Guidance on how to pray 'Christian Prayer'

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Firstly, let me apologize if this is not the correct forum. I am looking for a bit of help in praying the Christian Prayer book.

Specifically I am confused about the Office of Readings. After the Thursday readings on page 1842 it states ‘Readings and prayers, as in the Office of the day.’

I found on pg 2064 a list of the Scriptural readings and my question is where can I find the non-Scriptural reading and most importantly where is the prayer for this?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Jason
 
jmvbxx said:
Firstly, let me apologize if this is not the correct forum. I am looking for a bit of help in praying the Christian Prayer book.

Specifically I am confused about the Office of Readings. After the Thursday readings on page 1842 it states ‘Readings and prayers, as in the Office of the day.’

I found on pg 2064 a list of the Scriptural readings and my question is where can I find the non-Scriptural reading and most importantly where is the prayer for this?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Jason
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Jason,
The non-biblical readings start on page 1942

The prayer part is easy. It’s the same as the morning prayer of that particular day.

The 4 volume set is much easier for the Office of Readings. The 1-volume can be a bit confusing.
 
Thank you for the quick reply.

For the non-Scriptural reading … does it matter which I choose? Or, is it my choice based on the appropriate season?

I would love the get the 4-volume set but I live in Colombia and it isn’t available here in English. The next time I’m in an English country I will make it a priority to get a copy.
 
jmvbxx said:
Thank you for the quick reply.

For the non-Scriptural reading … does it matter which I choose? Or, is it my choice based on the appropriate season?

I would love the get the 4-volume set but I live in Colombia and it isn’t available here in English. The next time I’m in an English country I will make it a priority to get a copy.
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The General Instruction (#250) says that for the second reading, one may choose to replace the scheduled reading with a different reading (more or less at your own discretion). So, my conclusion would be that if that’s how you would like to do it, then that’s fine. The first option should be to follow the season. But if you feel that you have a good reason, the Church says you can do it. Especially since you’re doing this in a private setting.

I don’t know how the Office of Readings works in the 1-volume set (I’m just reading the pages as I type) because I use the 4-volume set for that prayer, and the readings are already provided.

I’ll do a little searching. It may be that I can find you an online source for the 2nd readings.
 
The four-volume set has different readings for every day of the year (that’s why it takes four volumes). The one-volume Christian Prayer just has a small sampling of readings for the Office of Readings. If you want to do Office of Readings every day, the four-volume set is much better, otherwise you would be doing a lot of repetition.
 
I use Christian Prayer for the psalms , go on line to Universalis for the readings, then back to the Prayer for the day in Christian prayer.

Universalis has the whole thing, but the Psalms and Prayers are from a different source to avoid a copyright.
 
You can’t pray the full Office of Readings daily one from the one-volume Christian Prayer, unless you do what Father mentioned: take advantage of the allowance to substitute / combine readings for any just cause. Not having access to the 4-volume set sounds like a just cause.

Just curious, if you live in Colombia and if your Spanish is good enough, you could get the 4-volume set in Spanish. There are Daughters of St. Paul in Colombia with bookstores that should sell it.

I am not a native Spanish-speaker, but I’ve learned and am now fluent, and I used the Divine Office (and went to Mass in Spanish) to improve my ability.

Now I’m trying to learn Latin, and praying the Office in Latin and attending the EF is helping. (Of course the primary reason is not to learn Latin, but to glorify God!)
 
If you have the 1 volume CP you look up the scriptural readings in your bible, and choose one of the 2nd readings, they are just a sample of the full office of readings, and you will see at the top of the page a reference to the liturgical season, with a number for the week, or to ordinary time. So if you pray it every day I think you use the same reading for a week, or you could supplement with some other good spiritual book, esp. lives of the saints that has their writings. The prayer is the same as for morning prayer. Another possibility is if you also purchase a monthly devotional such as Magnificat or Word Among us that has the Mass readings, you can read or re-read those, plus the devotional reflection article for each day, in place of the second reading.
 
@newyorkcatholic … Yes they are available here … in fact in this city they receive a couple of shipments a year from Panana to restock on the 4 volume in Spanish. My Spanish is good enough and we are very active within our parish and of course it is all in Spanish.

It’s just that I really enjoy doing the Liturgy of the Hours in English. For the Office I use Universalis.

I’m thinking too about starting to learn Latin. I’d like to start with some basics and maybe do the rosary in Latin.
 
Thanks, jmvbxx, for posting your question. I use the one volume Christian Prayer and have been wanting to do the Office of Readings, but found it too confusing and I was wondering how to find the correct material.

Now I know about universalis! 👍
 
jmvbxx said:
@newyorkcatholic … Yes they are available here … in fact in this city they receive a couple of shipments a year from Panana to restock on the 4 volume in Spanish. My Spanish is good enough and we are very active within our parish and of course it is all in Spanish.

It’s just that I really enjoy doing the Liturgy of the Hours in English. For the Office I use Universalis.

I’m thinking too about starting to learn Latin. I’d like to start with some basics and maybe do the rosary in Latin.
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Starting in Latin has been wonderful for my spirituality. There are some who say don’t do it unless you really know Latin, but my mindset is, that which I do not fully understand, I pray trusting that the Church’s intentions are the intentions God wants me to pray for.

Also, in a few months I’ve gone from understanding ~20% of the Latin to about ~70% of the Latin. (With some supplementing by reading propers and other prayers from my EF missal in Latin and English).

And you can always use Universalis to compare and better understand the Latin, without having to pray directly from their unapproved version.
 
Note that Saint Francis deSales provides a guide for Christian Prayer each day, e.g.
20Sun. FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT 111
MP 112 (926) (Ant 126); DP 994; EP (114) 931 (Ant 127); NP 1037
[OOR 1850, Rd 1810f & 1942f; TD Pr 113]
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I think if you look at the referenced pages the format will make sense. If not please ask again.

If you scroll down the left side to “Features” the fourth item, Liturgy of the Hours, will take you to a similar guide for the 4 volume set.
 
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