How do I use this book?

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dizzy_dave

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I have a book called “Shorter Christian Prayer” The four-week Psalter of the liturgy of the hours containing Morning and Evening prayer, with selections for the entire year. BY Catholic book publishing Co. 1988. The book also has different propers of the season, saints, hyms etc. It’s very nicely set up I just can’t figure out the proper way to use it, it doesn’t really say. Can someone help??? Thank you.
 
Sorry Dave, I have never used that one. I use the 4-volume. I just want to say though, God bless you for wanting to pray the breviary. I am sure you will find it rewarding to participate in that liturgy of the Church.
 
How have you been Dave? The one volume book is a real challenge. I use it, but it took quite a bit of hair pulling and tears before I had it down. You will find that different religious communities put their own interesting twists into the prayers. The best way to learn is find a group that prays it every day and join them. The directions are found in the middle third of the book, but they can be very confusing. There is a yearly guide that you can buy for about $3.OO that tells you the proper prayers for each day and which saints are celebrated. Some days have no saint. Maybe they are saving a day for you!

God bless you,
Deacon Tony SFO
 
Glory to Jesus Christ!

It has been years since I used this book, but let me give you a few hints:

This is a condensed form of the Breviary, or an extra brief Breviary!

The whole thing is built upon a four week repeating cycle. The beginning of each liturgical season is week one. So Advent for Roman Catholics can be taken in four weeks entirely, but Ordinary Time will require you to repeat thus: at the fifth week use week one, the sixth week use week two…the fifteenth week will be on week 3! Check that church calendar you have in the kitchen to be sure what week you are on.

You will see a section called Proper for the Seasons, this is provided so that you may custom tailer your hour for the Season instead of just doing Ordinary time all year, we’ll get back to that.

** This book contains Morning (Matins) and Evening (Vespers) Prayer only **for the four weeks, with Night Prayer (Compline, before retiring) for the 7 nights of a week (a one week repeating cycle). The other hours are not included and you can forget them for now.

The first time you pray in a day do the Invitatory prayer, it is normally Psalm 95 but you can switch it out for another if that bores you (or whatever).

Start by saying:
*"Lord open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your Praise, cleanse my heart of any worthless, evil or distracting thoughts. Give me the Wisdom and Love to pray this Office with attention, reverence and devotion, and let my prayer be heard in Your Presence for it is offered through Christ Our Lord!

Amen*

How’s that? I did it from memory!! Yahoo!! :yup: :dancing:

Say the Antiphon and then pray the Psalm (95, or whichever). Now once you have prayed the Invitatory you may proceed, I always skipped the hymns. If you want to sing go right ahead.

Say the Antiphion for the first Psalm, them lovingly pray the Psalm. You may repeat the Antiphon (I would, but you don’t have to), then go to the Antiphon for the next Psalm (or Canticle), repeat as directed. A word about the canticles, they are included as such: Psalm-Canticle-Psalm in the Morning and Psalm-Psalm-Canticle in the Evening.

Once you have done three Psalms or Canticles you are at the mid-point. There will be a psalm prayer and then a reading which will change with the season, this is where you would jump to the Proper for Advent (Chistmas/Lent/Easter). In Ordinary time you continue on the same page. After the reading and some further prayers you are ready for the keystone: the Gospel Canticle.

The Morning Gospel Canticle is printed in the inside front cover, the Evening is print in the back. By doing this they saved printing costs, rather that repeat the same prayers multiple times throughout the book.

You will see substitutions for Sundays, that would be mainly concluding prayers and antiphons, which will tie into the church three-year calendar of readings at Mass, sometimes you’ll notice that.

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Please remember, if you miss an hour, skip it, don’t go back and try to catch up. That’s not the purpose, the purpose is to Sanctify your time in the here and now, so do the next hour in it’s turn. If you do the wrong hour, no harm done. As a novice you are sure to do this once in a while, each hour is a good hour, don’t do it over unless you just feel moved to pray more!

Finally, only say the Invitatory once in a day (unless you like it that much! 🙂 ), but whatever hour you manage to say as your first, that’s when you put the Invitatory in.

With the next hour start by saying:

*"God come to my assistance, Lord make haste to help me! Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be!

Amen"

*Then the Antiphon to the first Psalm. etc. etc. etc.

NOTE - you will encounter this eventually: For Sundays only Evening Prayer I is Saturday night (Vespers for Sunday) Evening prayer II is Sunday night (Vespers for Monday).

Did I confuse you?
 
If you mean the slim red volume Shorter Christian Prayer, this is how our Benedictine oblates are introduced to praying the Liturgy of the Hours, and what we use when we pray together.

there are instructions, read the introduction, but here is the cliff notes

the heart of the LOTH is the 4 week Psalter. To find out what week you are in, look at your missal or Catholic calendar, there is also a guide to finding the proper week in your book.

We just started Advent, we are in the 2nd week of Advent, so we are in the 2nd week of the Psalter, Tuesday. The easy way is just to pray the antiphons, psalms, reading, responsories, and interscessions as given for each day, morning and evening. It is perfectly okay to do this for a while until you get comfortable with it. This is how the church prays in ordinary time. The gospel canticles from Luke for morning and evening are on the inside covers of your book. You say the antiphon before and after, and the Glory be to the Father after each psalm.

Now find the section for Proper of the Seasons. You will see there is a section for Advent, for Christmas, Epiphany and the other liturgical feasts and seasons. You pray those sections during the appropriate season. the Monday after the Baptism of the Lord we will be in ordinary time, and you will begin with Monday, Week 1 in the psalter.

Third, find the Sundays of the Year, the sundays in ordinary time. Divide by 4 to know what week you are beginning each Sunday.
Sunday is different because there is no Saturday evening prayer, you go to Evening Prayer I for Sunday (Saturday evening), then to morning prayer and evening prayer 2 on sunday itself. what changes is the antiphons, reading, response, interecessions, and antiphon for the gospel canticle. againt, you don’t have to plug in the Sunday variations until you are comfortable with the 4-week cycle.

hymns are optional if you are doing it by yourself, they are in the back.
if you skip a segement one day, just go on to the next day, don’t try to retrace your steps or repeat “missed” prayers.

for the time being, get comfortable with praying the 4 week psalter. You begin in the morning with the Invitatory antiphon and psalm 95 in the front of the book, but this is optional if you are doing this by yourself.

praying out loud, attentively, is the best way to get in the groove and keep your mind from wandering.
 
Dave, I bought the one volume edition for my son for Christmas and like another poster I was tearing my hair out trying to workout how to use it. I have made an appointment with our pastoral associate, a Dominician nun, to show me how to use it.

I tried the online tutorials but they didn’t help. The best thing is a real person who is conversant with the brievary.

Good luck finding someone suitable. 🙂
 
Thanks all for taking so much time to reply to Dizzy Daves question! I used this book for a time years ago but got tired of trying to figure it out on my own and gave it up. You’ve inspired me to take it off the shelf and take a second look at it.

It anyone else has any suggestions, keep 'em coming!

(For those who have no idea what we are talking about, check here):
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0899424236/102-1811006-4858531?v=glance
 
Hi, Everyone. I’m working on it. Thanks for all the info.
 
keep at it Dave, it is so rewarding, and so great to feel oneself part of the church’s universal continuous prayer. just stick with the 4 week psalter for now until you feel comfortable with the rhythm. The Monday after the Baptism of the Lord we start week one again

First Sunday of Lent, start Week one again

Easter Sunday, start Week one again.

Monday after Pentecost in 2005, start Week 3.

(see page 15 of Shorter Christian prayer for this chart)
 
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