a lot of information which is reasonably easy to follow. I am in an Order though so was able to view other people using the book and follow along with them before buying my own book. I also practiced on the app for a year or so first, you should not have to buy the app, or at least in UK you dont, though you can. Our parish website has the app/website link on it so all are encouraged to pray it, in fact most parishes have the link. Once you understand about the church calendar it is not to hard to get the hang of and it is not to serious if you go wrong, googling it can be helpful. I use the app to say Office of readings. My book has day prayers as well so it is well worth it’s money, though it was costly (about £30) that is not a lot for others though it is for me. I recommend Night prayer too, but I agree Morning and Evening are the two usual for us lay people though they take only about 15 mins or so each. There are 7 in total though how many you pray is up to you, you can vary it as you wish, but the 2 or 3 are usual. You can always start with one and move to 2 when you are ready. God bless you
 
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I recommend getting shorter Christian prayer its easier to use and has morning evening and night prayer
 
If you want to do the Office exactly then I would agree with using an app for your country. It’s easiest.

If you would prefer to join a group that prays the Office at your local church, they will usually have some booklet they use and it is usually some shorter form of the Office, not the whole thing as done by priests, monks, etc. I’ve noticed it’s becoming a trend to have daily Mass attendees pray a shorter form of the Office hours before Mass; two or three churches near me are doing this, and they provide their own booklets for the participants to use.
 
Try Universalis
Just Google the word and it comes up
Very good for getting the hang of it
 
You can also ask here as you go. There are plenty of us who maintain some variation or another of the practice, and you won’t be the first (and likely not the last) to ask “what page are you on today for …”
 
I use Christian Prayer almost exclusively as I typically only get time for Morning Prayer and sometimes Evening Prayer these days, and while I usually just glance at the calendar, I do from time to time check myself against one of the apps to see if I got the options ‘right’. Of course, as a layperson, there’s really no going wrong as long as we’re making the effort. 😁
 
The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a good way to get started.

I originally bought Christian Prayers, asked here, researched on the web, had the St Joseph guide… I spent so much time getting ready that I read through the material just to get through. I wasn’t really “praying” if you know what I mean.

I stumbled across TLOBVM & started using it. I think it helped me get into the rhythm of praying & more directly into praying.

I then got to the point of using iBreviary, now Universalis & they make it just as easy to get right to praying.

I still use Christian Prayers when praying in community.
 
The St Thomas More House of Prayer has recently updated their website, including a “beginner’s guide” to praying the Liturgy of the Hours. They also continue (under the “MORE” menu bar) to offer month-by-month page guides for Morning and Evening Prayers, both for Catholic Book Publishing’s Christian Prayer single-volume or their 4-volume sets, in case you can’t get a current “St Joseph Guide”.
(But if you are using the Daughters of St Paul printings of those books, not even St Joseph will help you)
 
Also: Personal Opinion Advice, especially if you are starting on your own, and without a community nor even a single companion with experience.

Start slow. Don’t try to do everything at once.

Be forgiving of yourself. If you miss an hour, or a day, or after a while discover you have been doing something incorrectly: Don’t worry about it – Learn and continue on.
 
Similar. I have a three volume set which I prefer as i like real books but sometimes have to check Universalis esp after ending a feast period as otherwise the books aren’t too clear which page you should start on. Universalis is my quality control 🙃
 
Personal opinion: I like this better than Universal. http://www.ibreviary.org/en/ gives different languages, has more choices of songs than the four volumes and very up to date. But this is for phones, computers etc. Otherwise great to have four volumes or just the one book Christian Prayer. Also more practical the one volume for the laity.
 
And from what I have seen…it can even cause a stir among religious when Solemnities, feast days, holy week, etc come around the corner…worth visiting a community during those days.
 
Another thing to consider: I’m surrounded by Benedictines, Franciscans of a couple varieties, Dominicans, Carmelites, and other orders, not counting our diocesan clergy. Depending on which group I choose to pray with on a given day, I might have to adjust my calendar, which means my otherwise “normal” ribbon placements and sequence will be off - there’s potential for two of these groups to not even be praying the same office on a given day. Example: The Carmelites have a solemnity on July 20 for Elijah; practically no one else (including the general calendar) has this as even an optional memorial.
 
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Divine3 said:
And from what I have seen…it can even cause a stir among religious when Solemnities, feast days, holy week, etc come around the corner…worth visiting a community during those days.
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As more than one monk quipped: “I have a very big devotion to Saint Feria”…
 
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