How to Pray Liturgy of the Hours

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Godlovesus

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Hello,
Forgive me this may seem like a stupid question. But I am quite curious how to pray liturgy of the hours, is there anything I would need, I heard that to pray it is quite difficult. Is there any way someone could tell me just through a message how to pray it??

Thanks so very much:)
 
The first thing you need is a prayer book.

The most common variations are the four-volume complete set, the one-volume Christian Prayer, and the one-volume Shorter Christian Prayer.

The four-volume set will allow you to pray all the different hours. The one-volume version has morning, evening, and night prayer but just a bit from the Office of Readings. The shorter version – I believe – leaves out the different prayers and readings you use during Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter.

Once you have the book(s), yell and someone will walk you through how to use them.
 
I have the single volume Christian Prayer and the Shorter Christian Prayer.
The Shorter Christian Prayer has morning and evening prayer plus an abreviated night prayer.
Christian Prayer has all the hours. Both volumes have the 4 week Psalter including the Proper of Seasons.
The two main prayer hours are Morning (Lauds) and Evening (Vespers). They are traditionally prayed at 6am and 6pm. This is a good place to start. The Liturgy of the Hours honors the hours of each day.
 
Thanks so much, i think i will go after the four volume

Thanks again,

just to make sure, this is Roman Catholic liturgy of the hours…right?
 
Yes,we are talking about the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours. I bought my books from a Catholic book store. They each have a burgundy leatherette cover.
I no longer have a car, but when I did, I kept the Shorter Christian Prayer in the glove compartment. That way I could say Evening Prayer even if I was not home.
I was going to say what Suscipe posted, but some our non-Catholic brothers and sisters also have vespers.
 
Am I the only one who finds the Shorter Christian Prayer book almost unbearably confusing to use?
 
SenorSalsa said:
Am I the only one who finds the Shorter Christian Prayer book almost unbearably confusing to use?
Click to expand...
I don’t find it confusing. That may be because I have been using the single volume Christian Prayer for a long time. One thing I did to help with the single volume is glue the Canticles of Mary and Zechariah to the back cover. I have friends who subscribe to the Magnificat. That’s where I got my copies. The *Shorter Christian Prayer * already has the Canticles printed inside the back covers.
What I do in terms of the Office of Readings, because I do not have the 4 volume set, is read the Scripture passage listed in the back and then I might read a chapter or passage from a book. My current book is Early Christian Lives.
I would agree that there are not enough ribbons. I need to mark pages with Office of Readings and Scriptural cycle with bookmarks.
 
Click here for a guide to the 4 volume Liturgy of the Hours. It gives the pages for OOR (Office of Readings) MP (Morning prayer) etc. Feasts and Solemnities are a little confusing, but most days it’s really straightforward.

Click here for the guide to the one volume Christian Prayer.

Also, Click here for a free downloadable guide to praying the Liturgy of the Hours. It even has basic information about chanting the Hours.
 
Mea_Culpa said:
Click here for a guide to the 4 volume Liturgy of the Hours. It gives the pages for OOR (Office of Readings) MP (Morning prayer) etc. Feasts and Solemnities are a little confusing, but most days it’s really straightforward.

Click here for the guide to the one volume Christian Prayer.

Also, Click here for a free downloadable guide to praying the Liturgy of the Hours. It even has basic information about chanting the Hours.
Click to expand...
This should help. As Senor Salsa posted, the single volume can be confusing. I use bookmarks and holy cards to mark the necessary pages because there are not enough ribbons.
 
Mea_Culpa said:
Also, Click here for a free downloadable guide to praying the Liturgy of the Hours. It even has basic information about chanting the Hours.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for posting this link! The PDF document on the website on how to pray the Liturgy of the Hour is very helpful. 🙂
 
I know that this is a bit of an old post, however, I just thought I would mention that I, too, use Christian Prayer. I inherited my copy from my father when he got the four-volume set. I noticed that many of you mentioned that there weren’t enough ribbons to mark the pages. My dad put a piece of cardboard with ribbon tied to it into the binding, between the spine and the cover of the book. I have plenty of ribbons to mark the pages!
 
I used Christian Prayer for several years then our priest gave me Shorter CP. I really like it and find it quite easy to use. BUT it doesn’t have enough ribbons. So I made my own and it now works out very well.

I think that for many years people thought that LOTH was only for vowed religious. I’m so glad that the Church encourages us all to pray these hours. What a blessing they are!

linnie
 
Godlovesus said:
Hello,
Forgive me this may seem like a stupid question. But I am quite curious how to pray liturgy of the hours, is there anything I would need, I heard that to pray it is quite difficult. Is there any way someone could tell me just through a message how to pray it??

Thanks so very much:)
Click to expand...
no it is not hard, nor is it expensive. you can go to universalis.com and pray on-line, simply click on prayer for the time of day, morning, evening or night, and read, carefully, with attention, meditatively as with all prayer. most people find they pay attention better if the read aloud. If after you have formed the habit of at least morning and evening prayer you find you want a book, start with Shorter Christian Prayer, about $15, and just start with the 4 week psalm cycle and pray. When you have a firm habit of regular prayer for a year or so you can get some help with the propers and so forth. It is most important for form a regular daily habit. You don’t ever need to invest in a more expensive book, but the next choice would be Christian Prayer, one volume, so you can pray with the seasons of the Church year. By this time you should be more familiar with the rhythm and have found others to pray with or to help you.

sorry I got bit again, somebody has been opening old threads all day. If anyone is interested please do a search and also look at the stickies for reference threads
 
The coolest thing (well, probably the coolest would be to be able to pray the LOTH in community with other believers everyday - but that ain’t happenin around here) - is the application for the IPhone or IPod touch at www.divineoffice.org I like divineoffice.org better than universalis - universalis uses different translations than the books, so it throws me off.
 
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