Tips on Christian Prayer/A part of the Liturgy of the Hours

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njlisa

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Dear friends in Christ:

I recently bought Christian Prayer –– a shortened version
of the Liturgy of the Hours. Does anyone here pray the
Liturgy of the Hours or Christian Prayer? Tips are much appreciated.
God bless you all.

:signofcross:

​
 
It’s not really a shorter version of the Liturgy of the Hours, you just have to flip back & forth as everything is in one volume. Get a copy of the Saint Joseph Guide for Christian Prayer (The Liturgy of the Hours) for use with edition No. 406 from your local Catholic book store or on-line. The ISBN # is 978-1-941243-71-8 if you have to order on-line.

This is assuming that you have the most common Christian Prayer & not one of the odd-ball ones. If you have a local Catholic book store, take your book there & they will make sure you have the correct guide.
 
njlisa said:
Dear friends in Christ:

I recently bought Christian Prayer –– a shortened version
of the Liturgy of the Hours. Does anyone here pray the
Liturgy of the Hours or Christian Prayer? Tips are much appreciated.
God bless you all.

:signofcross:

​
Click to expand...
It’s not really shorter; it only does not contain all of the hours. For the essential hours, (Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer), the book is complete. It just has abbreviated Office of Readings and Daytime Prayer. For one who doesn’t pray the entire Office (as priests and religious do), Christian Prayer is perfect.

A lot of us pray the Liturgy of the Hours. If you have a specific question, throw it out here.
 
My specific prayer is: How do you keep your place? I find I can do it better with iBreviary. But I don’t want to give up that easily.
 
njlisa said:
My specific prayer is: How do you keep your place? I find I can do it better with iBreviary. But I don’t want to give up that easily.
Click to expand...
Ribbons & bookmarks. The 5-ribbon bookmarks are available at Catholic stores.
 
njlisa said:
My specific prayer is: How do you keep your place? I find I can do it better with iBreviary. But I don’t want to give up that easily.
Click to expand...
Ribbons. Which should come with the book, and can also be purchased separately.

It takes a bit of effort at first, but you will fall right into it. I’m of the camp that would prefer to ditch any app in any shape or form and stick with the dead-tree edition.

Mark the following pages with ribbons.

Proper of Seasons (currently, Second Week of Easter).

Ordinary (before any prayer, stick the ribbon in the Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer section so that you can easily flip to it during the prayer)

Four-week Psalter (currently Week II)

Night Prayer (appropriate day)

Proper of Saints (appropriate day or nearest to it)

And if you’ve likely run out of ribbons, stick a bookmark or card into the section called Commons, and one more into the Hymns, probably around hymn 116 this time of year so that you can easily find your place in the Easter hymns).

Then the first thing you should study before attempting to pray for the first time, is the Ordinary. Read and familiarize yourself with everything printed in both black and red, but pay attention to the red, because they are instructions. The Ordinary gives you the daily order of prayer, which doesn’t change. What changes are the texts, but the red instructions clearly tell you how.

Many of us here started the Office and a lot here would tell you that once they got into the rhythm of daily prayer, we couldn’t give it up. It became an “addiction” of sorts, but one we are only too happy to stick with.
 
njlisa said:
My specific prayer is: How do you keep your place? I find I can do it better with iBreviary. But I don’t want to give up that easily.
Click to expand...
Definitely ribbons – you can get them from most Catholic bookstores, what you want is at least a five ribbon bookmark, and I too use holy cards when I run out of ribbons.

Start with Night Prayer – once your comfortable with that THEN move on to the other hours. If you have the Catholic Book Publishing edition you’ll need a St. Joseph’s Guide 2017 Guide to Christian Prayer.

IMHO, the Pauline Media version is much easier to use, but is out of print here in the US. You can find copies occasionally on line. OR you can buy the most recent English edition from the Paulines of Africa: e.paulinesafrica.org/index.php/book/bookDetails/851
 
porthos11 said:
Ribbons. Which should come with the book, and can also be purchased separately.

It takes a bit of effort at first, but you will fall right into it. I’m of the camp that would prefer to ditch any app in any shape or form and stick with the dead-tree edition.

Mark the following pages with ribbons.

Proper of Seasons (currently, Second Week of Easter).

Ordinary (before any prayer, stick the ribbon in the Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer section so that you can easily flip to it during the prayer)

Four-week Psalter (currently Week II)

Night Prayer (appropriate day)

Proper of Saints (appropriate day or nearest to it)

And if you’ve likely run out of ribbons, stick a bookmark or card into the section called Commons, and one more into the Hymns, probably around hymn 116 this time of year so that you can easily find your place in the Easter hymns).

Then the first thing you should study before attempting to pray for the first time, is the Ordinary. Read and familiarize yourself with everything printed in both black and red, but pay attention to the red, because they are instructions. The Ordinary gives you the daily order of prayer, which doesn’t change. What changes are the texts, but the red instructions clearly tell you how.

Many of us here started the Office and a lot here would tell you that once they got into the rhythm of daily prayer, we couldn’t give it up. It became an “addiction” of sorts, but one we are only too happy to stick with.
Click to expand...
This is pretty much exactly what I do with my 4-Volume. One of the “bookmarks” I use is actually the back flap of the Magnificat magazine, which has the Magnificat and Benedictus on either side. I cut it off an old magazine. I also keep my ordinary ribbon on those prayers. To keep things making sense for me, the unused ribbons on a given hour stick out the bottom, and ones that will be used stick out the side. For example, during morning prayer, the night prayer ribbon will be straight down and out-of-way, the psalter to the side, and depending on season/day, the seasons & saints/commons ribbons could be either.

Before prayer, I sit down and arrange all the ribbons for that hour. You can use a Saint Joseph’s Guide for the page numbers, or your local edition of the Ordo. A little prep work ahead of time helps it go smoothly.

It’s a little daunting at first, but after a couple days you’ll have the hang of it. If you’re already familiar with the pattern of any given hour from iBreviary, you should catch on pretty quick.
 
I use both the 4-volume (for use at home) and the 1-volume (kept in the car, for use at meetings, on the road, etc.).

As the others have said, Ribbons!. I’ve made my own set of ribbons as I don’t find 5 to be enough for me…but that’s me.

Read the Ordinary and become familiar with it - that’ll give you the basics. If there’s a group in your parish that says Morning or Evening Prayer daily - get in touch with them, someone may be willing to sit down with you and really go through the specifics with you. There are books you can read, as well, that will walk you through how to say the Hours. I think I have a copy of The Divine Office for Dodos. You could also just read the official document, the “General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours,” which you can find on-line.
 
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