How much of the divine office are nuns required to do daily?

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The prescribed prayers recited each day by nuns and religious sisters would vary from congregation to congregation and order to order… that is determined by the Rule of their community and/or their superiors. Some may pray the entire Liturgy of the Hours, others may pray an office unique to their community, or a combination thereof.
 
twf said:
The prescribed prayers recited each day by nuns and religious sisters would vary from congregation to congregation and order to order… that is determined by the Rule of their community and/or their superiors. Some may pray the entire Liturgy of the Hours, others may pray an office unique to their community, or a combination thereof.
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Exactly. The answer I was going to give was “which nuns, where?”, but this response is more complete and genteel. 😃
 
Everyone who is connected to an order, whether third orders or second orders of nuns, is expected to pray as a minimum the morning and evening prayer in LOTH. Some older designations for this is Lauds and Vespers. I am just a secular Carmelite, but we make the promise to pray this daily for those two hours. It is optional if we desire to pray any of the others.

However, many cloistered communities are praying, every third hour, all of the lesser hours, such as Matins, Prime, Sext and None. Naturally, this depends on each order’s Constitutions.
 
Sirach2 said:
Everyone who is connected to an order, whether third orders or second orders of nuns, is expected to pray as a minimum the morning and evening prayer in LOTH. Some older designations for this is Lauds and Vespers. I am just a secular Carmelite, but we make the promise to pray this daily for those two hours. It is optional if we desire to pray any of the others.

However, many cloistered communities are praying, every third hour, all of the lesser hours, such as Matins, Prime, Sext and None. Naturally, this depends on each order’s Constitutions.
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Thank you. This was exactly the information I was looking for. 🙂
 
Sirach2 said:
Everyone who is connected to an order, whether third orders or second orders of nuns, is expected to pray as a minimum the morning and evening prayer in LOTH. Some older designations for this is Lauds and Vespers. I am just a secular Carmelite, but we make the promise to pray this daily for those two hours. It is optional if we desire to pray any of the others.

However, many cloistered communities are praying, every third hour, all of the lesser hours, such as Matins, Prime, Sext and None. Naturally, this depends on each order’s Constitutions.
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In the case of Benedictine abbeys, the abbot has the right to select an Office for his community. For instance in the Benedictine congregation that I’m connected to, the mother abbey (Solesmes) uses Benedictine Schema A in Latin. Our founding abbey (St-Wandrille) uses the same schema also in Latin. Our abbey uses Schema B with Lauds and Vespers in Latin and the rest in French. Ste-Marie in Paris, a satellite of our founding abbey, uses Schema B as well, but in French. Ste-Marie in Montreal (Benedictine nuns) uses Schema A in Latin but with Vigils anticipated the previous evening. All in the same congregation!

Douai Abbey in the UK uses a hybrid schema: a 4-week psalter for Matins (which combines the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer) and mid-day prayer that is similar to the current LOTH, but the 1934 monastic antiphonary on a 1 week cycle for Vespers, and invariable Compline in the Monastic tradition (ps. 4, 90, 133).

My understanding is that very few Benedictine men’s houses still say Prime unless they are using the pre-Vatican II variant of monastic Schema A. At our abbey, Vigils is at 5 am, Lauds at 7:30 am, Terce at 9:45, Mass at 11, sext+none combined 12 noon during week and 3:45 pm on Sundays and feasts (due to longer Mass), Vespers at 5 pm, and Compline at 7:45 pm.

As oblates we too make a promise to pray as much as the office as our life situation allows. The recommended minimum in our case is Lauds, Vespers and Compline. Each abbey has its own rules and recommendations.
 
OraLabora,

Thanks for entering the discussion. I’m afraid you lost me with the clerical terminology. :whacky: Most likely, the OP who was asking a very basic question is also lost. It isn’t necessary to redefine, since it won’t apply to many of us, but I have no clue what *schema A or B *is.

I need to tell you, though, how much I appreciate all the help you have given to me personally in the past. 🙂
 
Sirach2 said:
OraLabora,

Thanks for entering the discussion. I’m afraid you lost me with the clerical terminology. :whacky: Most likely, the OP who was asking a very basic question is also lost. It isn’t necessary to redefine, since it won’t apply to many of us, but I have no clue what *schema A or B *is.

I need to tell you, though, how much I appreciate all the help you have given to me personally in the past. 🙂
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Just different psalters. Schema A is the original psalm schema defined by St. Benedict in his Rule, with about 250 psalms recited per week (obviously many repetitions); he was very precise saying which psalm should be said at what Hour, for the most part simply saying them in the order they appear in the psalter unless they are particularly suited to a specific hour in which case they’re out of sequence. There are pre- and post-Vatican II versions. Schema B is a post-Vatican II schema that recites 150 psalms per week (the entire psalter), or optionally, spread over two weeks. There are also schemas C and D but those seem less popular. Also post-VII.
 
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