Liturgy of the Hours in the Car

[sr.christinaosf]

Does anyone have experience praying the Liturgy of the Hours in the car when travelling with a few people?
I find this a nice way of “getting the prayers in” together/in common when travelling.
However, I have been wondering lately, if there is an allowance written into the General Instruction for the LOTH.
Normally, when praying in common, there are certain parts where one is supposed to stand, and others for sitting. This standing is not possible when travelling.
I am not trying to be nit-picky, but seeking (name removed by moderator)ut from anyone who may know more about this/have experience.
Thank you.

 

[OraLabora]

The postions are not required outside of a public setting. It is licit to recite the whole thing sitting. Or standing for that matter, e.g. bus or subway.

 

[MikeInVA]

Praying in the car is fine. A deacon in my parish prays them on the train as he rides to work.

I usually pray them using the PrayStation Portable podcast on my phone as I drive.

 

[JohnLilburne]

I do not think it is appropriate to have a communal celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours in a car.

Some extracts from the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, from Chapter Five “The Rites to be Observed in Communal Celebration”.

“258. In the absence of a priest or deacon, the one who presides at the office is only one among equals and does not enter the sanctuary or greet and bless the people.”

“261. During the gospel canticle at morning prayer and evening prayer there may be an incensation of the altar, then of the priest and congregation.”

So the impression is that the place for communal celebration is a church, oratory or chapel. But it has:

“262. The choral obligation applies to the community, not to the place of celebration, which need not be a church, especially in the case of those hours that are celebrated without solemnity.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church includes:

“Places favorable for prayer

1. The church, the house of God, is the proper place for the liturgical prayer of the parish community. It is also the privileged place for adoration of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. The choice of a favorable place is not a matter of indifference for true prayer.

• For personal prayer, this can be a “prayer corner” with the Sacred Scriptures and icons, in order to be there, in secret, before our Father.48 In a Christian family, this kind of little oratory fosters prayer in common.
• In regions where monasteries exist, the vocation of these communities is to further the participation of the faithful in the Liturgy of the Hours and to provide necessary solitude for more intense personal prayer.49
• Pilgrimages evoke our earthly journey toward heaven and are traditionally very special occasions for renewal in prayer. For pilgrims seeking living water, shrines are special places for living the forms of Christian prayer “in Church.”

And from the “In Brief” section:

1. The most appropriate places for prayer are personal or family oratories, monasteries, places of pilgrimage, and above all the church, which is the proper place for liturgical prayer for the parish community and the privileged place for Eucharistic adoration.”

With the distractions that there will be in a car it seems to me to be a particularly inappropriate place for a celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours.

[Excerpts from the English translation of the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours , as published in Documents on the Liturgy 1963 - 1979 (Liturgical Press, ©1982, ISBN 0814612814 ), © 1974 International Commission on English in the Liturgy. All rights reserved.]

 

[JohnLilburne]

Monsignor J.D. Crichton wrote in a section with the heading “Private recitation”:
“Wherever we say the office (and given its current brevity there seems to be little excuse for saying it in public places, in aeroplanes or trains), there must be an atmosphere of prayer and experience shows that this is killed if we try and ‘fit in’ an office in some odd moment which seems free – unless of course we are one of those geniuses who can switch off from activity to contemplation at a moment’s notice.” (Understanding the Prayer of the Church, published by Geoffrey Chapman, © 1976, 1993, ISBN 0225666715, page 155).

 

[Diaconia]

Sister, I do it occasionally when in the car on a longer trip.

It is laudable to pray the Liturgy at the appropriate hours, especially since it is likely you are traveling with other Sisters.

On long flights I pray the Office in my seat, as well.

May God grant you and your Order a fruitful Lent,
Deacon Christopher

 

[TenEleven]

I remember my grandmother praying the Rosary in the car on long road trips. I have friends who pray the Night Prayer every night with their kids in the living room. Everyone has their phone and they use iBreviary. I was pleased to be invited to join them one night before heading home, and yes it seemed a bit odd to begin with but I realized it was a way to get the kids to learn early in life that that these beautiful prayers are only a click away.

Yes! Keep on praying the LOTH in the car when traveling, don’t let others dissuade you from prayer EVER. Realize that by praying in the car (or wherever), you may be helping someone to pray that may not have done it on their own, and they’re drawing nearer to God this way.

 

[OraLabora]

I do not think it is appropriate to have a communal celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours in a car.

What you are describing is not communal celebration, but choral celebration. Private recitation, or group recitation is laudable. I’ve prayed the LOTH in the car while I was driving… driving with a monk, where the monk would recite one of the minor hours in the car, and I would listen. For him, it was a duty.

The Rule of Saint Benedict repeated the Gradual Psalms at Terce, Sext and None every day from Tuesday through Saturday, so that monks working in the fields could drop to their knees and recite those hours by heart without having to make the long trek back to the conventual chapel, then back to the fields, during harvest or planting times.

We sanctify the location by praying in it, be it a prison cell, a bus or an automobile.

I’ve led the chanting of the LOTH (in Latin no less!) on a tour bus on the way from Rome to Monte Cassino.

It is always appropriate to pray.

there must be an atmosphere of prayer and experience shows that this is killed if we try and ‘fit in’ an office in some odd moment which seems free – unless of course we are one of those geniuses who can switch off from activity to contemplation at a moment’s notice.”

Withdrawing to the cloister of one’s heart in a noisy and busy environment is a quality that monastics learn to cultivate. I have done it as well; I simply “zone out” and find refuge in my heart and in my breviary. Apart from being valid liturgical prayer, it is enormously soothing in stressful environments. I travel everywhere with my breviary, and use it at appropriate times regardless of the place, as long as I can sit for the time it takes to recite the office.

 

[sr.christinaosf]

Sometimes the situation is either: pray in common in the vehicle (which I don’t see as being super distracted) or pray alone later, and perhaps not at the proper liturgical hour.

 

[OraLabora]

I think it’s fine to do what you’re doing. But just to reinforce it, here is an extract from the Rule of St. Benedict on monks who are away or working in the fields:

Those brothers who are working at a great distance
and cannot get to the oratory at the proper time –
the Abbot judging that such is the case –
shall perform the Work of God
in the place where they are working,
bending their knees in reverence before God.

Likewise those who have been sent on a journey
shall not let the appointed Hours pass by,
but shall say the Office by themselves as well as they can
and not neglect to render the task of their service. (RB 50)

 

[JohnLilburne]

OraLabora quoted chapter 50 of the Rule of St. Benedict. To highlight how this covers an exceptional situation.

" CHAPTER 43
On Those Who Come Late to the Work of God or to Table

Mar. 22—July 22—Nov. 21

At the hour for the Divine Office, as soon as the signal is heard, let them abandon whatever they may have in hand and hasten with the greatest speed, yet with seriousness, so that there is no excuse for levity. Let nothing, therefore, be put before the Work of God.

If at the Night Office anyone arrives after the “Glory be to the Father” of Psalm 94—which Psalm for this reason we wish to be said very slowly and protractedly—let him not stand in his usual place in the choir; but let him stand last of all, or in a place set aside by the Abbot for such negligent ones in order that they may be seen by him and by all. He shall remain there until the Work of God has been completed, and then do penance by a public satisfaction. The reason why we have judged it fitting for them to stand in the last place or in a place apart is that, being seen by all, they may amend for very shame. For if they remain outside of the oratory, there will perhaps be someone who will go back to bed and sleep or at least seat himself outside and indulge in idle talk, and thus an occasion will be provided for the evil one. But let them go inside, that they may not lose the whole Office, and may amend for the future.

At the day Hours anyone who does not arrive at the Work of God until after the verse and the “Glory be to the Father” of the first Psalm following it shall stand in the last place, according to our ruling above. Nor shall he presume to join the choir in their chanting until he has made satisfaction, unless the Abbot should pardon him and give him permission; but even then the offender must make satisfaction for his fault."

(From http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5004...-who-come-late-to-the-work-of-god-or-to-table ).

 

[OraLabora]

It’s not really that exceptional. Our abbey no longer has a working farm but the land still exists and when it was a working farm, the property was too extensive for a monk working at the extremities to make it back to the oratory for the daytime Offices. In fact it’s largely why over time the Benedictines divided into choir monks and lay brothers. That was never the intention of St. Benedict and that distinction was abolished after the Council.

At every minor hour there is usually a monk or two missing due to some task that cannot be left unattended.

Of course the norm is to make it to choir, but the “exception” is not a once-in-a-blue-moon event. It is a daily occurrence.