Name changes of the various Offices

[bpbasilphx]

This question is not intended to stir up strife, but I am mildly curious.

Why, in the English verion of the Roman reformed Liturgy of the Hours, were the traditional names of Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline dropped in favor of Morning Prayer and the rest?

 

[Beachcomber]

I found some answers in the Apostolic Constitution on the Divine Office. This is back in 1967 when they began to make changes.

Accordingly, the Church wanted to make the Hours more accessible to the laity. And, to quote, “Since the LOTH is the means of sanctifying the day, the order of this prayer was revised so that the canonical hours could be more easily related to the chronological hours of the day in the circumstances of contemporary life.”

That was why the hour of Prime was done away with (suppressed) and Lauds and Vespers were assigned the most important role and “now have the character of true morning and evening prayer.” The names were changed to reflect more accurately what they were.

“The Daytime Prayer, Midmorning, Midday, or Midafternoon, is so arranged that those who choose to say only one hour may say the one most suitable to the actual time of day, without losing any part of the four-week psalter.”

I hope this helps.