If I missed my LOTH morning and midmorning prayer how do I start my Midday prayer?

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I accident left my LOTH book in the office and the office is closed. The next morning I could not pray the morning prayer since I do not have the book. In the midmorning, I am too busy. I could only pray the midday prayer. Do I still say the Invitatory when I pray the midday prayer?
 
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Also, how do you read the Evening Prayer if on Sunday there are Evening Prayer I and Evening prayer II as we only have one evening per day?
 
Evening Prayer I is done on Saturday night. Evening Prayer II is done on Sunday night.
 
I have the Laudate app on my phone. It was free. It links to the free version of universalis for the LotH. I think the official universalis app is $12.99 but I’m too cheap for that as it’s not one of my regular devotions. Either way you’d be covered in a pinch.
I love this app. It even has a "my prayers "section. I copy and paste my favorite prayers there…I haven’t memorized everything yet…or new prayers I find that touch my heart. It has prayer search, daily readings, Saint of the day…lots of features.
 
What I’ve been told by a diocesan priest and three Benedictine monks: if you didn’t pray Morning Prayer and won’t pray the Office of Readings in the morning and before any other office, you skip both the Invitatory and the opening Psalm.

In any event, Midday Prayer (before noon, at noon and/or afternoon) is never preceded by either.
 
Yes. In fact, that is what you should start with if the first office of your day is neither Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings, then proceed to the hymn.

I believe that you would also skip the Invitatory and opening Psalm for the Office of Readings if you’re praying it after noon, even if it’s the first office of your day. I’m not completely certain about that, though (I don’t pray the Office of Readings). @OraLabora?
 
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Tricky question! Let’s look at what the General Instructions say about the Invitatory:
  1. The invitatory is placed at the beginning of the whole sequence of the day’s prayer, that is, it precedes either morning prayer or the office of readings, whichever of these liturgical rites begins the day. The invitatory psalm with its antiphon may be omitted, however, when the invitatory is the prelude to morning prayer.
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and
  1. If the office of readings is said before morning prayer, the invitatory precedes it, as noted (nos. 34-36). Otherwise it begins with the verse, God, come to my assistance with the Glory to the Father, As it was in the beginning, and the Alleluia (omitted in Lent).
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What this means is:
  1. If the Office of Readings is the first Office of the day (it is for me, at 5:30 am) and the next Office is Morning Prayer, then you say “Lord, open my lips…” and the Invitatory Psalm with the appropriate antiphon. The Invitatory Psalm cannot be omitted.
  2. If Lauds is the first Office of the day, then you say “Lord, open my lips…”, and you either say the Invitatory Psalm with its antiphon afterwards, or you are free to omit it.
  3. If you are only saying the Office of Readings, that is it doesn’t precede Morning Prayer (as MP is not said), then you do not say the Invitatory. You start with the usual formula “God come to my assistance”.
For those who can, a good practice is to join the Office of Readings to Lauds; it follows the ancient Benedictine practice of launching into Lauds immediately after Vigils. It saves a wee bit of time as you only have to say one hymn. You can choose either the hymn from Lauds or that from the OOR. You omit the collect after the OOR, start straight into Lauds after the responsory of the second reading, and finish with the collect of Lauds. Incidentally many monasteries do not use the collect of the day at Lauds and Vespers, but rather continue with the Sunday collect. It’s the case at our abbey.

You never say the Invitatory before any hours other than at OOR and MP. And you don’t say the invitatory at the OOR if it doesn’t precede MP, or if it’s anticipated the previous evening. Or if, the OOR is your only Office of the day,

I can’t stress often enough, for those serious about the Liturgy of the Hours, spend some quality time with the General Instruction! And not just once, go back to it regularly.
 
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OraLabora said:
If you are only saying the Office of Readings, that is it doesn’t precede Morning Prayer (as MP is not said), then you do not say the Invitatory. You start with the usual formula “God come to my assistance”.
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I want to interject with a question. I’m no expert on the Divine Office but you are. However, I’ve always understood GILH #60 to mean when the OOR is said later in the day later than Morning Prayer as it can be or anticipated on the previous evening. I always understood that if the OOR is said first and you do no other Office that day it must begin with the Invitatory. I infer my previous understanding was incorrect?
 
I think we need to keep in mind that the GI are written for someone who says most of the LOTH every day.

I can’t personally see any harm in saying the Invitatory if it’s the only Office you do in the day. But a strict reading of the GI suggests that if there is no MP afterwards, you don’t say the Invitatory. Personally, if it were the only Office I prayed during the day, and I said it early in the morning, I would say the Invitatory, but not if I said it later in the morning, after noon or in the evening.

I think we can read between the lines and infer that the Invitatory is meant to be a early morning prayer, as the GI says it is to be said before MP, or before the OOR of the latter is said before MP. That is a very strong suggestion that the Invitatory is meant to be a morning rite and is not appropriate for the afternoon. Personally, I wouldn’t say it if I was saying the OOR any time after MP would normally be said, that is up to just before the hour of Terce. My own sense is that MP should be said at no later than 8:30 am, or in extenuating circumstances, maybe 9 am. But it’s not a hard-and-fast rule, just a rule-of-thumb that I use in my own prayer routine; I generally try to be structured and say the Offices at the same hour every day with some exceptions.

I normally say MP at 7:30 am (same time as at the abbey) in the winter months (except 6:30 on Saturdays as I have to be somewhere at 7:30 am), and at 6 am in the summer, immediately after the OOR. I use the same definition of summer as the abbey, that is from the Monday following the Octave of Easter until the feast of the Holy Cross on Sept. 14th (St. Benedict defined it as until Nov. 1st, and having been to Italy many times in early November, there is a distinct and fairly sudden season change in the 1st week; by November 1st in Quebec, summer is but a distant memory!)
 
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OraLabora said:
My own sense is that MP should be said at no later than 8:30 am, or in extenuating circumstances, maybe 9 am. But it’s not a hard-and-fast rule, just a rule-of-thumb that I use in my own prayer routine; I generally try to be structured and say the Offices at the same hour every day with some exceptions.
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Question for you: if you slept in until 10:30 am one day, would you start your day with Morning Prayer or skip it and start with Mid-Morning Prayer?

the reason I’ve asked is because I’ve read somewhere that when people miss morning or evening prayer, it’s a good idea to still pray them since they are two the “pillars” of the Divine Office.
 
A good question; but a bit difficult for me to answer. Being a morning person, if I wake up at 6 am, I consider I have slept in and my morning is fairly ruined! 😉

And if I do sleep in 'till 6 am, I will still try do do the OOR and MP; I will compress though, probably reciting the OOR silently.

That said, I tend to follow the cue as if I were in community even though I’m not. If a monk must miss an office for a valid reason (hopefully not sleeping in! Probably more something like “the heating boiler is going haywire and needs to be tended to immediately!” “Or our prize cow is just about to calf and needs assistance”), he’s simply excused from that Office.

Also consider that we are not bound (assuming you are laity as well). So there’s no need to say a skipped office and since we are not bound, unlike a monk sleeping in past Vigils or Lauds, we aren’t under penalty of sin (as an oblate I’m only obliged to say as much as the LOTH as my situation allows). I’ll certainly regret missing an Office, but it’s not something I’d bring up in a confessional unless I really became neglectful of my prayer obligations. It’s not like the LOTH is a Holy Day of Obligation for laity…

So in my case, if for some hypothetical reason I were to sleep 'till 10:30 (jet lag? illness? having to be up all night with a sick family member? etc.), I would simply pick up at the next appropriate Office, which would likely be either mid-morning or mid-day prayer.
 
phil19034 said:
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OraLabora:
My own sense is that MP should be said at no later than 8:30 am, or in extenuating circumstances, maybe 9 am. But it’s not a hard-and-fast rule, just a rule-of-thumb that I use in my own prayer routine; I generally try to be structured and say the Offices at the same hour every day with some exceptions.
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Question for you: if you slept in until 10:30 am one day, would you start your day with Morning Prayer or skip it and start with Mid-Morning Prayer?

the reason I’ve asked is because I’ve read somewhere that when people miss morning or evening prayer, it’s a good idea to still pray them since they are two the “pillars” of the Divine Office.
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If you are not bound by a constitution, law, or rule, then just observe the verity of the hour and skip it. I will never pray Morning Prayer after my civil noon. Yes, Morning Prayer is a hinge hour, but it’s also meant to sanctify the morning.
 
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I am using the Christian Prayer book, and if you look at page 246, it is arranged like this:

Evening Prayer 1
Canticle of Mary

Morning Prayer
Canticle of Zechariah
Prayer
Alternative Prayer

Evening Prayer 2
Canticle of Mary

I am wondering whether the Prayer and Alternative Prayer are also assigned for Evening Prayer 1 and Evening Prayer 2?

This is because while praying Evening Prayer 1, after Our Father…, it is written there Prayer, as in the Proper of Seasons. But when I turned to page 246, there is only Canticle of Mary but no prayer.
 
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A Sunday/Solemnity (or many other days, for that matter) may only have one Collect prayer after the Our Father (not counting Alternatives) that you need to use for Morning and Evening - or Evening 1, Morning, and Evening 2 repeatedly. Most of the time, you have the prayer + the alternative, so you at least reduce the repitition a little, but you’re free to use either prayer in any combination, but one of the two will get used at least twice.
 
Rutherford2 said:
I am using the Christian Prayer book, and if you look at page 246, it is arranged like this:

Evening Prayer 1
Canticle of Mary

Morning Prayer
Canticle of Zechariah
Prayer
Alternative Prayer

Evening Prayer 2
Canticle of Mary

I am wondering whether the Prayer and Alternative Prayer are also assigned for Evening Prayer 1 and Evening Prayer 2?

This is because while praying Evening Prayer 1, after Our Father…, it is written there Prayer, as in the Proper of Seasons. But when I turned to page 246, there is only Canticle of Mary but no prayer.
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Yes, you would use the Prayer and/or Alternative Prayer from page 246 for both Evening 1 and Evening 2

For some reason, the publisher typically puts it under morning prayer
 
Would you consider 9 am the cut off for praying morning prayer - as a general rule of thumb?

The only office I pray daily consistently (and it’s taken me a while to get to this point- working on it!) is vespers… I’m not always able to pray it at the exact same time each evening, but I consider 9 PM the absolute cut off.
 
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