Liturgy of the hours

[Montie_Claunch]

What is the Liturgy of the hours? And how does it go? Thanks and God bless.

 

[jbuck919]

Do you want the long or the short answer? The short one is that the Divine Hours are a monastic phenomenon in which the community gathers many times every day in the chapel for formalized prayer (aside from Mass, which they also observe every day). Various observations of the Hours outside this context, including by religious of non-monastic orders and, where they wish to participate, laity, are mitigations, usually severe ones, of this stringent schedule.

If you are asking about the actual “Hours,” I mean what they are named, they are Matins, Lauds, Prime, Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. But you would be better off going to a general reference source for this kind of infomation than coming here. It is a very long story.

 

[LilyM]

For non-monastic people there is an abbreviated version. The version I use, available online at www.universalis.com, consists of two mandatory sets of prayers (morning/Lauds and evening/Vespers).

There are also two further optional ones - the Office of Readings, which can be said any time of the day and can replace one of the others (ie in the afternoon if you miss Morning Prayer for some reason), and Compline/Night Prayers, which can be said later at night, say if you’re up past midnight or so.

Each set of prayerss normally takes anything between 10 and 20 minutes to say, and consists mostly of Psalms and other readings from the Old and New Testaments. Some of these change daily, some weekly, and a couple are always the same.

 

[PraRFLEsEkHm]

Hi and Peace

Here is a resource for the Liturgy. Read through the site, you will find everything you need - including a couple of pamphlets that explain the liturgy and how it is prayed. (There is also the ‘Liturgy of the hours for dummies’ which I heard is good )

I use ‘Christian Prayer’ which can be found Here it has the office of readings (Shortened) as well as all of the other offices, 4 week Psalter (Psalms) Evening prayer, and non-biblical readings (Shortened as well - these are writings of Church fathers etc.)

Good Luck, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. I am blessed everytime I pray ‘the Hours’ and recommend everyone to do it.

peace

John

 

[puzzleannie]

do a search, this topic has been discussed quite frequently, with great links to the sites that will get you started and save you buying the books, which are rather expensive.

 

[pfoos]

PraRFLEsEkHm:

Hi and Peace

Here is a resource for the Liturgy. Read through the site, you will find everything you need - including a couple of pamphlets that explain the liturgy and how it is prayed. (There is also the ‘Liturgy of the hours for dummies’ which I heard is good )

I use ‘Christian Prayer’ which can be found Here it has the office of readings (Shortened) as well as all of the other offices, 4 week Psalter (Psalms) Evening prayer, and non-biblical readings (Shortened as well - these are writings of Church fathers etc.)

Good Luck, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. I am blessed everytime I pray ‘the Hours’ and recommend everyone to do it.

peace

John

Good help! I think I will have to buy their Divine Office for DoDos; I seem to do fine at home with the Divine Office but then I get with the group before morning Mass and they bounce around so fast like pros and I feel like an idiot…an idiot with a degree. Should be a college course on The Liturgy of the Hours!

 

[cnapoles]

Thanks,
I was needing a short and simple explaination to share with others, what the Liturgy of the hours is and the importance of it…

 

[JimR-OCDS]

The Liturgy of the Hours are the prayers of the Church said ever hour of the day through out the world.

The Liturgy of the Hours is the prayer of the whole People of God. In it, Christ himself “continues his priestly work through his Church.” His members participate according to their own place in the Church and the circumstances of their lives. The laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office either with the priests, among themselves, or individually.

The celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours demands not only harmonizing the voice with the praying heart, but also a deeper “understanding of the liturgy and of the Bible, especially of the Psalms.”

The hymns and litanies of the Liturgy of the Hours integrate the prayer of the psalms into the age of the Church, expressing the symbolism of the time of day, the liturgical season, or the feast being celebrated. Moreover, the reading from the Word of God at each Hour with the subsequent responses or troparia and readings from the Fathers and spiritual masters at certain Hours, reveal the deeper meanings of the mystery being celebrated, assist in understanding the psalms, and help one prepare for silent prayer. The lectio divina, where the Word of God is so read and meditated that it becomes prayer, is thus rooted in the liturgical celebration.

divineoffice.org/liturgy-of-the-hours/

Jim