I have been praying the Liturgy of the Hours off and on for months now using “Christian Prayer” but now it seems that I’m just not fitting time in to my schedule to pray it. I feel like I need to almost force myself onto a schedule of daily praying the prayers so that they will not slack off.
You seem to be starting out just fine then.
If you ask anyone who starts praying the LOTH, you’re going to hear them say the same exact thing. When you start out, the best way is to have a good schedule and to try and stick to it, forcing yourself if you need to.
Even when you find yourself consistently praying them every day, don’t be surprised if for the first couple months it feels more clunky then anything else. It is a style of prayer that is quite different then other common devotions (like the Rosary), and so it will take a little while to get use to it.
You might not get that feeling that you are praying (as opposed to what feels like working) for a little while, but if you keep persevering you will eventually start to incorporate it as part of your life. There will come a day where you will feel like you’re missing something because you haven’t prayed Evening Prayer or something, but that’s not going to happen right away.
The most important thing when starting to pray the LOTH is to keep at it and don’t get yourself down if you miss an hour. Sometimes it happens, so just pick up the book and move on to the next hour.
My question is, what time do you pray each of the hours in Christian Prayer. Right now I’ve only prayed the Invitatory, Morning Prayer (Lauds), Evening Prayer (Vespers), and Night Prayer (Compline).
That’s an excellent start. Morning and Evening Prayer are the major hours of the LOTH to start praying. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about the other hours until you have these 3 down to a routine and an ordinary part of your life.
The times are not as strict. Pray Morning Prayer in the morning, Evening Prayer in the Evening*, and Night Prayer before you go to bed. If you want an example, my Seminary prays MP at 6:30am, Evening Prayer at 5:15pm, and Night Prayer at 8:30pm. That’s just an example though, you don’t have to pray any of these at those exact times.
*strictly speaking, in most diocese the liturgical evening begins at 4pm. Generally, you can go by whenever the earliest Saturday evening Mass is. Night is generally after the sun goes down, but this can be later than 10pm in the summer where I am, so that’s not a hard rule.
