liturgy of hours

  • Thread starter Thread starter BobGlick
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

BobGlick

Guest
I’m a lay person interested in participating in set daily prayer like the Benedictine monks and nuns do…I’m not sure what it is called or where to find the resources of what to pray at what times. Hoping some of you can help point me in the right direction. Thanks!
 
You’re talking about the Liturgy of the Hours. A nice place to get started is divineoffice.org – they put all the prayers online. They also have a podcast so you can hear others praying as well.
 
BobGlick said:
I’m a lay person interested in participating in set daily prayer like the Benedictine monks and nuns do…I’m not sure what it is called or where to find the resources of what to pray at what times. Hoping some of you can help point me in the right direction. Thanks!
Click to expand...
:twocents:
Passiontide/Easter is eclipsed only by Christmastide as being the worst times for a novice to attempt taking up the Liturgy of the Hours. Even if you rely on a website to lay out the prayers for you, you will be getting a very skewed view of the prayers, which are not representative the more typical weeks of the Office.
:twocents:

:twocents:
I understand you may be anxious to make your start, but if you ask me, I would recommend waiting until after the Octave of Easter before trying to dive into the Liturgy of the Hours.
:twocents:

If it will give you any comfort, if you will be participating in the liturgies of the Triduum, that is the Prayer of the Church – The Liturgy of the Hours’ Evening Prayer on those three days is only said by those who do not participate in the day’s liturgy.

:twocents:
tee
 
tee_eff_em said:
:twocents:
I understand you may be anxious to make your start, but if you ask me, I would recommend waiting until after the Octave of Easter before trying to dive into the Liturgy of the Hours.
:twocents:
Click to expand...
I have to agree with you on this. The OP will think the prayers are incredibly repetitive and maybe give up before even getting a good start. Definitely a good point!
 
The easiest way for you to lean to pray the divine office is


The first prayer of the day is the Invitatory Psalm
Morning prayer is said before noon.
Around noon is said the Midday prayer
The Evening Prayer is said around 5 to 7 pm
The Night prayer is said around 9 or 10 or at bedtime.

One final prayer is the Readings, which can be said anytime.

You may want to just say Morning and Evening prayers for a while.
Then as can, you may want to add another prayer.
And before you know it, you will be saying it all.

Your understanding and appreciation of the Psalms will grow as time moves on.

May God bless and keep you. May God’s face shine on you. May God be kind to you and give you peace.
 
tee_eff_em said:
:twocents:
Passiontide/Easter is eclipsed only by Christmastide as being the worst times for a novice to attempt taking up the Liturgy of the Hours. Even if you rely on a website to lay out the prayers for you, you will be getting a very skewed view of the prayers, which are not representative the more typical weeks of the Office.
:twocents:

:twocents:
I understand you may be anxious to make your start, but if you ask me, I would recommend waiting until after the Octave of Easter before trying to dive into the Liturgy of the Hours.
:twocents:
Click to expand...
Excellent advice. Take it from someone who’s been praying the hours for decades. 😃
 
As someone who has only been praying the Office for about a year, my advice is to begin with Night Prayer.

It’s simple, and once you feel comfortable with this, then you can add the other hours. I found it was easier to just add one hour at time.
 
agnes_therese said:
Excellent advice. Take it from someone who’s been praying the hours for decades. 😃
Click to expand...
Yep! Though I prefer Holy Week, the Triduum, and the Octave of Easter to Christmas season. At least the Octave of Easter is stable. The Octave of Christmas has all sorts of feasts intermingled, then there’s time before and after Epiphany, and it’s all compressed into a short period with no breathing room. I’ve been praying the LOTH for over 10 years myself and still Christmas throws me for a loop… even more so because I chant the Offices in Latin Gregorian chant.

The Triduum is actually pretty easy if you follow Monastic practice: there’s no opening verse, no hymn, the responsory is replaced by the gradual “Christus factus est…” (though that’s no picnic to sing, but our schola has been doing it for a few years so one can muddle through) and no concluding rites. The only major issue is that there are proper antiphons all week, but if you read the Office that’s not an issue.

Also during the Triduum, if you attend Holy Thursday Mass and the Good Friday liturgies, you’re exempt from Vespers on those days, and from Compline if you attend the Easter Vigil.

Still, as our prior says “I have a great devotion to St. Feria” 😛 and Ordinary Time is probably the best place to start, though Lent is, I think, even easier as there are so few feasts and no memorials.
 
Not *really *my business, but since I advised delay (and was re-echoed by others) I just wanted to poke this thread and see how the OP is doing?

tee
 
tee_eff_em said:
Not *really *my business, but since I advised delay (and was re-echoed by others) I just wanted to poke this thread and see how the OP is doing?

tee
Click to expand...
Well I don’t know about the OP but I for one am delighted that the Octave I over. Same antiphons and psalms for 8 days at MP and EP got pretty tedious! Though by Sunday I got pretty proficient at chanting the antiphons.

And by Pentecost I’ll really be glad to have the old familiar antiphons back. If past experience is any guide I’ll be pretty sick of the alleluia antiphons by then.

We’re not really out of the woods though, until the feast of the Sacred Heart.
 
OraLabora said:
Well I don’t know about the OP but I for one am delighted that the Octave I over. Same antiphons and psalms for 8 days at MP and EP got pretty tedious! Though by Sunday I got pretty proficient at chanting the antiphons.

And by Pentecost I’ll really be glad to have the old familiar antiphons back. If past experience is any guide I’ll be pretty sick of the alleluia antiphons by then.

We’re not really out of the woods though, until the feast of the Sacred Heart.
Click to expand...
I actually really liked reading the same antiphons and psalms each day… reinforced, for me at least, my thanks to God and Jesus for what they have done for me. It’s nice though to also see fresh ones now though.

Also, for any person reading this trying to figure out how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, another good resource is the book The Divine Office for Dodos by Madeline Pecora Nugent. The other links are great, but this book really helped me out a bit. The best advise though is go talk with a priest or deacon, they will gladly show you how to pray this too.

PAX,

John
 
I asked my parish priest if he ever got bored reading the office and he said he loves it! Others i have talked to have said that it get monotonous and i for one agree.

I know it is the prayer of the church but sometimes i cant wait to get it over with and i know that is very wrong. Plus, to me, it does seem like some of it is just a lot of words jumbled together without any meaning! I guess i need help with the office. These days i tend to recite the Office for the dead, morning and evening and i understand that fine even though that can be monotonous too on occasions!
 
ajecphotos said:
I asked my parish priest if he ever got bored reading the office and he said he loves it! Others i have talked to have said that it get monotonous and i for one agree.

I know it is the prayer of the church but sometimes i cant wait to get it over with and i know that is very wrong. Plus, to me, it does seem like some of it is just a lot of words jumbled together without any meaning! I guess i need help with the office. These days i tend to recite the Office for the dead, morning and evening and i understand that fine even though that can be monotonous too on occasions!
Click to expand...
I never find it monotonous except perhaps during the Octaves (fortunately, there are now only two).

There are days when I struggle to get to it, but often those are the days I’m hit with a special grace from it.

The LOTH is like water dripping on a stone. It takes a while to wear an imprint on you. I’ve been praying it for about 13 or 14 years now, and with great regularity for the past maybe 10. I find that bits of psalms appropriate for a situation surge up in me at different times.

I do chant the Offices in Latin, which requires some concentration and helps with the monotony because the antiphons do have great variety, being set to 8 different modes most of which have different variations, as well as a couple of archaic modes. I chant the psalm in Latin then read it silently in my mother tongue (French). The chanting acts a bit like a mantra to take my mind off worldly matters (that’s where the Octave got monotonous: the same six antiphons at Lauds and Vespers for 8 days, plus the same psalms and canticles).

It’s not perfect, some days work better than others, but perseverance is your friend when it comes to the LOTH.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top