Question about Daily Office

[codefro]

In one of the offfices it calls to read Psalm 88. Psalm 88 is divided into two halves mark I and II. When Section I ends, do I pray the Glory Be and/or something else? Am I supposed to pause and reflect? I am trying to read The Daily Office for Dodos to figure it out, but for some reason that particular Psalm has no explaination. Please help!

 

[tee_eff_em]

These sections from The General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours should answer your question.

1. When a psalm may be divided because of its length into several sections within one and the same hour, an antiphon is given for each section. This is to provide variety, especially when the hour is sung, and also to help toward a better understanding of the riches of the psalm. Still, it is permissible to say or sing the complete psalm without interruption, using only the first antiphon.

1. When longer psalms occur, sections are marked in the psalter that divide the parts in such a way as to keep the threefold structure of the hour; but great care has been taken not to distort the meaning of the psalm.It is useful to observe this division, especially in a choral celebration in Latin; the Glory to the Father is added at the end of each section.

It is permissible, however, either to keep this traditional way or to pause between the different sections of the same psalm or to recite the whole psalm and its antiphon as a single unit without a break.

Note however

1. Psalms too long to be included in one hour of the office are assigned to the same hour on different days so that they may be recited in full by those who do not usually say other hours. Thus Ps 119 is divided in keeping with its own internal structure and is spread over twenty-two days during daytime prayer, because tradition has assigned it to the day hours.

:twocents: I would think it permissible to pray together all sections of a divided psalm assigned to a given office, but I would not extend it to those sections assigned to other hours/days :twocents:

My own practice is to observe the divisions.

tee