Rosary vs. divine office

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esmac

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Hello,

In my prayer life I often pray the rosary and/or the divine office each day, every day.

Divine office (Breviary or also known as Liturgy of the Hours) I pray the morning prayers, evening prayer and night prayers.

It’s hard for me to pray both the same day. It’s too much, too busy. So what should I do??

Like today I elected to pray the evening prayers in Divine Office I will pray Night Prayers and will also pray a decade of the rosary.

Thanks

ES
 
Are you a religious/priest/consecrated who is obligated to pray the Divine Office everyday?
If yes, then you should really pray it everyday.

If no, then you should give more time to the Rosary as it is specially requested by Our Lady, but this is only my opinion.

Both prayers are good to say of course and meritorious for your soul too
 
My advice would be, really work on making the time to include all the prayers you mentioned.

Set up a certain time to devote yourself to prayer, and let nothing interfere with that schedule. If you include the Office of Readings preceding Morning Prayer, it just may mean rising a half- hour earlier than usual, but it is well worth it, believe me. I have been praying the Liturgy daily for almost a year now and it makes a huge difference even though both prayers combined take a little over a half- hour. If you must, it is permissible to pray the rosary one decade at a time, but it’s also a good idea to pray an occasional “Hail Mary” throughout the day for the conversion of sinners and the souls in Purgatory.

Hope these suggestions are helpful. I’m sure Our Lord knows your intent and he meets us all where we lack. I’ve heard that Padre Pio would call on his Guardian Angel to assist him with his prayers when he was unable to oblige, likely because of the long hours he spent in the confessional.
 
Rosary is a private devotion. LOTH is a communal prayer. If you are praying them alone, or especially at the non-prescribed times, it becomes a private devotion. So, do which ever one you want and don’t worry about it.
 
esmac said:
Hello,

In my prayer life I often pray the rosary and/or the divine office each day, every day.

Divine office (Breviary or also known as Liturgy of the Hours) I pray the morning prayers, evening prayer and night prayers.

It’s hard for me to pray both the same day. It’s too much, too busy. So what should I do??

Like today I elected to pray the evening prayers in Divine Office I will pray Night Prayers and will also pray a decade of the rosary.

Thanks

ES
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I won’t add my voice to any suggestion to make time for both. I accept your situation at face value and that you have only time for one. That’s fair and that’s fine.

I say, therefore, go for the Divine Office, as it is the official prayer of the Catholic Church.

And no, despite protestations to the contrary, even when you’re praying alone, it does not become private devotion. It remains liturgical prayer and retains its public character. This is also true even if you’re not ordained or religious, because even in this state, this is an exercise of your baptismal priesthood, offering the sacrifice of praise. You may not pray in the name of the Church as those entrusted the mandate, but you are praying with the Church, participating in her Laudis Canticum.
 
I would further suggest the Chaplet of Divine Mercy be prayed everyday, ideally at 3 PM as Our Lord asks of us.

BTW, I too thought the Divine Office was private prayer when prayed alone, since some of the prayers are different when prayed in a community. I never thought it was made liturgical prayer by virtue of our baptismal priesthood. Interesting.
 
Neofight said:
Rosary is a private devotion. LOTH is a communal prayer. If you are praying them alone, or especially at the non-prescribed times, it becomes a private devotion. So, do which ever one you want and don’t worry about it.
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I agree wit this wholeheartedly. You seem to have a wonderful prayer life and I would do what you can and not worry as noted above.

God Bless,

Mary.
 
Hello! I actually was in the same dillema as you are in now. I recommend that you just stick to one. I used to pray both of them plus the Divine Mercy Chaplet, plus an examination of conscience, plus a few other short prayers throughout the day. I even dedicated myself to watching the A.D. The Bible Continues TV series. It was good for about a month until I started getting frustrated because I can’t fulfill all of them each day. So, I threw all of that out the window and started with something basic–the rosary. I recommend this for two reasons. First, it is typically the prayer used by people who are starting out; and second, you don’t need to dedicate yourself to a schedule, unlike LOTH. I am not saying that LOTH is less better, but rather that the rosary is more lenient time-wise. And so you don’t need to worry about what time you pray. You can always sit down and bust out your rosary whenever you have 15 minutes or so. And pray that everyday. At first, you’ll notice that you may once or twice skip a day not praying the rosary. When you notice that you are getting better–not missing a day at all, then you can start LOTH again. I also say this because the Blessed Virginia. Mary asked us to pray the rosary, while the LOTH is only required of certain people.
 
porthos11 said:
I won’t add my voice to any suggestion to make time for both. I accept your situation at face value and that you have only time for one. That’s fair and that’s fine.

I say, therefore, go for the Divine Office, as it is the official prayer of the Catholic Church.

And no, despite protestations to the contrary, even when you’re praying alone, it does not become private devotion. It remains liturgical prayer and retains its public character. This is also true even if you’re not ordained or religious, because even in this state, this is an exercise of your baptismal priesthood, offering the sacrifice of praise. You may not pray in the name of the Church as those entrusted the mandate, but you are praying with the Church, participating in her Laudis Canticum.
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^^
Absolutely. The LOTH is the Church’s prayer and does not become a private devotion when prayed individually by a lay person.

If the choice must be made between the two, I would say choose LOTH.
 
I would say to pray the Rosary. It’s more flexible and was asked by the Virgin Mary in a number of apparitions to be prayed.
 
How can you claim the LotH is not lenient?

You can pray Morning Prayer anytime between sunrise and 9AM, Daytime Prayer has a choice of three times (9AM or Noon or 3PM), Evening Prayer between 6PM and 9PM, and Night Prayer before bed. The Office of Readings may be done at any time during the day. It takes me about 20 minutes to do Morning/Evening Prayer, and 10 to 15 minutes do do Daytime/Night Prayer.

I combine the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer, but I’m retired, and so have a little more time in the morning than most folk.

NB: I usually do the Rosary before I do Night Prayer.
 
Bear in mind the divine office (for a layman at least) is flexible. Its not all or nothing, you can just say one hour per day if you wish. Similarly, you don’t have to pray the Rosary every day or not at all. I try to say each set of mysteries once per week, and say evening prayer (trying to get into the habit of adding compline as well). As a layman, you can add as much or as little as you are able. But probably best to start small and build up.

Also, if able probably the best daily devotion is daily mass!
 
May I suggest praying the LOTH, as you are doing and instead of 5 decades of the rosary, pray St. Louis de Montfort’s: Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It only takes about 5 mins. It’s a lovely offering to our Lady, reminding us of her virtues, gifts, and benefits to us her spiritual children. You can use your rosary beads or just pray the prayers. 🙂 Whatever you decide to do it helps to keep in mind that devotions are not meant to be burdens to bear but aids to our faith. If a devotion doesn’t aid your faith it may not be the right spirituality for you. Our Lady welcomes any devotion to her because she wishes to be our mother, not our taskmaster.
 
Pythagoras said:
Are you a religious/priest/consecrated who is obligated to pray the Divine Office everyday?
If yes, then you should really pray it everyday.

If no, then you should give more time to the Rosary as it is specially requested by Our Lady, but this is only my opinion.

Both prayers are good to say of course and meritorious for your soul too
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That’s a good point about the rosary that it is specially requested by Our Lady.
 
esmac said:
That’s a good point about the rosary that it is specially requested by Our Lady.
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In a private revelation,and to children or semiliterate peasants usually who would have been unable to pray the Office . Otoh LOTH is requested by the Church in Her official documents, and today’s educated laity can much more easily do so.
 
drforjc said:
In a private revelation,and to children or semiliterate peasants usually who would have been unable to pray the Office . Otoh LOTH is requested by the Church in Her official documents, and today’s educated laity can much more easily do so.
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Yes. 🙂 Also, the Church has an office for Mary that is usually prayed on Saturdays, but may be used for any of her feasts/solemnities. There are various versions of it available under the title of “The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

esmac, private revelations have no binding effect on us because they are not part of the deposit of the faith, but if declared “worthy of belief” may be beneficial to our faith. 🙂 Private devotions are the same, which is what the rosary is.
The rosary began as a short-hand way to recite the Divine Office for lay people who didn’t know Latin. Notice how the original rosary had 150 decades–that is because there are 150 Psalms, which is what primarily makes up the Office prayed throughout the day by religious or lay people who wish to pray it.
The Divine Office/LOTH is liturgical prayer–it is the official daily prayer of the Church. So, it’s not really a matter of choosing which is better–the LOTH or the rosary. The LOTH is better in the sense that it is a liturgy of the Church. It’s a matter of praying the one best suited to us in our walk of life and according to our spirituality. Many religious recite the rosary as well as the DO/LOTH, but most of us lay people simply don’t have the time to do both every day. Even a decade a day or some other form of Marian devotion is just as good as long as it benefits our faith, but the LOTH is definitely preferred.
 
Della said:
Yes. 🙂 Also, the Church has an office for Mary that is usually prayed on Saturdays, but may be used for any of her feasts/solemnities. There are various versions of it available under the title of “The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
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Della, the “Little Office” and the LotH’s Saturday Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary ARE NOT THE SAME THING.

The Saturday Memorial uses the psalms from the Saturday in whatever week you’re on in the four-week psalter, while the Little Office has its own sequence of psalms, which (with the exception of the three Nocturns of Matins) are the same every day.

The Saturday Memorial of the BVM in the current version of the LotH is only for ONE hour – Morning Prayer. The Little Office, which is older, has all the canonical Hours: Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.

Even the ‘modern’ version of the Little Office published by CBP (Rotelle) is not identical to the LotH’s Saturday Memorial, as it has both Morning and Evening Prayer.

Please stop telling people they’re identical when they most certainly are not.
 
Magdalen2013 said:
Della, the “Little Office” and the LotH’s Saturday Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary ARE NOT THE SAME THING.

The Saturday Memorial uses the psalms from the Saturday in whatever week you’re on in the four-week psalter, while the Little Office has its own sequence of psalms, which (with the exception of the three Nocturns of Matins) are the same every day.

The Saturday Memorial of the BVM in the current version of the LotH is only for ONE hour – Morning Prayer. The Little Office, which is older, has all the canonical Hours: Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.

Even the ‘modern’ version of the Little Office published by CBP (Rotelle) is not identical to the LotH’s Saturday Memorial, as it has both Morning and Evening Prayer.

Please stop telling people they’re identical when they most certainly are not.
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Whoa, friend, cool your jets. 😃 I haven’t been telling people they are the same on an ongoing basis, so you have no need to reprimand me for that. 😛

You are right, they aren’t the same thing, but they can both be used to honor Our Lady. I should have worded it better. Thanks for the correction. :tiphat:
 
That’s cool – and you ARE correct that any of them may be used to honor Our Lady. If someone is a beginner, the Saturday Memorial is probably the easiest to do, after the Rosary. (If they’re feeling brave enough to tackle the Divine Office!)

Another resource within the LotH would be “The Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
 
esmac said:
Hello,

In my prayer life I often pray the rosary and/or the divine office each day, every day…

It’s hard for me to pray both the same day. It’s too much, too busy. So what should I do??
Click to expand...
Hi Esmac,
Following are excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church which I hope can help you in deciding what route to take. These support some of the suggestions already posted above.

The Liturgy of the Hours - (Emphasis added.)
**CCC 1174 **- “… In this “public prayer of the Church,” the faithful (clergy, religious and lay people) exercise the royal priesthood of the baptized…”

CCC 1175 - “The Liturgy of the Hours is intended to become the prayer of the whole People of God. In it Christ himself “continues his priestly work through his Church.” His members participate according to their own place in the Church and the circumstances of their lives: priests …; religious…; all the faithful as much as possible… The laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually.”

Popular Piety - (Emphasis added.)
CCC1674 - “… catechesis must take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful. The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church’s sacramental life, such as the veneration of relics … the stations of the Cross … the rosary, … etc.”

CCC1675 - “These expressions of piety extend the liturgical life of the Church, but do not replace it. They … are in some way derived from it and lead the people to it, since in fact the liturgy by its very nature is far superior to any of them.”
 
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