Praying the Divine Office

[TheInquisitor]

I just got into a good Rosary routine and now I’m interested on working in the Divine office to my prayer schedule. I have a few questions that I can’t seem to find from Google.

First off: as a candidate (Already baptized RCIA student), am I allowed to pray the Divine office with the church?

Second: I was planning on following this website, divineoffice.org/. Is this a good place for that? I ask because places like Universalis doesn’t say it but they use a non approved Catholic LOTH if I’m not wrong. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

Third: For those of you who use this site and from what I can tell, a lot of you do. I read that there are three daytime prayers which are the terce prayers, the sext prayers, and the none prayers. However, I can’t seem to find the three different prayers, only the sext (midday) prayers.

Fourth: Do I have to sing these prayers?

Alright, everything else I can figure out on my own from what I can tell. For anyone who answers these, thanks for you time .

God bless,
Ryan

 

[bobballen_18]

Well I think I can answer two of those:

1. Sure you can!
2. No, you don’t have to.

 

[byanke]

I just got into a good Rosary routine and now I’m interested on working in the Divine office to my prayer schedule. I have a few questions that I can’t seem to find from Google.

First off: as a candidate (Already baptized RCIA student), am I allowed to pray the Divine office with the church?

Yes! Please do! We need more Catholics to understand the beauty of the office!

Second: I was planning on following this website, divineoffice.org/. Is this a good place for that? I ask because places like Universalis doesn’t say it but they use a non approved Catholic LOTH if I’m not wrong. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

I’d use Divineoffice.org. And yes, you’re right that universalis uses a different translation.

Third: For those of you who use this site and from what I can tell, a lot of you do. I read that there are three daytime prayers which are the terce prayers, the sext prayers, and the none prayers. However, I can’t seem to find the three different prayers, only the sext (midday) prayers.

well, that’s kind of complicated. After the reforms, the midday prayers were kind of combined. Kind of.

Fourth: Do I have to sing these prayers?

You don’t have to, but I often do, especially when praying with my friends. It is the most complete way.

Alright, everything else I can figure out on my own from what I can tell. For anyone who answers these, thanks for you time .

God bless,
Ryan

 

[MaryMagdala]

I use the website on a regular basis.

It uses all the approved readings from the Liturgy of the Hours and the Christian Prayer books. They post the actual pages of the readings from those two books. You can therefore, followalong in the books as well.

Yes, they just recently added the midday prayers. There is a Daytime Prayer book similar to the Shorter Christiam prayer book available with all the prayers. All of the prayers are available in the 4 book set. I would recommend using the Christian Prayer book to start out with, but also the divineoffice.org because all the “page flipping” etc has been done for you. It teaches in the correct order with the “glory” after every rerading, sometimes prayers after the readings etc.

They do post the Office of Readings as well, which you could use as one of the other readings.

No you don’t have to sing the prayers. They usually sing the Invitatory on a regular basis, but seldom sing any others regularly. The chants aren’t that hard to get used to, but they aren’t required for lay people…

 

[Student09]

I just got into a good Rosary routine and now I’m interested on working in the Divine office to my prayer schedule. I have a few questions that I can’t seem to find from Google.

First off: as a candidate (Already baptized RCIA student), am I allowed to pray the Divine office with the church?

Second: I was planning on following this website, divineoffice.org/. Is this a good place for that? I ask because places like Universalis doesn’t say it but they use a non approved Catholic LOTH if I’m not wrong. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

Third: For those of you who use this site and from what I can tell, a lot of you do. I read that there are three daytime prayers which are the terce prayers, the sext prayers, and the none prayers. However, I can’t seem to find the three different prayers, only the sext (midday) prayers.

Fourth: Do I have to sing these prayers?

Alright, everything else I can figure out on my own from what I can tell. For anyone who answers these, thanks for you time .

God bless,
Ryan

1. Yes, anyone can pray it.
2. I prefer books myself, but I just glanced over the site and the psalm and canticle translations are the same as in my LOTH.
3. Daytime Prayer is a little odd - there is one set of psalms, then three sets of readings with a short prayer for each, and a complementary psalmody for praying additional hours. It looks like the site in question has opted to omit the complementary psalmody. You won’t be missing much, but you can always upgrade at some point if you really want all the daytime prayers. My suggestion would be start with Morning and Evening Prayer and if that’s going well, add other hours.
4. No.

 

[TheInquisitor]

Thanks for the answers guys

Can I get some clarification on the daily prayers?

So, If I just have the sext prayer, I won’t be missing much not having the terce and none prayer. From what I could tell from you guys, they are just small additions right?

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Keep in mind that the Divine Office is designed to be prayed in a group, where singing the hymns are done.

Alone, there is no need to sing the hymns, for the Office is usually prayed silently anyway.

Jim

 

[MaryMagdala]

On Divineoffice.org:
Because the Divine Office is usually done in a group, I
read along with them, sing the hymn if I know it and at
least do the responsories at the same time they do.
You can read every other stanza out load with the reader
and get the feel of doing it with a group. You can also stand,
sit, or kneel while doing it.

It gets you into a good practice so you can recite the prayers
with others sometimes (I do in my Carmelite meetings). It
teaches you to “listen” while others read so you all are talking together,
It is very distracting when someone is 3 beats ahead of everyone else or
3 beats behind.

If you get the Daytime Prayer book, it explains how to pray it using the
four week psalter. If you want to do more than one daytime hour, you use the
complementary psalmody provided. It starts just as the m/e prayer does with God come
to my assistance, … then a hymm (can be read or song).

Although you can use the monastic way of referring to the prayer times (sext, none, etc.,}
the prayer books don’t use the terms any more. It is now morning, midmorning, midday,
midafternoon, evening , and night (Compline) The Office of Readings can be used at
anytime or with another hour. The Invitatory is the first reading of the day and the only
time you say “Lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.”

 

[TheInquisitor]

Thanks for the help Everyone

One more question on the Divine Office: Do I pray the Psalmodies? How? A lot of them seem to be in third person and not a prayer.

Off topic question but includes prayer: Who is the apostles creed prayed to in the Rosary? Who are you praying the intentions of the Rosary to? Just curios .

 

[Student09]

Thanks for the help Everyone

One more question on the Divine Office: Do I pray the Psalmodies? How? A lot of them seem to be in third person and not a prayer.

Off topic question but includes prayer: Who is the apostles creed prayed to in the Rosary? Who are you praying the intentions of the Rosary to? Just curios .

The Psalmody is the cycle of psalms, which make up most of the office, so I’m not sure what you mean. Could you give an example?

The Apostle’s creed is an affirmation/profession of one’s belief made to God. One’s intentions for the rosary can be for anything. (Well, ideally, you wouldn’t be praying for your neighbor’s cat to turn green or something …)

 

[TheInquisitor]

The Psalmody is the cycle of psalms, which make up most of the office, so I’m not sure what you mean. Could you give an example?

The Apostle’s creed is an affirmation/profession of one’s belief made to God. One’s intentions for the rosary can be for anything. (Well, ideally, you wouldn’t be praying for your neighbor’s cat to turn green or something …)

Thanks for answering my off topic question .

Sorry for not being specific about the Divine Office question, new guy here . I am wondering if everything except the readings are prayers or if the readings and the Psalmody are not prayers. The Psalmody for the night prayer yesterday just didn’t look like a prayer so it made me wonder. For that matter, are the Hymns prayers or not as well?

Bear with me here, I know these questions might sound stupid but I’m just trying to clarify so I don’t end up doing something stupid for a long time haha.

 

[JerrySeibert]

Thanks be to God!
Welcome to the LOTH club. My Priest challenged me to begin praying the LOTH two year ago. Awesome practice.

 

[Thomas_Francis]

I would recommend starting with just one office and slowly growing from there.

To clear some confusion about the daytime prayers, Terce Sext and None are really only used to refer to the old breviary (the one in Latin). If you are interested in praying the Divine Office (the one in Latin, we usually refer the vernacular breviary as Liturgy of the Hours or LOTH) then you’ll probably have to buy a physical breviary. As a candidate, you’ll probably lean more towards the LOTH, the Divine Office follows the old calender and is really hard to learn.

The latin goes this way (I’ll comment on the LOTH in parenthesis)
Matins (Office of Readings), Lauds (Morning Prayer), Prime (This has been suppressed and is not in LOTH), Terce (Midmorning Prayer), Sext (Midday Prayer), None (Midafternoon Prayer), Vespers (Evening Prayer), and Compline (Night Prayer).

I would also recommend starting with Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, or Night Prayer, or any combination of the three.

Starting will be rough, but you will learn how to meditate on the Psalms eventually. It will sure grow on you!

 

[TheInquisitor]

I would recommend starting with just one office and slowly growing from there.

To clear some confusion about the daytime prayers, Terce Sext and None are really only used to refer to the old breviary (the one in Latin). If you are interested in praying the Divine Office (the one in Latin, we usually refer the vernacular breviary as Liturgy of the Hours or LOTH) then you’ll probably have to buy a physical breviary. As a candidate, you’ll probably lean more towards the LOTH, the Divine Office follows the old calender and is really hard to learn.

The latin goes this way (I’ll comment on the LOTH in parenthesis)
Matins (Office of Readings), Lauds (Morning Prayer), Prime (This has been suppressed and is not in LOTH), Terce (Midmorning Prayer), Sext (Midday Prayer), None (Midafternoon Prayer), Vespers (Evening Prayer), and Compline (Night Prayer).

I would also recommend starting with Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, or Night Prayer, or any combination of the three.

Starting will be rough, but you will learn how to meditate on the Psalms eventually. It will sure grow on you!

Sorry, I thought that the names LOTH and Divine Office were interchangeable.

Do I meditate on the Psalms or Pray them?

 

[Thomas_Francis]

Sorry, I thought that the names LOTH and Divine Office were interchangeable.

No apology needed, that’s really just off of my own experience so take it with a grain of salt.

Do I meditate on the Psalms or Pray them?

It’s the same thing really, when you recite the Psalms really mean what you say. Make them your prayer to God. When you recite them think about how they fit into your life and what you can learn from them.

 

[TheInquisitor]

No apology needed, that’s really just off of my own experience so take it with a grain of salt.

It’s the same thing really, when you recite the Psalms really mean what you say. Make them your prayer to God. When you recite them think about how they fit into your life and what you can learn from them.

Thank you!

I think I got it all.

Just to clarify, the only thing I don’t pray in the whole LOTH is the readings right? Even the Hymns?

And thanks everyone for their help. I’ve already done two consecutive nights of the Night prayer. I look forward to adding more.

 

[Thomas_Francis]

Thank you!

I think I got it all.

Just to clarify, the only thing I don’t pray in the whole LOTH is the readings right? Even the Hymns?

And thanks everyone for their help. I’ve already done two consecutive nights of the Night prayer. I look forward to adding more.

You do say the readings, the whole of LOTH (Both forms of course) is a big prayer. Is this answering you question?

 

[TheInquisitor]

You do say the readings, the whole of LOTH (Both forms of course) is a big prayer. Is this answering you question?

So how do I pray the Reading? Is it like an acclamation to God or something?

Once I understand this, I think I’ll have it down pat and ready to go Thanks!

 

[Luigi_Daniele]

My apologies if this has been stated, but Universalis, while a good resource, is not the official translation of the LotH.

iBreviary, if you have a smartphone, makes it absolutely effortless.

 

[Enigmaspot]

I have the iBreviary on my Blackberry and the Divine Office on my Kindle Fire.
The Kindle Fire works really well.