Poll: How do you pray the Liturgy of the Hours

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We are asked to pray the hours as best we can in our personal circumstances. We can use the monastic or secular LOTH as suits best. Our previous director strongly encouraged the monastic one, and produced a condensed breviary of it for our use consisting of Lauds, Vespers and Compline. But I got hooked and use the full version.

The current director tends to favour the LOTH for oblates, as they are most likely to find that in their parish communities, but is OK with both.

I work a day per week at the abbey library and pray Terce, Sext, None and Vespers with the community on that day, so the monastic version for me affords better continuity in my prayer life, in addition to fostering a sense of unity in prayer with the monks. I also attend Terce and Mass there on Sundays, so again the monastic office keeps me in the sequence.
 
That is awesome. Thank you for sharing! I have a strong longing for a much deeper prayer life. This is one of the things that brought me to the Catholic Church.

I don’t know much about the Benedictine Oblates. This has prompted me to research it a bit.
 
When I’m in school, I rarely pray the LOTH. When I’m on some kind of extended break, I usually try to pray the 5 required hours for priests daily. Sometimes on the weekend, I might pray all 5 required hours as well.
 
Mostly every day I pray Lauds, Terce, Sext, None and Vespers. Lately I have been praying Compline more often. Once in a while I do the Office of Readings. I wish to do all 7 every day but sometimes fall short.

I use the Shorter Christian prayer book at times but usually pray at Universalis.com or the iBrievery app.

I try to pray Lauds when the sun rises and Vespers when the sun sets.
 
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Do you like the Shorter Christian Prayer book? I’m trying to decide between it and the regular Christian Prayer book.
 
I like reading out of a book more than on the computer probably becuade Im on a computer all to often. Shorter Christian prayer is easy to use but lacks all the hours. I dont own the big one.
 
I use the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham (the Office for the Ordinariate). Morning and Evening Prayer is extended and combines the Offices, though there is the option to pray Prayer During the Day and Compline.
If I don’t have much time in the morning I use LOTH.
 
What do those of you who work do about praying the daytime hours?

I sit in my office with the door shut, but I’m always aware that the phone could ring or someone could knock. The phone isn’t so much of a problem but I’m not entirely sure what i would say to someone who came to my office.
 
I keep my Rosary beads with me 24/7.

Pray constantly.

Magnificat is on my desk.
 
mrsdizzyd said:
That is awesome. Thank you for sharing! I have a strong longing for a much deeper prayer life. This is one of the things that brought me to the Catholic Church.

I don’t know much about the Benedictine Oblates. This has prompted me to research it a bit.
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Funny that you mention it, but a deeper prayer life is exactly why I became an oblate, plus searching for some answers after the Sept. 11 2001 tragedies. There weren’t too many resources where I live but there was this Benedictine abbey. I went, and it was love at first sight 🙂

I felt I had reached a plateau in my Christian walk, and the Benedictines got me going again.
SuscipeMeDomine said:
What do those of you who work do about praying the daytime hours?

I sit in my office with the door shut, but I’m always aware that the phone could ring or someone could knock. The phone isn’t so much of a problem but I’m not entirely sure what i would say to someone who came to my office.
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I’m retired now, but I would pray mid-day prayer just before lunch at my desk in cube land. I’d often get interrupted as you say, and I’d just pick it up again where I left off. Ironically, this was the secular folk that did this. One of my colleagues was a Muslim lady. She came to my desk for a tech question just as I had started into my breviary, then she said softy " oh, I see you are praying, I will come back later". From that point on she would never come to see me at that specific time. We share with the Muslims the custom of praying at specific times during the day, and she clued in instantly, and I always truly appreciated her kindness and respect.
 
Office of Readings plus Morning Prayer fairly consistently. Other hours sometimes, but rarely.
 
I usually end my day with Compline. That’s my most regular prayer. I’ll sometimes pray Morning Prayer on Sundays if I’ve attended Mass the night before.

I switch between iBreviary and Divine Office. If I’m in a location where I have to do it in silence I’ll choose iBreviary but otherwise I use D.O. because I like being able to participate vocally. I do wish they would invest in better hymns though That album from the 70s is done to death.
 
My suggetion: unless you have been on line and praying more than Lauds, Vespers and Compline, I would suggest Shorter Christian Prayer. Christian Prayer certainly has more available, but unless you are likely to use the “more” regularly, it seems overkill.

I was in seminary my first two years of college, and we used the equivalent of Shorter Christian Prayer, and it did just fine. Later, i obtained SCP and it too did just fine for a number of years.
 
I ended up with Christian Prayer because I found the older version (without the fancy cover) for a decent price and I sometimes do one of the day prayers. I also figured that if I decided to do more I’d already have it instead of needing to buy another.

In the end, I think I would have been fine with the Shorter Christian Prayer. I usually only do Lauds, Vespers, and Compline.
 
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There was one parish where they wheeled out a cart of books, everybody borrowed one, and about 15 minutes before Mass, the priest came out and sat in a pew … and he led the assembled … in reading aloud.

Two parishes, actually.
 
Shorter Chrsitian Prayer has Morning, Evening, and Night Prayers, but lacks the proper prayers for Morning and Evening Prayer for seasons and saints, as it has only one rotating week for the seasons and major feasts, where Christian Prayer has the complete Morning and Evening Prayer for the whole year, with selections of the Office of Readings and Daytime Prayer. Only the 4-volume breviary titled “Liturgy of the Hours” has all 5 prayers in completion. But it’s pretty expensive and you may want to start with SCP or CP.
 
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