Spiritual Effects of the LOTH

[CathMass]

I am just curious about how many of you out there who pray the Liturgy of the Hours (4 volume or Christian Prayer) have found spiritual growth by means of it. Has it increased your relationship with God? Have you found yourself overcoming many habitual sins by means of the graces received through it? Do you feel like you are conversing with God like a child and a Father when praying it? Please feel free to post here.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Well for me, it connected me with the Old Testament of the Bible, which I had tended to struggle with before. It help me see the wonder of God, in the Jewish traditions and how they became part of the Church.

Also at Mass, many of the hymns I had been signing, became more beautiful, because the composers had taken the hymns from the LOTH’s.

John Michael Talbot especially. His song, “Come Worship the Lord,” of course is Psalm 95, the Invitatory for Morning Prayer in the LOTH’s.

Then of course is my favorite of John Michael Talbot, “Holy
Is His Name,” which is the Benedictus, which is prayed every evening.

Jim

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

Praying the Liturgy of the Hours has had several effects on me. For one, it has a way of making the day holy. By stopping to pray at different times it’s a reminder to me that I’m living in God’s time, not my own. What I do is for him, not for me.

It also makes me feel more in synch with the Church and the liturgical cycle. Prayers during Advent have a different feel than prayers during Ordinary Time. Celebrating different saints puts me in touch with who they were and what they did.

I also like the connection with other people praying. They may not be sitting near me, but they’re offering the same prayers. And the Psalms were prayed by Jesus and the apostles, by saints and ordinary people through the ages, and now by me. I like that connection.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

I am just curious about how many of you out there who pray the Liturgy of the Hours (4 volume or Christian Prayer) have found spiritual growth by means of it. Has it increased your relationship with God? Have you found yourself overcoming many habitual sins by means of the graces received through it? Do you feel like you are conversing with God like a child and a Father when praying it? Please feel free to post here.

Yes to all your questions! The Psalms speak to me as the different psalms progress of every single need and spiritual state of my own and that of others. Even the vengeaful psalms remind me to take one second to ask God to be merciful always please.

Yes, I do feel like a child with my God and Father as I pray the DO…the Hours keep me in touch with my own soul and that it is a soul in God, Our Father, always with The Lord.

The Psalms also constantly remind me that I am not an “I” but a “we” and an “us” in community with The Blessed Trinity and The Church and the whole of mankind and the Universe.

I especially love the Intercessions, which in the course of the four week psalter and in other places reminds me to pray for every single need that I can think of as a “we” and an “us”.

Barb

 

[Lancer]

I agree and have had many of the same experiences already expressed. Probably the biggest (completely unexpected) grace was to see my sins…really see my sinfulness as lawlessness…pure and direct offenses against an incredible Father. Degrees of culpability (fencing with the Lord) disappeared. I saw myself (in my own unique time and situations) as the sinner in the psalms crying out for mercy and help. I finally recognized…“that’s me”… what I really am…a sinner…not in despair or depression but in the joy of his love and mercy which endures forever and in all that he has given me and always will give me to be justified and righteous in the Father’s presence.

The Jesus Prayer…“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner”…became a great prayer of freedom and peace…I don’t have to pretend…!

I went from going (on avg) to confession 2-3x yr…penitential services (Advent & Lent), etc. to every 2-3 weeks. I am more able to use His graces to see the root causes which helps to be more penitent and more honest in working with the Holy Spirit to overcome or at least reduce to occurrences.

Easter Vigil Canticle has these words which make a lot of sense (joyful sense) to me now: “…O happy fault…O necessary sin of Adam…which gained for us…So great a Redeemer…”.

Pax Christi

 

[bquinn]

I agree with lancer. Wow you really put my thoughts into words. I was introduced to the LOH a few years ago, and never have I grown so much spiritually as I did that first yr. The Psalms spoke to my heart, I learned how lowly I was and saw my sinfulness, but also saw God’s great and infinite Mercy. I learned to repeat over and over, Have Mercy on me, O Lord, have mercy on me. And in times of suffering, my heart would cry out, ‘My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready.’ When I went through a major illness, and was too weak and my vision went too blurry, that I could not read to pray the LOH, I relied on the memory of those Psalms, which got me through many months. But eventually I did go through a period of desolation. Praise God, He healed me of that illness, and I am now trying to get back into the habit of praying the LOH. I am looking forward to Advent to get back into the habit, and the responses here reminded me why it is so important for me to do so.

God Bless You All.