Praying LOTH for first time:

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I have a question for all you LOTH experts. I have the single-volume “Christian Prayer.” At the beginning of every prayer section (Morning, Evening, etc) it always starts with:

“God, come to my assistance. Glory to the Father. As it was in the beginning. Alleluia.”

What exactly am I supposed to do with this? Do I say “God, come to my assistance, O Lord Make Haste To Help Me”? Do I then say the traditional “Glory Be” prayer or do I just say simply “Glory to the Father”? Am I supposed to say it just as it is written or is there something more I’m supposed to say here? Thanks!
 
It’s hidden away in the Ordinary on page 689 of the single volume Christian Prayer (for the US):

“God, come to my assistance.
Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.
Amen. (Alleluia)”

I put the Alleluia in parentheses because (at least in the complete four volume set) it is omitted during Lent.
 
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mr.p said:
“God, + come to my assistance. – Lord, make haste to help me.”

What do the + and - mean?
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As others have said, the plus means you make the sign of the cross.

The dash denotes a response.

The LOTH is designed to be prayed with a group or alone. If you were with a group the leader would say “God come to my assistance” then the group would respond “lord make haste to help me”.

Since you are saying it on your own, you can ignore the dashes.
mr.p said:
Do the asterisks in the psalmody man that is when I say the antiphon?

O Lord, you search me and you know me, †
you know my resting and my rising, *
you discern my purpose from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down, *
all my ways lie open to you.
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The Psalmsody is designed to be chanted. Those notations help you to know how to chant the lines of text. Don’t worry about chanting. Just recite the text for now and gnore those markings.
 
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BoomerangToo said:
What exactly am I supposed to do with this? Do I say “God, come to my assistance, O Lord Make Haste To Help Me”? Do I then say the traditional “Glory Be” prayer or do I just say simply “Glory to the Father”? Am I supposed to say it just as it is written or is there something more I’m supposed to say here? Thanks!
Click to expand...
I use the Christian Prayer book as well. Starting on page 688 you will find the ordinary. It is basically a step by step explanation of what you are supposed to do for morning and evening. Take some time to read through it. It will help you understand the contractions and what is omitted in the daily prayers.
 
I think the best way to learn to pray the LOTH is to pray it with someone who already knows it. If you could find someone who knows the format, they can walk you through it a few times so it all makes sense. Ask around among the people at church and you’ll find someone. And, of course, priests and deacons pray it regularly.
 
That’s right! And even more specifically, according to The General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours:

" 266. All make the sign of the cross, from forehead to breast and from left shoulder to right, at:

a. the beginning of the hours, when God, come to my assistance is being said;
b. the beginning of the gospel, the Canticles of Zechariah, of Mary, and of Simeon.
The sign of the cross is made on the mouth at the beginning of the invitatory, at Lord, open my lips."

Note to folks praying the LOTH for the first time: The last point about crossing your mouth only applies to the Office of Readings or Morning Prayer.
 
@mr.p

Here’s the line up for Evening Prayer, Friday, October 19th
  • INTRODUCTION: Always the same
  • HYMN: “Shepherd of souls” or “The hours are passing swiftly by”
  • PSALMODY
    Ant. 1 (“Day after day…”)
    Part I of Psalm 145 (Starts with “I will give you glory…”)
    Ant. 2 (“To you alone, Lord…”)
    Part II of Psalm 145 (Starts with “The Lord is faithful…”)
    Ant. 3 (King of all the ages…)
    Canticle: Revelation 15:34 (Starts with “Mighty and wonderful…”)
  • READING: Romans 8:1-2, 10-11 (“There is no condemnation…”)
  • RESPONSORY (“Christ died for our sins…”)
  • GOSPEL CANTICLE: The Gospel canticle for Evening Prayer is always the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), but the antiphon changes from day-to-day (today it’s “Remember your mercy…”)
  • INTERCESSIONS (“Let us pray to Christ…”)
  • THE LORD’S PRAYER: Still the same as ever!
  • CONCLUDING PRAYER (“God our Father…”)
  • DISMISSAL: Always the same in the absence of a priest or deacon and in individual recitation.
Notice that 1) the overall structure stays the same, 2) a few of the pieces are always the same, 3) for the pieces that change, ibreviary will tell you what you should say.

If you or anyone else is interested, I’m happy to post the next couple of day’s worth of changes so that you can know that your saying office correctly. Once you have the structure of a particular office down, then the only part that’s a bit tricky is figuring out the right pieces to plug in for the day (and iBreviary takes care of this for you).
 
Jerzy, you are being very helpful, and I thank you. I’m just starting out with the LOTH. I am trying to decide between using IBreviary and Universalis (which I purchased).

In the example you gave above, IBreviary shows the hymns you listed. Universalis lists “All hail the power of Jesus’ name”. Everything else is pretty much the same. Does the hymn matter? I’m sorry if this is a stupid question, but how is the hymn that is used selected?

Thank you.
S.Cono
 
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You’re welcome! In terms of your not-at-all-stupid questions here, unfortunately I can’t give you a definitive answer, but there are some posts about this matter here on the forum (just do a search for Universalis and they’ll come up).

That being said, here are a few quotes from the Universalis FAQ page that might speak to your concerns:

I have an obligation to recite the Office. Can I use your site?​

We are happy for you to do this. However, if you are using the web version of Universalis (as opposed to an app, program or e-book) you should bear in mind that the psalms are not the officially approved translations.

On the other hand, if you are in a situation where you don’t have your breviary with you, using Universalis is certainly far, far better than doing nothing at all.

Is this site approved by the Catholic Church?​

Liturgy of the Hours: Everyone who has heard of the project has been enthusiastic and supportive, from parish priests and religious to senior figures in the Church. We can see from our sales records that many priests and bishops have bought the downloadable versions (some cardinals use Universalis as well). However, this is not a clone of any one of the printed books, and so the site cannot receive official approval. We believe that this is unfortunate, but we fully understand the reasons for this policy and support its application.

This situation is scheduled to change when the current revision of the Breviary is complete. The revisers are aware of the need to license electronic versions of the texts. Various dates have been put forward for the completion of the revised version, but it is a complicated process and the best thing is to say that it will be ready when it is ready.
 
Thank you, Jerzy. I will continue to compare. For the time being I will use IBreviary. I am strictly a lay person just wanting to expand my prayer life. My mind wanders a lot when I attempt meditative prayer, and thought I might try something more structured.

S.Cono
 
Another note about Universalis - the translation, while not official as noted above, is also primarily UK and beyond English. North American English is in the iBreviary app, so choose accordingly.

If it helps to learn to navigate the Christian Prayer single volume, I’m happy to post page numbers (or send them to you privately). There are also inexpensive guides that can be purchased for about $3 at Catholic Book Publishing - Catholic Book Publishing
 
I highly recommend the Single Volume Christian Prayer book and the guide to go with it.

The guide makes life SO much easier.
 
And don’t forget www.divineoffice.org

You can follow along with that until it starts to make sense to you. I always click on the Morning Prayer tab and the Night Prayer tab.
 
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