Giving up Divine Office

[ajecphotos]

Well, been saying the divine office for well over a year now and decided to give up saying it.

Main reason is that for me the words do not mean much. However much I try and think about them they do not come from my heart / soul!

I am sure God would prefer me to pray to him from my heart. With 100% meaning and love instead of rattling of word after word that don’t have any meaning to me!

I love God and want to pray to him from my deepest depths but not by reading from a Book / page that doesn’t say what I want it to.

I know the office is from the church but it still doesn’t help me pray to God with meaning or deep love.

Anyone else feel the same way with the office?

 

[suko]

Anyone else feel the same way with the office?

I kinda know what u mean. What helps sometimes (at least for me) is if u chant it like they do in the monasteries. Thankfully, for myself, I know 2 different chants so it really helps!

I hope you’ll take up something else in replacement of it, though, like maybe the Rosary, if u aren’t already doing that.

 

[ajecphotos]

I got a little book of prayers that have several I say dearly, which do mean a lot to me, plus I say the rosary every day and try to attend mass at least 3 times a week at the moment.

 

[catholicscot]

Central to the Office is the Psalms. The key to getting something out of the Office is learning to love the Psalms. This is something I struggled with for a long time because there are so many concepts in them that seem so different from the Gospel and they often speak to situations that I can’t relate to. However, I assumed that the Church must have more wisdom in such matters than I do so I persevered and took the trouble to read some good Catholic commentaries on the Psalms, especially by the Church Fathers (we should always approach Scripture ‘with the mind of the Church’). After doing this and having read each Psalm 30 or 40 times I could put them into some context and they began very much to speak to my heart and mind. Every time you pray them there is the chance that a phrase or expression that you never noticed before will suddenly leap out at you and speak to your condition right now. So I now think that a day without the Psalms is a day wasted.

Secondly, prayer isn’t all about you. The Office especially is the prayer of the Church and when you offer it your offering is incorporated into the relationship of the Church with her Bridegroom Jesus Christ. Thus you are offering up your sacrifice of praise, however coldly your heart is responding, together with all your sisters and brothers in Christ and making your contribution to the treasuries of Grace that God pours into the Church in response to just that prayer. You may not feel the benefit of it but precisely that effort you make to pray when you don’t feel like it may release a soul from purgatory or help convert a sinner from pursuing a path leading to their eternal death.

 

[CruceSignati]

I see in your signature you have a link to a site devoted to the Divine Mercy. I know its really short, but do you pray the Divine Mercy chaplet often?

 

[ajecphotos]

I see in your signature you have a link to a site devoted to the Divine Mercy. I know its really short, but do you pray the Divine Mercy chaplet often?

I used to say it every day. I stopped a while ago. Dont really know why. I just did. It seemed so repetitive.

As for the psalms well, they were written many years ago and i know that our dear Lord said them but its pointless rattling off many words when they dont come from the heart but only from repetition! I am sure God would rather someone pray to him with thought, meaning, love and yearning. I dont get this from the Daily office. I do get it from the Office of the Dead though!

 

[JRKH]

Understood.

Our journey evolves and something that can have great meaning now can become stale and little more than mindless rote later. Changing one’s prayer life up can be a good thing.

Peace
James

 

[Michael_Mayo]

I used to say it every day. I stopped a while ago. Dont really know why. I just did. It seemed so repetitive.

As for the psalms well, they were written many years ago and i know that our dear Lord said them but its pointless rattling off many words when they dont come from the heart but only from repetition! I am sure God would rather someone pray to him with thought, meaning, love and yearning. I dont get this from the Daily office. I do get it from the Office of the Dead though!

Some Psalms do not seem very helpful at all. Psalm 45 comes to mind “My heart is stirred by a noble theme, as I sing my ode to the king. My tongue is the pen of a nimble scribe.”

But many of the other Psalms have grown in meaning as I have aged. The Psalms of Compline 4 & 91 have become memorized for me. My advice is to pray as you need, write your own psalms and prayers.

 

[Neofight]

Well, been saying the divine office for well over a year now and decided to give up saying it.

Main reason is that for me the words do not mean much. However much I try and think about them they do not come from my heart / soul!

I am sure God would prefer me to pray to him from my heart. With 100% meaning and love instead of rattling of word after word that don’t have any meaning to me!

I love God and want to pray to him from my deepest depths but not by reading from a Book / page that doesn’t say what I want it to.

I know the office is from the church but it still doesn’t help me pray to God with meaning or deep love.

Anyone else feel the same way with the office?

Sometimes I have found it a burden, but endure it, understanding that these are the unified prayers of the Church, and it is important that the Body of Christ lift up their prayers in unison, just as we do with the daily mass…and that still leaves about 22-23 hours for me to offer personal and individual prayer to God.

 

[christofirst]

My reason for occasionally giving up the Divine Office is far less noble than that of the OP. I am just inconsistent and lazy! I frequently skip praying the Office, especially Evening Prayer, because I just don’t feel like it. Not being any sort of professed Religious myself, there is no obligation on my part to pray the Hours, but it is still something I am drawn to do - sometimes. When I do come back to it, it can be like visiting an old friend. And often times those familiar Psalms, readings and prayers take on a fresh meaning for me, because while the circumstances of my life are in constant motion, the Office remains stable and predictable.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

As a Secular Order Discalced Carmelite, OCDS, praying the morning and evening office is mandatory.

I love the LOTH’s,

When you pray, keep in mind that you are praying in the presence of God and when the King comes, he brings his court, the Blessed Mother and the Saints.

They pray with you.

Also, you should meditate on the Reading, but especially at the end of the LOTH’s.

Anyway, prayer comes from the heart, regardless if it’s prayer by rote, or our own words. Eventually, you will learn the prayer of silence, which is the language of God.

Jim

 

[marywarfield]

Well, been saying the divine office for well over a year now and decided to give up saying it.

Main reason is that for me the words do not mean much. However much I try and think about them they do not come from my heart / soul!

I am sure God would prefer me to pray to him from my heart. With 100% meaning and love instead of rattling of word after word that don’t have any meaning to me!

I love God and want to pray to him from my deepest depths but not by reading from a Book / page that doesn’t say what I want it to.

I know the office is from the church but it still doesn’t help me pray to God with meaning or deep love.

Anyone else feel the same way with the office?

Not sure what you mean by "doesn’t say what you
want it to. " do you mean you disagree with it or that
it’s talking about God and not you, or what exactly
are you saying? What do you want the Bible to say?

 

[Michael_Mayo]

My reason for occasionally giving up the Divine Office is far less noble than that of the OP. I am just inconsistent and lazy! I frequently skip praying the Office, especially Evening Prayer, because I just don’t feel like it. Not being any sort of professed Religious myself, there is no obligation on my part to pray the Hours, but it is still something I am drawn to do - sometimes. When I do come back to it, it can be like visiting an old friend. And often times those familiar Psalms, readings and prayers take on a fresh meaning for me, because while the circumstances of my life are in constant motion, the Office remains stable and predictable.

I think God would desire for us to simply sit as the spirit leads us than to force ourselves to say certain words at certain times. Thjere have been times when I was really into all the Hours and other times when I want to just make up my own prayer and other times still when something non-Biblical seems to speak to my heart.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I think God would desire for us to simply sit as the spirit leads us than to force ourselves to say certain words at certain times. Thjere have been times when I was really into all the Hours and other times when I want to just make up my own prayer and other times still when something non-Biblical seems to speak to my heart.

But the Spirit also leads many of us to set times for prayer.

Monastics all follow a schedule, yet they’re open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit dwelling within.

Jim

 

[InNomineDomini]

Anyone else feel the same way with the office?

I hope this isn’t meant to be a thread designed to complain about the Liturgy of the Hours.

To answer your question: no, not I.

I’ve never interpreted the Liturgical prayers or the psalms as some sort of personal communication with God, and neither as some sort of emotional experience which is meant to always get me high. I’ve never thought of them as something in some way inferior because they’re not ad-libbed. In fact, I find them much more profound and eloquent than anything I ever try to pray. But also, they help me to pray better.

They are what they are, and they have to be understood in their own context and as suiting the purposes they are meant to suit: putting us in proper harmony with the Church as she prays and with the liturgical seasons she celebrates.

They are also educational, and they help to instruct us theologically. The Office of Readings, for example, in no way is faulty because we are reading Scripture passages or the writings of Doctors, Saints, or Councils. God isn’t displeased with me because I can’t think like St. Augustine, or that I can’t express myself as Lumen Gentium does when it speaks about the Blessed Mother. God doesn’t think I’m an idiot because I didn’t write the 23rd Psalm.

Having said that, the Hours may not be for everyone, and that’s okay. We have freedom as laypersons with regard to the Hours, but let’s not look down on those who do find spiritual sustenance in them.

Let’s also not discourage others from praying them, and let’s bear in mind the value of ritualistic prayer as well as less formal and more off-the-cuff and from-the-heart type of prayer. Prayer can be many things, and there’s room for all forms of prayer in the Church and in our spiritual lives.

If it’s good enough for the religious and priests and bishops and cardinals and popes, it’s certainly good enough for dumb old me.

 

[kmuestwin]

For me it’s taken a long time to learn to love the Divine Office.

One thing that has happened since I stuck with it was that I have found psalms coming to me throughout the day as I do my work. There are certain psalms that strike a chord with my heart and when I get to them in my Psalter, its like a special treat.

Since I started with the Divine Office, I have learned to love the psalms more than ever before.

Keep in mind that every devotion requires commitment and effort. If the Divine Office isn’t helping you spiritually, find a different devotion that you can practice that will do good for you.

 

[christofirst]

I hope this isn’t meant to be a thread designed to complain about the Liturgy of the Hours.

.

Certainly not! You have expressed beautifully and thoughtfully the very things which make the Office attractive to me. My problem is more a lack of discipline. I was also raised during a time (late '60s early '70s) when we were encouraged to “get something” out of our prayer - to find a way of prayer that “speaks to us”. But I realize that prayer is so much more than that, as your post shows. Anyway, I learned long ago that the well of my own prayer can often times be very shallow, limited to my own selfish concerns and worries. The Divine Office indeed connects me with the wider world, the Universal Church!

As to the prayer of silence, of which others here speak with much eloquence, a lack of discipline and consistency tend to hold me back from that too, but I’m working on it.

 

[ajecphotos]

I hope this isn’t meant to be a thread designed to complain about the Liturgy of the Hours.

To answer your question: no, not I.

I’ve never interpreted the Liturgical prayers or the psalms as some sort of personal communication with God, and neither as some sort of emotional experience which is meant to always get me high. I’ve never thought of them as something in some way inferior because they’re not ad-libbed. In fact, I find them much more profound and eloquent than anything I ever try to pray. But also, they help me to pray better.

They are what they are, and they have to be understood in their own context and as suiting the purposes they are meant to suit: putting us in proper harmony with the Church as she prays and with the liturgical seasons she celebrates.

They are also educational, and they help to instruct us theologically. The Office of Readings, for example, in no way is faulty because we are reading Scripture passages or the writings of Doctors, Saints, or Councils. God isn’t displeased with me because I can’t think like St. Augustine, or that I can’t express myself as Lumen Gentium does when it speaks about the Blessed Mother. God doesn’t think I’m an idiot because I didn’t write the 23rd Psalm.

Having said that, the Hours may not be for everyone, and that’s okay. We have freedom as laypersons with regard to the Hours, but let’s not look down on those who do find spiritual sustenance in them.

Let’s also not discourage others from praying them, and let’s bear in mind the value of ritualistic prayer as well as less formal and more off-the-cuff and from-the-heart type of prayer. Prayer can be many things, and there’s room for all forms of prayer in the Church and in our spiritual lives.

If it’s good enough for the religious and priests and bishops and cardinals and popes, it’s certainly good enough for dumb old me.

Obviously not a thread to deter anyone. Just me asking a question!

I do pray at certain times, every day.

Prayers ‘should’ be a personal communication with god! Be it scriptual, psalms etc etc.

There is no point in just reading away endlessly without it having a strong affect on you and your link with god.

Remember what Jesus said:

***Matthew 6:7
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.

---

If the Divine Office is said with reverence and understanding then that is superb but for ‘me’ a lot of it doesnt make sense. Its like rattling off words for the sake of it, just because the church says it!

For me, prayer has to have meaning. I want god to know that what i am praying is not a bunch of empty, meaningless words! Lots of Psalms in the office are very well written and have a lot of meaning to me, as does the readings. But as a whole it is empty for me.

Having said all that, i do say the ‘Office for the dead’ both morning and evening as it really does mean a lot to me. I can link with the psalms etc in it. It really does feel like i am one with god with it.

 

[OraLabora]

The thing I learned about the Divine Office, from an excellent commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict, is that “it’s not all about me”. It has nothing to do with our feelings. It’s the prayer of the Church, by the Church, and for the Church. It’s about the weak carrying the strong, the well praying for the sick, the joyful praying for the sad, the sad sharing in another’s joy, etc. The psalms capture just about every human sentiment, and somewhere someone in the Church is feeling the sentiments in today’s psalms.

It’s best approached as ajob, a duty or a vocation.

For me it has brought a good measure of stability in my life, as a side benefit. Sometimes we pray it when we really don’t feel like it but we do it anyway because the Church needs our prayers.

I do chant the Divine Office btw, it helps.

 

[CB_Catholic]

Perhaps, for a time, you could keep a prayer journal, and write out prayers to God in your own words. They don’t have to be lofty, just from the heart.

But I agree about becoming familiar with the Psalms. They can be very inspirational when one is at a loss for words. They express every desire of the human heart and many are very personal.