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Catholic_96
Guest
Are priests required to pray the entire Divine Office each day, or just the major hours (Office of Readings, Lauds, Vespers)?
Thanks
Thanks
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VanSensei
Guest
I believe they’re required to. The priests/pastor have talked about it a bit in the homilies here as if it were.
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MorEphrem
Guest
DivineOffice.Org:
Apparently the entire LOTH (wouldn’t have guessed that).
divineoffice.org/liturgy-of-the-hours/how-to-pray-the-liturgy-of-the-hours/
Apparently the entire LOTH (wouldn’t have guessed that).
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Windmill
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futureKC123
Guest
Now in most of the dioceses of the world a priest is obliged to say Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, only one of the day hours (Mid-morning, Mid-day, etc.), Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer. That is, only 5 of the 7 hours. According to the 1962 liturgical books and for priests that say the traditional Latin Office, those under canonical obligation must say all 8 of the hours. If you have any more questions let me know!
Hope this helps!
FKC
Hope this helps!
FKC
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irenaiosbso2002
Guest
I don’t know about RC priests. But I distinctly recall reading years ago that the question was submitted to the Vatican – sometime early last century, I believe – whether “Eastern Rite” priests, like “Latin Rite” priests, were obligated to “recite” the "Divine Office. The answer came back, “No”.
I don’t remember precisely to whom or to what dicastary the question was addressed. I hesitate to say the Secretariat for the Eastern Catholic Churches because it may not have yet been established.
Can anyone provide more info on this.?
The diocesan priests I’ve spoken to have stated that they are bound to the Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, one Daytime Prayer (the closest to the time of day), Evening Prayer and Night Prayer.
Religious (priests, brothers/sisters/monks/nuns) say according to their Constitutions, but for most if not all of them, they are required to recite all of the hours in common (including all three daytime prayers), or even sing in choir (Jesuits are a notable exception).
Religious (priests, brothers/sisters/monks/nuns) say according to their Constitutions, but for most if not all of them, they are required to recite all of the hours in common (including all three daytime prayers), or even sing in choir (Jesuits are a notable exception).
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Deo_Gratias42
Guest
Our FSSP priests are required to recite the entire hours of the 1961 Breviary, which is significantly longer than the LOTH. The LOTH does all 150 psalms in a month, whereas the 1961 Breviary does all 150 psalms in the week. All priests are also required to recite the Office in Latin, and require special permission to recite it in the vernacular.
Given that the Breviary is the official prayer of the Church and the great need of prayer at this time, all priests would be reciting the entire Officer each day.
Given that the Breviary is the official prayer of the Church and the great need of prayer at this time, all priests would be reciting the entire Officer each day.
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thedavidwilson
Guest
Our priest said in a sermon that in the past the amount of time devoted to prayer each day would be:
Cloistered Religious – 8 hours
Secular Religious (e.g. parish priest) – 4 hours (due to the recitation of all the hours)
Laity – 2 hours.
If we were to get back this balance the world would be a much different place.
Cloistered Religious – 8 hours
Secular Religious (e.g. parish priest) – 4 hours (due to the recitation of all the hours)
Laity – 2 hours.
If we were to get back this balance the world would be a much different place.
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janeway529
Guest
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think (secular) priests are also required to keep a Holy Hour as well.
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JReducation
Guest
They are required to pray Lauds and Vespers. The other hours are kind of tricky. Canon Law says one thing, but the Congregation for the Clergy and for Worship allow the Conference of Bishops to dictate. In the USA the USCCB is flexible, because of the demands of parish life and other duties that priests usually have, duties that can’t be put off.
If the priest is a religious in solemn vows, then he must pray the entire LOTH. The obligation stems from the solemn vows, not from Holy Orders. Pastoral duties do not excuse him.
If the priest is a religious in simple vows, he prays whatever his constitution requires.
The pain of sin is only for those who are in solemn vows.
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OraLabora
Guest
I think your priest had an idealized idea of what monastic life (cloistered religious) was like.
The abbey I’m associated with, on a normal feria (weekday), has the following schedule:
5-5:50 am Vigils 50 minutes + Angelus
Lectio
7:30-8:05 am, Lauds 35 minutes
Work
9:45-9:55 am, Terce 10 minutes
Work
11:00-11:50 am, weekday Mass 50 minutes
12:00-12:10 pm, Sext + None + Angelus 10 minutes
Lunch, brief siesta, work
5:00-5:35 pm, Vespers 35 minutes
Dinner & recreation
7:45-8:05 pm, Compline + Angelus 20 minutes.
Grand Silence (sleep time) is from 9 pm until 5 am (8 hours exactly)
Total time in liturgical prayer, 210 minutes or 3.5 hours. They use a psalm schema that does all 150 psalms in a week for the Divine Office.
Lauds, Mass and Vespers are sung in Gregorian chant. The rest is in French plainchant, recto-tono (monotone chant) for Vigils, Terce and Sext. Add in the lectio time and you could say that they spend a total of 5 hours in prayer. In all of that they need to attend to personal needs, run the monastery and in this case, run their cheese factory and cider factory.
It’s probably true that in the pre-Vatican II days monks spent 8 hours in prayer. The calendar was much more complicated with more feasts, octaves, etc. than today, with elaborate liturgies to go with it, with very ornate chant (longer, more melismatic antiphons, etc.).
What effect did this have on monastic life? For starters, it resulted in the need to divide monks into choir monks, where the better-educated and more intellectual brothers were directed into choir to become eventually priests. Monks with little education became lay brothers. They had separate Offices. They had very little interaction between each other. They in fact led very separate lives.
This was so far from the ideal of the Benedictine’s founder, St. Benedict, that by Vatican II monastic life looked little like what the Rule of St. Benedict intended it to be. Whereas the Rule calls for a balanced life for all, monasteries achieved “balance” by in fact dividing monks into two classes. In the Rule, the only “caste” was to be the order in which one arrived at the monastery (seniority).
In short, immediately before Vatican II, monastic life little resembled what it was meant to be. Vatican II restored that balance. In our abbey, in the 1980s, the lay brother caste was abandoned, and all “lay brothers” became formally professed monks. All monks, regardless of clerical status, became obligated to choir, priest or otherwise. Now if you attend say, Vespers, all monks will be dressed in their black habit regardless of clerical status (unless it is a feast or solemnity when one priest-monk will be in chasuble to preside).
Clearly then, in today’s context it would not be possible for all monks to spend 8 hours in choir and still keep the place going. St. Benedict intended that monasteries live off the fruits of their own labour. He never intended that monks would be divided into a clerical caste, and a servant caste. All were to chip in and run the place. St. Benedict himself, the first abbot, wasn’t even a priest.
I think one has to be careful about presenting an idealized portrait of what one thinks is “tradition” but is in fact nostalgia for a specific point in time, and a point in time that had its own problems, and in the case of monasticism, had strayed so far from the founder’s ideals that it had little resemblance to what he intended a monastery to be. If you read the rule, it is clear that St. Benedict intended monks to do about 6-8 hours of physical labour per day. Clearly that wouldn’t be possible with 8 hours of prayer as well; taking away an hour for meals and personal needs, and some time for rest and recreation, it would leave monks less than 7 hours of sleep per day.
The community I’m affiliated to is a cloistered community. Many communities also have external apostolates such as running colleges, which is why today Benedictines are only bound to a psalm schema that spreads the psalter over 2 weeks instead of 1 week (and in some rare cases the 4-week LOTH is allowed), although many do continue to use 1-week schemas.
Diocesan priests have their own constraints and realities today with diminishing vocations. The simplification of the LOTH for them in fact began with Pius X in 1910 who reduced their load from the monastic 250 psalms per week to 150.
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Withburga
Guest
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘Secular Religious’. Someone is either religious or secular, but can’t be both.
A diocesan priest is a cleric, and secular, because he does not live the consecrated life; he is not a religious, because he does not belong to a religious institute, and makes promises to his bishop rather than taking religious vows.
Conversely, a religious priest may be assigned as a parish priest, but cannot be described as secular because he lives the consecrated life, belongs to a religious institute and takes religious vows.
What distinction did you mean to make here?
Just curious.
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