What Hours are the Liturgy of the Hours?

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anon63623622

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I was wondering if someone could tell me the HOURS of the
  • Liturgy of the Hours
-------Morning
-------Daytime
-------Evening
-------Night

Thank you very much 🙂
 
Do you mean the traditional canonical hours, or do you mean the times that monastics actually pray the Liturgy of the Hours now, in 2020? (The latter can actually vary somewhat; check the schedule of a local monastery or abbey.)

Traditionally, it went something like this:
Matins/morning prayer: daybreak
Prime: 6 am
Terce: 9 am
Sext: noon
Nones: 3 pm
Evensong/Vespers: early evening
Compline: before retiring
 
Usually morning upon rising or at a time not long after (so certainly 9 am would be fine), noon around noon, vespers at some time prior to the evening meal (but 6 pm is certainly fine whether you’ve had dinner or not), and compline before bed. It is allowed to vary for an individual, such as a priest; the scheduled times are for groups of people who gather to pray it together every day.

I think the general advice is to schedule yourself at a time you’ll actually do it or according to the needs of your prayer life. As lay people, we aren’t obligated to a certain time but we’re highly encouraged to set aside regular times that we stick with. This is what usually serves perseverance the best.
 
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anon63623622 said:
The Hours for here
https://divineoffice.org/

It only has these

-------Morning
-------Daytime
-------Evening
-------Night

and I was wondering what Hours should they be read?

I have been doing this

9 A.M Morning
12 Noon Daytime
6 PM Evening
Before bed Night

But was not sure if it was right
Click to expand...
That’s sound good to me. As a lay person you can pray the hours whenever you wish, as long as it makes sense and is in line with the true time of day. That is, you would pray Morning Prayer in the morning and Evening Prayer in the evening, and so forth. Sometimes I’ll pray Morning Prayer at 7:30 a.m., whereas other days like today, I didn’t get a chance to say it until 10:30 a.m. There are of course the traditional monastic hours, as other users have posted, but as a lay person that might be quite hard to follow, especially if you have a family or a job.

My own personal cut-offs:
Morning Prayer: cannot start after 11:30 a.m. (Although, I do try to pray as early as possible, whenever possible.)
Midmorning Prayer: cannot start after 11:40 a.m.
Midday Prayer: 11:45-1:15 p.m.
Midafternoon Prayer: 1:30-5:30 p.m. (My rule of thumb is this must be said before sunset. Since the days are really long, and sunset isn’t until past 8:00 p.m. now, I give myself this extension. In the winter months, the cut off gets shifted to 4:00 p.m.)
Evening Prayer: 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.(Whenever possible, I try to say it before twilight, but it’s not possible for me to observe that in December and January when twilight is around 5:00 p.m.)
Night Prayer: Immediately before retiring for bed.
 
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Some variation is allowed. The verity of the hours needs to be respected. PetraG gives a good example of monastic practice (where Prime still is used; it is very rare in monasteries now unless using the pre-Conciliar Office)
anon63623622 said:
I have been doing this

9 A.M Morning
12 Noon Daytime
6 PM Evening
Before bed Night

But was not sure if it was right
Click to expand...
Your hours are fine if it fits your personal schedule; they respect the “verity” of the hours. For myself, I find Lauds (Morning Prayer) a bit late at 9 am, but it is still respecting “morning”.

My own summer schedule at the moment is:

Invitatory and Lauds (Morning) 6 am (I’m an early riser)
Mid-day at either the hour of Terce (9:45 am in my case, same as the abbey I’m associated with), or the hour of Sext (noon) depending on whether or not I have outdoor activities planned;
Vespers (Evening) 5pm
Compline: just after I go to bed (I pray it in bed)
Chapter (reading of the next day’s chapter of the Rule of St. Benedict and of the next day’s Martyrology) after Compline
Office of Readings (vigils) after Chapter.

In the secular Office it is more usual make Compline the last hour of the day, but in the monastic tradition, when Vigils (Office of Readings) is anticipated the previous evening, it is prayed after Compline. The reason is because the Office of Readings retains its nocturnal character in the monastic tradition. Compline signals the start of the night, so the Office of Readings should be prayed in the night, even if it means just a short time after Compline. I know monasteries that do this for this reason. As I’m a Benedictine secular oblate, I follow the monastic praxis.

Otherwise, the more usual times for the OOR are between Vespers and Compline, or in the early morning before Lauds. But you can licitly pray it any time during the day.

Note I’m inclined to use the more traditional nomenclature, the LOTH books I have used them (French and Latin)

Lauds = Morning Prayer
Terce, Sext and None = mid-day prayer (if only doing one mid-day hour)
Vespers = Evening Prayer.

I like regularity in my hours but the reality is that Compline tends to be variable since I don’t always go to bed at the exact same time.
 
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anon63623622 said:
The Hours for here
https://divineoffice.org/

It only has these

-------Morning
-------Daytime
-------Evening
-------Night

and I was wondering what Hours should they be read?

I have been doing this

9 A.M Morning
12 Noon Daytime
6 PM Evening
Before bed Night

But was not sure if it was right
Click to expand...
This is fine.

NOTE: DivineOffice.org also has the “Office of Readings” which can be read at anytime. And “Daytime Prayer” is actually three offices. Midday Prayer (which DivineOffice.org lists by default), plus Midmorning Prayer and Midafternoon Prayer. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of any DivineOffice.org page, you will Daytime Prayer actually broken into all three

Additionally, Divine Office.org also has the “Inventory Psalm” which is prayed before Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings (whichever comes first for you).

Below are some screenshots for your FYI

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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