LOTH/Christian Prayer

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musicmantg11

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I recently posted another question very similar to this one, but I wanted to ask a few more questions.

Does anyone use the LOTH (Liturgy of the Hours) or Christian Prayer? If so, do you find it easy to use or difficult? Which one do you have? When do you pray these prayers? Any specific time of the day? I recently purchased one so I’m trying to use it at least for the morning and evening prayer.
 
musicmantg11 said:
I recently posted another question very similar to this one, but I wanted to ask a few more questions.

Does anyone use the LOTH (Liturgy of the Hours) or Christian Prayer? If so, do you find it easy to use or difficult? Which one do you have? When do you pray these prayers? Any specific time of the day? I recently purchased one so I’m trying to use it at least for the morning and evening prayer.
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Let’s see, I use Christian Prayer and I love it.

It was a bit difficult at first, but I found this site that goes through the whole thing step by step. Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy.

I pray morning and evening prayer. Morning prayer is right after I get up, usually around 8am or so. Evening prayer is when I get home from work, around 8pm. That is what works for me. I know there are technical times when each one is supposed to be prayer, but for a layperson, I think whenever you can fit them in, great. 😃

I love the LOTH. I started for Lent last year and this is the most consistent I’ve ever been about praying. I also love that I’m praying the same thing as so many other people all over the world. I just think that connection is really cool! 😃
 
musicmantg11 said:
I recently posted another question very similar to this one, but I wanted to ask a few more questions.

Does anyone use the LOTH (Liturgy of the Hours) or Christian Prayer? If so, do you find it easy to use or difficult? Which one do you have? When do you pray these prayers? Any specific time of the day? I recently purchased one so I’m trying to use it at least for the morning and evening prayer.
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I use the one volume Christian Prayer. I’ve been praying the Office for a little over a month, so I’ve worked through one four-week cycle of the psalter already.

At first I found it to be a bit difficult figuring out the order, the various prayers and where we were in the cycle, but I asked a few questions in another community I belong to and got some good answers. I also talked with my priest and he gave me a booklet about the history of the LOTH. I read Thomas Merton’s Praying With the Psalms to get a good background and someone pointed this guide out to me, which I found to be really helpful.

Being a lay person, I try to pray every morning and every evening. I’m pray them more informally than someone obligated to pray them like priests and religious. I usually find a spot outside in my backyard and just pray them, slowly and quietly. Another suggestion I’ve had, but not actually pursued is to go to a convent or a monastery where they are prayed every day by the religious community. I don’t know that there is an organized group at my church which prays them, but you could look into that at your parish.
 
I use Christian Prayer for morning and evening prayer, the one from the list below.

Here are some links that might be useful.
 
I am wondering if someone can tell me the difference between Shorter Christian Prayer and Christian Prayer. SCP doesn’t seem all that short!

That being said, I’ve been at it since the beginning of the summer with morning and evening prayer and I also find it to be a blessing. I pray morning prayer in the morning - sometimes before I leave home and sometimes in the parking lot after I get to work (and sometimes not at all - but I do what I can do).

Evening prayer is usually at the end of the day after I crawl into bed. I figure it’s evening somewhere.
 
I know that this isn’t “kosher”, but I pray morning prayer as morning prayer, but then in the evenings I sometimes use the Office of Readings psalms instead of the evening prayer psalms. That way I get to pray more of the psalms. Or if I’m really tired (just jumping into bed), then I use night prayer instead of evening prayer since it’s a lot shorter (my bad).
 
ricmat said:
I know that this isn’t “kosher”, but I pray morning prayer as morning prayer, but then in the evenings I sometimes use the Office of Readings psalms instead of the evening prayer psalms. That way I get to pray more of the psalms. Or if I’m really tired (just jumping into bed), then I use night prayer instead of evening prayer since it’s a lot shorter (my bad).
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What IS kosher is to combine the Office of Readings with your Evening Prayer. That way, you get to pray 5 psalms and a canticle, plus more readings.

Night Prayer is really just before jumping into bed, so I don’t see why it’s your bad.
 
acadian said:
I am wondering if someone can tell me the difference between Shorter Christian Prayer and Christian Prayer. SCP doesn’t seem all that short!

That being said, I’ve been at it since the beginning of the summer with morning and evening prayer and I also find it to be a blessing. I pray morning prayer in the morning - sometimes before I leave home and sometimes in the parking lot after I get to work (and sometimes not at all - but I do what I can do).

Evening prayer is usually at the end of the day after I crawl into bed. I figure it’s evening somewhere.
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Shorter Christian Prayer does not contain the full Proper of Saints and Proper of Seasons for the liturgical year. Christian Prayer does contain the complete Propers for Morning and Evening Prayer.
 
porthos11 said:
What IS kosher is to combine the Office of Readings with your Evening Prayer. That way, you get to pray 5 psalms and a canticle, plus more readings.

Night Prayer is really just before jumping into bed, so I don’t see why it’s your bad.
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It’s my bad because I’m using night prayer to replace evening prayer. Because it’s shorter. SO…combining evening prayer with OOR would make it even longer. I don’t have the stamina for that, although maybe I will some day 🙂
 
ricmat said:
It’s my bad because I’m using night prayer to replace evening prayer. Because it’s shorter. SO…combining evening prayer with OOR would make it even longer. I don’t have the stamina for that, although maybe I will some day 🙂
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How about combining your OOR with Night Prayer then? It’s just one (or two) psalms longer.
 
Say what ever prayers you want when you want. Unless you are ordained and required to do the LOTH each and every day it is a personal devotion. You are not bound by the rules.
 
hilde_the_dog said:
Say what ever prayers you want when you want. Unless you are ordained and required to do the LOTH each and every day it is a personal devotion. You are not bound by the rules.
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So true and while I try to do morning and evening every day at the right time, I don’t always do it. I don’t feel guilty about missing a day but I do feel like I’ve missed it.

A few months back I met with my priest because I wasn’t feeling fulfilled by prayer. Quite honestly, I went to him to have him tell me or teach me how to pray. He really didn’t. He just made suggestions. Still, I pray the rosary, sometimes more often than others and I will talk to God through the course of a day, sometimes more seriously than others, I’d say my childhood prayers as well, but I felt like I was missing something. He suggested I try the LoH-- morning and evening prayer-- and that’s how I started. I read a few things an online friend suggested and I’ve found by taking those 15 minutes in the morning and the evening are just what I need. Now, if I could get myself back on track to exercise my hour a day, I’d be in great shape. 😃
 
hilde_the_dog said:
Say what ever prayers you want when you want. Unless you are ordained and required to do the LOTH each and every day it is a personal devotion. You are not bound by the rules.
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The LOTH is NOT a personal devotion. It is the prayer of the Church and is liturgy, even when said alone and by one not bound to it. As liturgy, it is a higher form of prayer than personal devotion.

If one wants to pray the Divine Office as liturgy, i.e. the official Prayer of the Church, then one should pray as the Church desires, even if not bound to it. Otherwise, why even bother with the LOTH, since every Bible has psalms anyway? If one wants to merely adapt the LOTH, that’s fine, and it becomes personal devotion, but it ceases to be the Divine Office. If one wants to pray the Divine Office as the Divine Office, then as usual: do the red, say the black.
 
If one wants to pray the Divine Office as liturgy, i.e. the official Prayer of the Church, then one should pray as the Church desires, even if not bound to it.
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I think what the earlier poster meant to say was that since laity are not bound to pray the Divine Office, they can say whichever hour is convenient to them. This is also in accord with the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours. Lay people not bound to say the Office may chose to say Lauds and Compline per day, or even to say any of the Middle Hours, or simply Compline. They would be praying the official prayer of the Church nonetheless whenever they pray any hour from an approved edition of the Divine Office.

That said, they should pay attention to the teaching of the Council and the General Instruction that Lauds and Vespers are the two hinge hours of the entire Divine Office.
 
Lauds/Vespers…does that equal Morning and Evening prayers?

When I am praying these, sometimes I will leave out the hymn. I know very few of the hymns and sometimes I am pressed for time.

I also saw somewhere that if you are praying the LOH alone, you need only to say the antiphon at the beginning of the psalm or canticle?

Am I OK here?
 
acadian said:
Lauds/Vespers…does that equal Morning and Evening prayers?

When I am praying these, sometimes I will leave out the hymn. I know very few of the hymns and sometimes I am pressed for time.

I also saw somewhere that if you are praying the LOH alone, you need only to say the antiphon at the beginning of the psalm or canticle?

Am I OK here?
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Yes, Lauds/Vespers = Morning/Evening Prayers. Lauds and Vespers are the older names for them.

I usually include the hymns, though since I don’t know the tune and can’t carry one, I make it up, hoping that from my days of piano lessons, I can still read the music to get the gist of it.

I think you might be right about the antiphon.
 
I use the complete LOTH as seen here -

crossroadsinitiative.com/resource_info/273.html

I pray all of the hours completely. I am single and don’t have a family to care for. I can see how it would be difficult with other responsibilities.

I pray the Morning Prayer after I get up. I pray the Office of Readings and Day Prayer during lunch at work. I pray the Evening Prayer right before daily Mass. Then, night prayer right before I turn off my bedside lamp.

I don’t think there’s much of a difference between Christian Prayer and Shorter Christian Prayer. The lay out is different. I used Christian Prayer as seen here - pauline.org/store/moreinfo/0819814482.html when I first started. I had one of my parish priests help me. After I used that for a while, I was ready to move on to something more and picked up the complete set.
 
I pray the Morning, Office Of Readings, Evening, and Night prayers. All told, with a rosary added, it takes about an hour a day. The four-volume set of LOTH is such a blessing as it has all the Readings for every feast day.

Because of my schedule, OOR I may say at any time, during the week often combined with Evening prayer. As others said, Night prayer should be just before bed.

Prayer should be a peaceful time, so don’t stress about it. St. Frances de Sales taught that we should pray according to our station in life, that we should take advantage of it but not let it keep us from our other obligations (for those that would like to become hermits when their work becomes too burdensome!).

Bill
 
I’ve been using the longer Christian Prayer off and on for the last few months. I try to make a point of saying the Evening prayers and Night prayers along with the Mass readings of the day.

As an aid to figure out which prayers are to be used on any given day you should get a copy of the guide to Christian Prayer, published by the Catholic Book Publishing company. It takes all the guess work and frustration of trying to navigate through a 2,000 page book.

I use the Christian Prayer because the local Passionist community here uses it and I’ve become quite attached to and fond of them. One of the priests there was kind enough to explain how to use the book and answer all my questions about it.

ChadS
 
musicmantg11 said:
I recently posted another question very similar to this one, but I wanted to ask a few more questions.

Does anyone use the LOTH (Liturgy of the Hours) or Christian Prayer? If so, do you find it easy to use or difficult? Which one do you have? When do you pray these prayers? Any specific time of the day? I recently purchased one so I’m trying to use it at least for the morning and evening prayer.
Click to expand...
I use Christian Prayer and I like it a lot. I think it’s complicated to use but that makes it fun for me because I like puzzles. Hahaha

Once you get used to it, it makes a lot more sense and should get easier to use over time.

I say the evening prayer most days, and the morning prayer on days when I have time, which is almost never 😉
 
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