LOTH Question Please

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Tom7

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Hi there.
I am a busy person, full time job, 2 small children and a wife. I love God will all my being.

My question is: I want to keep up as much as possible with the LOTH. I use the app which is so handy but I have no way of retreating every few hours away from life to do it justice. Is it disrespectful to sit with my family and engage in the prayers mentally and read the office, even if I am constantly interrupted?

Many thanks

Tom
 
How often are you praying the LOTH?
I think being interrupted is acceptable…as a charity to your family…
But it may be much nicer for you and more spiritually fulfilling if you pray it less often (ie not all 7 times) or try one time by yourself or even if you read it out loud to your family… even if it’s just your wife once the children are in bed (admittedly I’ve no idea of their age). It is an incredibly deep and rewarding prayer. If you’ve ever said it in community with religious you’d see this. But even alone it is moving and I’d suggest, less is more. Even once a day without any or even with less interruptions is probably more productive. But if with interruptions is the only way you can do it then so be it. By the way most lay people only do evening prayer and morning prayer and some do night prayer too. God bless.
 
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I’d concentrate on doing it without interruption, in a private room if need be, just once a day.
Doing it once a day with concentration and then spending the rest of the time with your family sounds like a better idea than trying to pray distractedly all day when your children need your attention.

The Lord understands you have responsibilities and you are not a monk in a monastery someplace with your main daily task being to pray all the hours of the LOTH.
 
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Family first.

Pray one of the Hours (whenever it fits best in your schedule and doesn’t cut out family time) to start with and see where it goes from there.
Tis_Bearself said:
The Lord understands you have responsibilities and you are not a monk in a monastery someplace with your main daily task being to pray all the hours of the LOTH.
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This ^^^^^^^^^^^
 
Tom7 said:
Is it disrespectful to sit with my family and engage in the prayers mentally and read the office, even if I am constantly interrupted?
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It may be. But it would be more disrespectful to not pray.

The important thing is to get started, best you can & let the Spirit guide you. If you’re feeling any guilt about what you can & cant do, know that is not God.
 
It would be much better to work out what you can do rather than attempt to do something you really cannot.

As a layman you are not bound to recite the LOTH. I know faith is about more than mere obligation and it is commendable that you want to pray the LOTH. However, your personal circumstances prevent this. Spending time with your family as their father is very important, too.

Recently I was engaged in correspondence with a contemplative community which had reduced the number of hours they recited. The crux of their reason was they wanted quality rather than quantity. They felt it was more appropriate to less well rather than more not very well. If a contemplative community can do this may be you can be at peace doing the same.
 
Laity generally only do Lauds, Vespers, the Office of Readings, and Compline. Also, according to the Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, it is perfectly fine to combine the Office with another one of the hours. As for the minor hours, if you want to do them that is fine. But just do one with the Psalms of the Day. After that it is just complimentary psalms. Only monks and nuns say all seven hours.
As a lay person, it is optional. According to the Instruction, it is a praiseworthy thing if you just read the first and second readings from the Office and skip the Psalms. The Liturgy is there to pray with the Church at all hours of the day. We aren’t meant to feel like prisoners over it though. It becomes something like saying the Rosary. At first it seems difficult to make time. But after a while it becomes part of your routine.
 
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There are shorter offices you could consider. Shorter Christian Prayer and some of the oblate offices, for example, still keep the character of the LOTH but aren’t as lengthy. Perhaps you could “mix and match” to get the right balance: pray the full Morning Prayer if that’s what you have time for and then a shorter version of vespers if you need more time with the family.

Oblates, for instance, have committed to pray whenever they can, but their commitment to family comes first, so the Benedictine community nearest me has an adapted LOTH specifically for oblate use to meet this balance.
 
For an online text version I prefer divinumofficium.com. There is a more contemporary audio version at divineoffice.org.
Kudos to you for your devotion to this practice. In a time when more Catholics are turning to new age-y and syncretist innovations, LOTH is more vital than ever.
 
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Cor_ad_Cor said:
Oblates, for instance, have committed to pray whenever they can, but their commitment to family comes first, so the Benedictine community nearest me has an adapted LOTH specifically for oblate use to meet this balance.
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Our oblate master highly recommends the LOTH in the quantity we can manage, instead of the Monastic Office. He says it is the Office for seculars, and we are secular oblates. It’s a recommendation I find very easy to observe.

Though I’ve frequently prayed the Monastic, I’ve pretty much settled on the LOTH except of course when chanting with the monks at the abbey. Once in a while I’ll do the Monastic if I feel either the monks or I especially need mutual prayers, but for the most part the LOTH works just fine. Recited silently, the whole thing is about 45 minutes a day. Folks can work down from that for the times life gets in the way. Being retired, that’s rarely for me.
 
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