Why won't Catholic Christians recite the Liturgy of the Hours?

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vocatio said:
The Liturgy of the Hours (LOTH) is the prayer of the Church. It falls second only to the Mass/Divine Liturgy. The Rosary is a private devotion that warrants its own respect as a tool of our Blessed Mother. But the Rosary has it’s origen from the LOTH. Folks used to not typically be able to read and books were rare to begin with and expensive to make. So the prayer beads taken from the East were incorporated to help them recite prayers…typically Psalms… Religious would memorize and recites the Psalms daily. There is lots of conjecture on this subject but historically the Rosary is a simplified private devotion to medicate on the mysteries of the life, death and resurection of Christ.

So why don’t we see more Catholics and hopefully non-Catholics praying the Liturgy of the Hours? It is awesome.
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I confess that I did not know about it until recent years. I find it beautiful and rich, and wonder myself. I think that it is a rigorious discipline, and that is why it was not encouraged for laypersons.
 
Lapell said:
I thought that the lay people HAVE BEEN admitted to the Liturgy of the Hours whenever they could and would even from the beginning of its existence, except that in medieval times most lay people were illiterate and were working in the fields.
Actually the practice of saying 150 Our Father was meant for those who could not attend, each Our Father taking the place of a Psalm… Then it became 150 Hail Mary, and finally it became the Rosary, developing in various stages until it reached the form we know today. So it was meant to include the working lay people in thegreat prayer of the whole Church, the way I understand it…
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The religious used to recite/pray all 150 Psalms as a part of the Divine Office within a prescribed time period, such as a week or a month. That was impossible for most lay people to do, being in the world and busy with businesses and families. Which is another reason the Rosary became popular. 🙂

I’m not sure when the LOTH was reconfigured (if that’s even the right term–I’m pretty sure it isn’t 😊) in its current format, but since Vatican II, at least lay people have been encouraged to pray at least Morning and Evening and perhaps Night Prayer so that we too might participate in the prayer life of the Church. I’m glad it has been made available to us. I gather you are too.

Not really saying anything original here–just reinforcing your fine comments. 🙂
 
vocatio said:
The Liturgy of the Hours (LOTH) is the prayer of the Church. It falls second only to the Mass/Divine Liturgy. The Rosary is a private devotion that warrants its own respect as a tool of our Blessed Mother. But the Rosary has it’s origen from the LOTH. Folks used to not typically be able to read and books were rare to begin with and expensive to make. So the prayer beads taken from the East were incorporated to help them recite prayers…typically Psalms… Religious would memorize and recites the Psalms daily. There is lots of conjecture on this subject but historically the Rosary is a simplified private devotion to medicate on the mysteries of the life, death and resurection of Christ.

So why don’t we see more Catholics and hopefully non-Catholics praying the Liturgy of the Hours? It is awesome.
Click to expand...
I pray them and have been tremendously blessed.
 
Why is this thread in Non-Catholic Religions?

I used to pray a Liturgy of the Hours, using Benedictine Daily Prayer. This wasn’t quite the same as the official Divine Office (which, as mentioned can be found in the book Christian Prayer)

Sadly, as my health deteriorated I was able to do less and less. Finally, I stopped. I guess I should try to restart, but it feels like a boulder is in my path.
 
Absolutely, I take Shorter Christian Prayer with me wherever I go.
I’ve got the four volume set as well as the larger Christian Prayer, but the official LoTH is a bit complicated, lol. So, Shorter Christian Prayer will work just fine until I can get the big set figured out.

I love it.
 
vocatio said:
So why don’t we see more Catholics and hopefully non-Catholics praying the Liturgy of the Hours? It is awesome.
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maybe you need to meet some more Catholics. Most of the groups within which I worship and work do pray LOTH regularly, together or as individuals.

more discussion of LOTH including resources, how to learn, and how-to links can be found on the spirituality forum for those who are interested
 
COLOS said:
Absolutely, I take Shorter Christian Prayer with me wherever I go.
I’ve got the four volume set as well as the larger Christian Prayer, but the official LoTH is a bit complicated, lol. So, Shorter Christian Prayer will work just fine until I can get the big set figured out.

I love it.
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At least you know your limits. Try the Magnificat. It comes already parsed out in linear order and includes a daily reflection and the readings of the day along with the Psalms. It’s really good. Our former associate pastor introduced it to us. My wife loves it.
 
puzzleannie said:
maybe you need to meet some more Catholics. Most of the groups within which I worship and work do pray LOTH regularly, together or as individuals.

more discussion of LOTH including resources, how to learn, and how-to links can be found on the spirituality forum for those who are interested
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You don’t get out much do ya?😛 Meet more Catholics… So your assuming I don’t know many Catholics. Hmm.

But thanks for the resource links. I know several friends that recite the LOTH…but their priests…probably because most of my real friends were seminarians…like I used to be. I also know several folks that are part of the Secular Orders that recite it daily. It can be difficult to include the divine office since to do it “properly” should take about 20 to 30 minutes. It’s difficult to use. So I still use the cheat book. I use the 4 volume set. I’m really introducing this practice to Catholics that don’t konw and to non-Catholic so that they realize that we don’t just pray the rosary. It is also known to have converted many since it contains some of the early church fathers writings…homilies.

Pax.
 
vocatio said:
…Try the Magnificat. It comes already parsed out in linear order and includes a daily reflection and the readings of the day along with the Psalms. It’s really good…
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Much appreciated. I’ll take a gander at it, thank you.
 
Hi, I’m new here but wanted to add that I pray the LOTH daily as a lay Carmelite…Order Of Carmelites Discalced Secular. We all say the LOTH’s daily and together at our meetings. We are of the Teresian Carmel. Our founders are St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross and connected to Elijah praying on Mt. Carmel.:yup: As was mentioned these prayers were mostly prayed by clergy and religious and it’s only become known and available in modern times. I got my single issue of the Hours at a used book store but have since bought 2 of the 4 volume set…Lent/Easter and Advent/Christmas. We have a devotion to Our Lady of Carmel, wear the scapular as our miniature habit, say the rosary or another Marian prayer, as well as go to daily Mass if possible and have a personal spiritual adviser. It is being part of a true vocation as a Lay religious.:nun1: We are clothed, and make Promises…temporary and then permanent. I’m sure there are many other lay communities that also say the LOTH’s. 👍 M.A.
 
vocatio said:
The Liturgy of the Hours (LOTH) is the prayer of the Church. It falls second only to the Mass/Divine Liturgy. The Rosary is a private devotion that warrants its own respect as a tool of our Blessed Mother. But the Rosary has it’s origen from the LOTH. Folks used to not typically be able to read and books were rare to begin with and expensive to make. So the prayer beads taken from the East were incorporated to help them recite prayers…typically Psalms… Religious would memorize and recites the Psalms daily. There is lots of conjecture on this subject but historically the Rosary is a simplified private devotion to medicate on the mysteries of the life, death and resurection of Christ.

So why don’t we see more Catholics and hopefully non-Catholics praying the Liturgy of the Hours? It is awesome.
Click to expand...
There may be more than you think who do so privately. I do, but I must admit that it is a discipline that I must keep after or I can easily slip away for a few days or so. It seems to be a cycle where I find myself straying from what I should be doing and having to reign myself back to focus.

At first I found navigating the one volume LOH very confusing and intimidating. It took a Deacon friend several sessions to get me to the point that I could function on my own. Then there are the three ribbon days and the five ribbon days. Talk about getting flustered some of the time. I did finally get a hang of them also.

Now I basically cycle through the four weeks of Morning Prayer starting with the Invitatory and trying to do evening prayer. I like it, it is a great centering mechanism for me.
 
I must admit that I would not have said the LOTH when I was raising kids…or even when I was taking care of grandkids on a daily basis but now that I’m only required once or twice a week to babysit the 2 youngest, and am required to pray the LOTH as a Carmelite, I have gotten in to the rythum of morning and eve prayer. It takes awhile but keep at it. I especially like adding the Office of Readings which are included in the Advent/Christmas, Lent/Easter books of the 4 volume sets. You can find some parts of the Office of Readings in the one volume LOTH. It contains excerpts from the Early Church Fathers. God’s blessings…M.A.
 
grandmama16 said:
Hi, I’m new here but wanted to add that I pray the LOTH daily as a lay Carmelite…Order Of Carmelites Discalced Secular. We all say the LOTH’s daily and together at our meetings. We are of the Teresian Carmel. Our founders are St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross and connected to Elijah praying on Mt. Carmel.:yup: As was mentioned these prayers were mostly prayed by clergy and religious and it’s only become known and available in modern times. I got my single issue of the Hours at a used book store but have since bought 2 of the 4 volume set…Lent/Easter and Advent/Christmas. We have a devotion to Our Lady of Carmel, wear the scapular as our miniature habit, say the rosary or another Marian prayer, as well as go to daily Mass if possible and have a personal spiritual adviser. It is being part of a true vocation as a Lay religious.:nun1: We are clothed, and make Promises…temporary and then permanent. I’m sure there are many other lay communities that also say the LOTH’s. 👍 M.A.
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Yes "M"ary "A"nne,
Our local SFOs recite it daily. Our Pastor is a Franciscan Friar and the associate Pastor, also a Friar, held a class on it. I went and learned even more than I already remembered from my seminary days. Kids do get in the way of it, so I offer it up as my liturgical duties in the domestic church. However, I strive to pray it daily and also include the Divine Office. My original 4 Book set was donated to a Protestant preacher that probably never really looks at them. I sure wish I would have hung onto them though. They ain’t cheap. That’s for sure. I also have the Christian Prayer and the Shorter Christian Prayer.

PAX…I where a scapular always too.
 
vocatio said:
You don’t get out much do ya?😛 Meet more Catholics… So your assuming I don’t know many Catholics. Hmm.

Pax.
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no I am assuming only what you said, that you don’t know many or any Catholics who pray LOTH. I am not making assumptions I am taking your OP at face value.
 
puzzleannie said:
no I am assuming only what you said, that you don’t know many or any Catholics who pray LOTH. I am not making assumptions I am taking your OP at face value.
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It’s not a big deal… I don’t believe I used those words. But it’s partly true that we don’t know many Catholics because we’re a convert family… but to clarify, I am a revert…“cradle Catholic” - though that’s not really accurate. Mom was Protestant and loathed Catholicism. My stepmother is Southern Baptist. One of two of us were baptized secretly Catholic. Mom tried to “wash off” that dirty Catholic baptism in a Protestant church. My little brother for sure was baptized Catholic against her will. Someone in my family did it. So my time is mostly with Protestants that don’t think their Protestant.

But I discovered the Divine Office many years ago and have been blessed with many who are praying the LOTH. But the numbers are not big enough I beleive. It’s rather time consuming. So I understand that. If you paid attention to my wording, you’d see that JIMMY B posted something similar about Protestants praying the rosary. To me that’s offensive and should not be said. So in my silly mind I thought I’d tease him and bring up something really cool that even Protestants could discover. The Divine Office contains some early church writings.

To get an idea of the Divine Office click on the link:
universalis.com/
 
vocatio said:
The Liturgy of the Hours (LOTH) is the prayer of the Church. It falls second only to the Mass/Divine Liturgy. The Rosary is a private devotion that warrants its own respect as a tool of our Blessed Mother. But the Rosary has it’s origen from the LOTH. Folks used to not typically be able to read and books were rare to begin with and expensive to make. So the prayer beads taken from the East were incorporated to help them recite prayers…typically Psalms… Religious would memorize and recites the Psalms daily. There is lots of conjecture on this subject but historically the Rosary is a simplified private devotion to medicate on the mysteries of the life, death and resurection of Christ.

So why don’t we see more Catholics and hopefully non-Catholics praying the Liturgy of the Hours? It is awesome.
Click to expand...
I pray it. I have the four volume set.
 
Feeling a little stupid since I recite the LOTH daily but is there a difference between that and the Divine Office? I also like to do the Office of Readings sometimes which are part of the LOTH too, as well as Night Prayers. Gotta get to my Holy Hour. Will read the answer lately. also, my computer has been acting up and erasing what I’ve written so that’s another reason for hurrying. 😦
In God’s love, M.A…yes, it’s Mary Ann but it’s also my title and vocation as MA< MAMMA get it? 👍
 
vocatio said:
The Liturgy of the Hours (LOTH) is the prayer of the Church. It falls second only to the Mass/Divine Liturgy. The Rosary is a private devotion that warrants its own respect as a tool of our Blessed Mother. But the Rosary has it’s origen from the LOTH. Folks used to not typically be able to read and books were rare to begin with and expensive to make. So the prayer beads taken from the East were incorporated to help them recite prayers…typically Psalms… Religious would memorize and recites the Psalms daily. There is lots of conjecture on this subject but historically the Rosary is a simplified private devotion to medicate on the mysteries of the life, death and resurection of Christ.
Click to expand...
I agree with everything you have stated here. I have posted the same comments in the past.

The rosary began as 150 Our Father prayers, in imitation of the 150 Psalms the monastics would recite.
vocatio said:
So why don’t we see more Catholics and hopefully non-Catholics praying the Liturgy of the Hours? It is awesome.
Click to expand...
It is quite true most Latin Catholics do not pray the LOTH. It should be remembered however, that the practice was not encouraged in the west for the laity at the parish level for a great many centuries. Instead, daily Mass was encouraged. There was also the high illiteracy rate, which meant that the average parishioner could not be expected to pray in a manner they could not memorize.

The LOTH was primarily a monastic tradition and for many centuries one would be exposed to it only by visiting a monastery, unless one was an oblate. The Canons at cathedrals kept the hours and visitors to cathedrals could witness it there.

Parish priests in the west were, over time, more and more like “priest-monks” and they would say the hours alone at the parish. They were also very inclined to drop the practice, so the church found it necessary to encourage, or even mandate the recitation of the hours by priests. That is the primary reason for the breviary. It is a condensed and edited book or books that can be followed privately and carried about more easily. In the high middle ages upper class men and women took up the breviary for themselves. There are several examples of private hand copied editions from the era in museums.

In the east the situation was quite different and the practice developed differently. The east did not traditionally have a breviary until Latin missionaries brought the item with them. The practice was always communal and usually extended to the parish level.

Even during the “Dark Ages” (experienced in northern Europe mostly) the literacy level in the eastern Mediterranean region was much higher and the economy was more advanced. This both for the Christian areas and those areas under the Muslims. The practice of saying the hours was a public communal one, intended for everyone. That was a continuation of the practice under the Roman Christian state, and supposedly from the era before legalization of Christianity.

Even today one would find it difficult to adapt common eastern forms of the Hours to the private use more common in the west, many have attempted it and there are examples on the internet. I did my own set too, it was an amalgam of the LOTH structure with Byzantine prayers. But it wasn’t authentic and I kept revising it.

There has been a movement to return the Hours to practice in the parishes of the Latin church. It has met with lackluster response in the parishes I have known about but I think it is a good idea. Many Eastern Catholic parishes are restoring the public recitation of the Hours as well, but it is not something I would call a “movement”, as there seems to be a considerable resistance to it these days.

Michael
 
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