The Liturgy of the Hours (newb question)

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Francis_W28

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Hey there guys and gals,

Just curious if anyone can direct me towards any resource that might guide me as to how I would properly use The Divine Office.
My Google searches have turned up little that is actually helpful. I know that there are apps available to use, but I don’t have a smart phone and quite frankly I would much rather use a the book.
The problem is that it is so darn hard to navigate through it.

Also, the copy that I have has a date of 1976 on the front page. Is each version the same or would it be best to obtain a more recent print of The Divine Office? I’d hate to be using an outdated edition. To my knowledge though it should all be the same because it just cycles through the psalms correct?

Hopefully you can all shed some light on this form of prayer.

God Bless,

Francis
 
You don’t say whether you’re in the US or elsewhere. But if in the US, there is a St. Joseph’s Guide that you can get for either the 4-volume set, or the 1-volume Christian Prayer. The guide will tell you, for every day of the year, what day it is in liturgical time, and what pages to use in the book. (I would think there’s something similar available in other countries.)

Also applying to the US only, the Liturgy of the Hours will be having some updates, but it’s going to be a while. Your copy is not out of date.

Praying the Liturgy of the Hours takes some time to get comfortable with, but it is well worth it.
 
Assuming you’re using the US version, the web site divineoffice.org is a great place to start. Even if you’re using the print version, it will give you the proper page numbers. You can also use it to pray along with other people.
 
My apologies @agnes therese and @SuscipeMeDomine for not mentioning that I am indeed a United States citizen.
Thank you for you responses!
 
What book do you have ?

One of the 4 volume set or Christian Prayer ?
 
Using the table of contents locate the Ordinary. In the Advent Liturgy of the Hours this was page 645, I don’t have any other volumes of the LOTR and it might be on different page #'s in later volumes. I now use “Christian Prayer” which is essentially LOTR just only having morning and evening prayer which is all I am saying anyway. In Christian Prayer its page 685.

The Ordinary is the key to the entire thing. It is what tells you precisely how to do it. It has some complex conditional logic but ultimatley it controls and tells you what to do. Spend some time reading through it, a lot of time actually. You should understand the Psalmody is a rolling 4 week cycle, you have to keep track of what week we are in. Notice the Propers of the Seasons and Propers of the Saints seperate sections ] and once you kinda get them then the words in the Ordinary of the LOTR will start to make some sense, usually in the proper of the saint will be a reference to the appropriate commons to use.

It is not half as complex as it sounds but it can be until you get the hang of it. The app “Divine Office” is absolutely invaluable for figuring out how this works because at the start of each hour it lists what pages of LOTR or Christian prayer you use. This lets you check your work to be sure you are “doing it right”. And once you start doing it via the page numbers given in the app then how you do it suddenly starts to make sense quickly.

If you don’t have the app and want help send me a private message and I can send you the page numbers for a day so you can cross check. The app only lets you look at current day previous and next day though.

Finally “Evening Prayer” and “Evening Prayer II” will drive you loopy at first. The simplest explination is “Saturday night doesn’t have an evening prayer but Sunday has two evening prayers”. So Sunday “evening prayer” is what you would otherwise call Saturday’s evening prayer, and “Sunday’s evening prayer II” is what would be “Evening Prayer” for the day if it was any day but Sunday. 🤷
 
agnes_therese said:
… there is a St. Joseph’s Guide that you can get for either the 4-volume set, or the 1-volume Christian Prayer.
Click to expand...
This!

Here’s a link to the 2015 edition: amazon.com/Guide-Christian-Prayer-2015-Edition/dp/1941243134/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1RJDJAYZNN3K72Z2AAA0

I would recommend studying the Ordinary, as this is the “formula” for any given hour.

Then, use a website like iBreviary in order to familiarize yourself with how the Liturgy of the Hours looks when everything is put together, when all of the “variables” have been plugged into the “formula”. Here’s a link: ibreviary.org/en/tools/ibreviary-web.html

Finally, use the St. Joseph’s Guide to help you find the correct pages on which the “variables” are located for any given day.

While everything may seem confusing at first, I think you’ll feel rather comfortable within a relatively short period of time.

As to your question regarding publication date, the 1976 Liturgy of the Hours is the most current.
 
Francis_W28 said:
Hey there guys and gals,

Just curious if anyone can direct me towards any resource that might guide me as to how I would properly use The Divine Office.
My Google searches have turned up little that is actually helpful. I know that there are apps available to use, but I don’t have a smart phone and quite frankly I would much rather use a the book.
The problem is that it is so darn hard to navigate through it.

Also, the copy that I have has a date of 1976 on the front page. Is each version the same or would it be best to obtain a more recent print of The Divine Office? I’d hate to be using an outdated edition. To my knowledge though it should all be the same because it just cycles through the psalms correct?

Hopefully you can all shed some light on this form of prayer.

God Bless,

Francis
Click to expand...
Try www.divineoffice.org.
 
Francis_W28 said:
Hey there guys and gals,

Just curious if anyone can direct me towards any resource that might guide me as to how I would properly use The Divine Office.
My Google searches have turned up little that is actually helpful. I know that there are apps available to use, but I don’t have a smart phone and quite frankly I would much rather use a the book.
The problem is that it is so darn hard to navigate through it.

Also, the copy that I have has a date of 1976 on the front page. Is each version the same or would it be best to obtain a more recent print of The Divine Office? I’d hate to be using an outdated edition. To my knowledge though it should all be the same because it just cycles through the psalms correct?

Hopefully you can all shed some light on this form of prayer.

God Bless,

Francis
Click to expand...
Not sure when you refer to “the book” as to what you have.

In general, when starting something, the harder it is, the more likely it is that one will drop out.

If it were me (and because this is where I started), I would get a copy of Shorter Christian Prayer, even if you have either the one volume or the four volume.

Why? It is simpler to use; less in the way of “alternatives”; it was what we used when I was in college seminary years ago, and what I used for a long time after that. Many people are not going to say any more than maybe Lauds, Vespers and Compline and maybe feast day now and then. If you use that regularly for 6 months to a year or more and want to grade up, you can go to either the one or four volume; but you will have established it as a regular prayer format and won’t have to fight to figure out what you are doing.

The first objective is to pray.

The second objective may be to learn to pray the hours following all proper procedures and formatting; but that is not a requirement for prayer. Hopefully while doing the first, you will develop a strong love for the Psalms, which are at the heart of the LOTH. Develop that and then you can work on the finer points.
 
Thank you all! Your responses have been very helpful to me.
My apologies for not mentioning that I had the Christian Prayer book. I was unaware that it happened to be the condensed version of the four book St. Joseph’s Guide.

I will most definitely use the “Divine Office” website to help me with my prayer.

Grateful for all of you who have responded!
 
Francis_W28 said:
Thank you all! Your responses have been very helpful to me.
My apologies for not mentioning that I had the Christian Prayer book. I was unaware that it happened to be the condensed version of the four book St. Joseph’s Guide.

I will most definitely use the “Divine Office” website to help me with my prayer.

Grateful for all of you who have responded!
Click to expand...
Whoa – the “St. Joseph’s Guide” is just a little pamphlet that shows you which page in “Christian Prayer” you need each day.

There are two current editions of Christian Prayer (the Liturgy of the Hours). One is published by Catholic Book Publishing (the same people who produce the St. Joseph’s Guide) and the one by Pauline Books and Media. The latter is easier to use, but it’s also out of print.

I’m using the single volume at the moment, and trying to hold off on buying the four volume until the new approved version is released…sometime in the future.
 
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