How to live a more Liturgical life

[Tis_Bearself]

But where the LOTH is concerned it just seems like the tradition and reason, even the necessity, aren’t so well articulated. You hear “its the prayer of the Church”, but what does that really mean? And what does it look like in the day-to-day life of a layperson?

I think a lot of this stemmed from the fact that forms of prayer in general were shoved in the background for a few decades after Vatican II. The idea seemed to be that both religious and laity should be out on the streets doing social activist stuff or helping people in some physical way, rather than sitting indoors saying prayers.

The Rosary and a couple of Marian devotions held on, barely, mostly because of a lot of older people who were in the habit of saying them and weren’t all of a sudden going to abandon the practice and go work in a soup kitchen. There wasn’t a similar habit of the laity in place for LOTH, and to the extent the laity had been in the habit of saying some other office like the Little Office of Our Lady, those were really pushed aside because as I understand it the Church felt that you should be saying the LOTH if you were saying any office at all.

I am willing to bet that many Catholic laypeople don’t even know what the LOTH is, much less how to pray it, and even with apps it’s not the easiest thing in the world to learn to pray.

 

[Spyridon]

His book has helped me “connect the dots” from what the Church teaches and the practical application of the prayer, if that makes any sense.

Sure it does.

The LOTH is a treasure trove which was only recently (since 1970) reopened to the faithful Laity. From not long after the Council of Trent (say, the 17th century) up until 1970 the Office was prayed almost exclusively by Clergy and Religious. This was an issue, because the Office was always supposed to be available to all the Church - and the Second Vatican Council fixed that.

So the LOTH hasn’t been in the Catholic conscience for long. With the dawn of the information age, many more Catholics are discovering the immense power of the Office.

The LOTH is, IMO, one of the great successes of Vatican II.

 

[Limoncello4021]

Great thread. I do Morning Prayer but feel like I don’t really know much about the LOTH. I’m going to look for Gallagher’s book. I also try to be aware of the saint(s) of the day, feasting appropriately.
Daily Mass is a must, frequent Confession, and celebration of Marian feasts are also part of my routine. There’s a new Marian feast on the horizon.

 

[RKS89]

I got it on Kindle for $10.49 I think. Paperback was only $12. I love Fr. Gallagher and have a lot of his books.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

So the LOTH hasn’t been in the Catholic conscience for long. With the dawn of the information age, many more Catholics are discovering the immense power of the Office.

It would be helpful if the parishes would have some sort of a class or a group or an organized devotion promoting the praying of the LOTH.
This is notably absent. Until I visited this forum, I wasn’t even aware that any laity other than maybe third orders bothered to pray it.
Maybe the parishes think it’s too hard for people, or maybe there just isn’t some sort of canned “Walking with Purpose” - type study course they can buy or hire someone to present.

 

[Spyridon]

would be helpful if the parishes would have some sort of a class or a group or an organized devotion promoting the praying of the LOTH.

This is notably absent.

Unfortunately, this has been a large scale failure (for the most part) of Catholic Pastors to uphold the wishes of the Council Fathers.

SC #100 “Pastors of souls should see to it that the chief hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and the more solemn feasts. And the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually.”

At my very devout and traditional Cathedral even, Vespers is literally never prayed publicly, and Lauds only a few times during Holy Week. I’ve brought up the issue before and kind of gotten a “well we don’t know if people will come…” type response. I will keep pressing the issue until Vespers is celebrated publicly every weekend like the Council Fathers (and the ancient Church Fathers) intended.

 

[OraLabora]

It would be helpful if the parishes would have some sort of a class or a group or an organized devotion promoting the praying of the LOTH.

Our schola does Vespers twice a year in Gregorian chant at the cathedral in Sherbrooke, Quebec, usually the 4th Sunday of Advent and the 4th Sunday of Lent. We also do Lauds at the cathedral on Holy Saturday, also in Gregorian chant. We use Gregorian hymn and antiphon, but psalmody in French on Gregorian modes, except for the Gospel canticles all in Latin.

But where the LOTH is concerned it just seems like the tradition and reason, even the necessity, aren’t so well articulated. You hear “its the prayer of the Church”, but what does that really mean? And what does it look like in the day-to-day life of a layperson?

I think the best place to inform ourselves is through monastic life, where the Liturgy of the Hours (most usually a monastic version), is the main job of the monks. They pray for the intentions of the whole Church (and everyone in her) as well as for the world.

In terms of my daily life: I have a winter, and a summer, horarium.

Winter:

rise 5:15 am
Vigils (or Office of Readings) at 5:30 am
Lauds at 7:30 am
Terce at 9:45 am
Sext at noon
None at 2 pm
Vespers at 5 pm
Compline variable, usually around 8 pm.

In summer, I move Lauds to 6 am immediately after Vigils (as per the Rule of St. Benedict for summer months) ,I don’t pray Terce or None, just one mid-day prayer that I usually pray at noon, or at the hour of Terce or None if outside activities interfere, plus I pray Lauds at 6 am, and sometimes delay Vespers to 6 pm.

Caveat: I am retired! But even when working I managed the full (non-monastic) LOTH. I would pray the Office of Readings and Lauds before leaving for work, mid-day prayer at my desk while eating lunch, Vespers on arriving home, Compline before bed.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’ve seen the occasional public “Vespers”, but I am willing to bet that most people at the parishes doing it, including probably 2/3 of the people who may be in there praying it as it’s often before or after a Mass so the people coming for Mass will join in just because they happen to be there, have little or no idea what “Vespers” is or why it is being prayed.

 

[babochka]

Tis_Bearself:

would be helpful if the parishes would have some sort of a class or a group or an organized devotion promoting the praying of the LOTH.

This is notably absent.

Unfortunately, this has been a large scale failure (for the most part) of Catholic Pastors to uphold the wishes of the Council Fathers.

SC #100 “Pastors of souls should see to it that the chief hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and the more solemn feasts. And the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually.”

At my very devout and traditional Cathedral even, Vespers is literally never prayed publicly, and Lauds only a few times during Holy Week. I’ve brought up the issue before and kind of gotten a “well we don’t know if people will come…” type response. I will keep pressing the issue until Vespers is celebrated publicly every weekend like the Council Fathers (and the ancient Church Fathers) intended.

The only Latin-rite parish I’ve ever seen celebrate Sunday Vespers regularly Is an FSSP parish. Since the priest needs to pray Vespers anyway, why not just pray it aloud in the church? If people come, great. If not, they will start to become familiar with the concept.

Also, I think that there is a lot of pressure to offer more and more frequent Mass times. If a parish started scheduling Vespers at 5 p.m. on Sunday, parishioners would likely pressure to have a Mass scheduled at that time instead. One more opportunity to fulfill their obligation would be more appealing to some than some unknown prayer service. This really requires a great deal of education.

 

[RKS89]

Does anyone know if our “seasonal” arrangement of Scripture and hymn selection for Mass is a remnant from Judaism? Did/do the Jews have a similar system for selecting Torah readings for the synagogue? They had quite a few observances that seem liturgical in nature, like the Seder and entire observance of Passover.

Just curious.

 

[OraLabora]

Since the priest needs to pray Vespers anyway, why not just pray it aloud in the church?

It’s probably for practical reasons. Most priests where I live have responsibility for more than one parish and work solo. So it means sick calls, rushing to hospitals for the anointing of the sick for someone dying, emergency baptisms of after a difficult childbirth, etc. In between all that they have homilies to prepare, Masses to do, confession hours to sit through. The result is that it’s probably very difficult for them to hold to a fixed time for their recitation of the Office. The best then can do is make Lauds “early in the morning” and Vespers in the “early evening”, but cannot guarantee that it will always be at 5pm or whatever.

Our parish does, however, celebrate Lauds in the morning when no priest is available for weekday Mass. It is led by the laity, which is perfectly licit and permissible. It happens about once a week.

FSSP priests live in community, so it’s easier for them to always have someone available at a regular hour.

 

[Ann_Stanton]

When I lived in Guam (early 1990’s) most churches offered Morning and Evening Prayer daily.

 

[Deditus_Domina]

You have gotten a lot of great responses and advice.

Liturgy is firstly a community act - the work of the people church. The LoTH is such a work but its major focus is anchoring your day to God and the Christian community. The prayers remain basically the same throughout the liturgical year though with most of the variation being in antiphons, hymns and selections in the Office of Readings.

I was fortunate to find a parish that celebrates the full liturgical calendar and that has made a huge difference for me. For example, during Easter octave we sing Easter hymns, the Gloria and the sequence everyday. Pentecost involves lot of red ribbon, rose petals from the ceiling. We do taize and tenebrae in Holy Week. Every solemnity is an excuse to break out the incense.

If you want to think and live liturgically, get involved more in liturgy. Go to mass very often, pray the LoTH, train to be a sacristan or help with church decorating, teach RE and actively think about sharing the year with your students. Be penitential during Lent, rejoice in Easter. Sing seasonal hymns often. Seriously singing is an amazing help in feeling seasonal. Take advantage of seasonal ways of serving and giving: angel trees, Christmas meal service, etc. Liturgical living is experiential and community focused.

Liturgical living also requires planning. I find it useful to print the USCCB liturgical calendar, decide what I really want to celebrate this year and plan for it. Even as a daily mass goer stuff like Candlemass can sneak up on you. Planning is also essential if you want to invite others into it. If you can’t regularly go to daily mass but have the sort of job where you could go once or twice, plan out which days and celebrate them.

 

[TheOldColonel]

You might consider that there is no such thing as a “Liturgical Life.” Rather, the Christian Life entails living out the Paschal Mystery of Christ in daily life. While liturgy is a source and means to this Mystery, it is not an end in itself. It also is not the only source of this Mystery.

Yet, all genuine liturgy leads us to Christ and beckons Christ to us. In this meeting, we experience His Life, His Death and His Resurrection. Through this interchange, we come more and more to see that the Paschal Mystery is the deep structure of our own lives, of our Life, Death and Ressurrection in Him.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Since the priest needs to pray Vespers anyway, why not just pray it aloud in the church? If people come, great. If not, they will start to become familiar with the concept.

The Mercedarians took over a parish church in my old diocese and I attend the evening Mass there sometimes. They always do Vespers before the Mass. They usually get one or two elderly ladies participating, but since as you said they have to do it anyway, they just do it there. Because they’re a monastery, they always have someone available to do it.

I’m also aware of one historic church down in Philadelphia that does it and always has quite a crowd. It’s in the business district and gets a lot of commuters who are about to head home. It always seems to be urban areas doing things like this. Out in the suburbs, you’re lucky if you can even find a Mass after noon, since the commuters don’t get home until after 6 pm and then are more focused on picking up kids, having dinner etc than getting out to Mass.