Prayer Group

[THurifer2]

Hi gang,

Hope this is the right place to post.

I am starting a mens prayer group at my parish. We plan on meeting very early in the morning during the week for around an hour. I plan on beginning it in our chapel at church then moving to another room for scripture discussion.

One thing I want to establish is the the morning pray in the LOTH.

any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to P.M. me.

 

[PhilotheaZ]

Assuming that no one (or few) in the group has prayed the Liturgy of the Hours before, there are two approaches you might take:

• Purchase several copies of Christian Prayer, the one-volume edition of Liturgy of the Hours. You will need to have a priest or someone familiar with it to help you learn how to follow it; it’s not exactly straightforward for beginners (lots of flipping back and forth between pages). You can get it in a large print edition if some of your members have impaired eyesight. catholicbookpublishing.com/BrowseByDepartments.aspx?DepID=89 , or also available at other bookstores/websites.
• There is a website ebreviary.com/ where you can purchase an annual subscription and access the Liturgy of the Hours online, print out booklets, and make copies. It’s more cumbersome to make the copies, but the advantage is that the prayers are printed out in the correct order and you won’t have to flip pages in the book. (They used to offer a free trial subscription so you could try it out and see how well it works for you; you may want to inquire.)

 

[Tepeyac]

I think PhilotheaZ’s suggestions are great, but may I suggest that if you’re thinking of going with Christian Prayer, that you start with Shorter Christian Prayer instead? A short description:

This volume contains Morning and Evening Prayer from the Four-Week Psalter and selected texts for the Seasons and Major Feasts of the year. It is ideal for parish use.

Especially if no one has prayed the Liturgy of the Hours before. It’s lighter, easier to carry, less intimidating and less expensive but it contains the 4 week psalter that’s the core of the Liturgy of the Hours.

There’s also a large print edition available here: Shorter Christian Prayer (Large Type Edition)

Anyways, PhilotheaZs suggestions are great and using ebreviary.com might make it easiest.

Another thing to try if it’s all laymen is an informal type of Morning Prayer to get them used to the rhythm of it. Sing or recite a hymn, followed by a psalm (maybe a diffferent psalm every day) and then the Canticle of Zachariah. Follow it with some intentions from the group (for so and so’s job, for so and so’s wife) or some other intercessions and then end it with the Our Father. You can add a short passage of scripture before the Canticle if you want.

This follows the outline of Morning Prayer more or less. Once they get used to it you can graduate to any of the other suggestions above. Good luck!