![]() Because I want to pray with the older form of the Divine Office (which is still approved for Catholics to use, even today!), I use an app which connects to this site. They are also hundreds of years old, and have been approved and encouraged for devotional use by the Church since time immemorial.īut since last Spring when I finished reading that Great Amazing Marvelous Wonderful Book that is all about deepening home devotions with a prayer corner/home altar, I decided I wanted to pray from the “official” Office, the “big one,” because I wanted to pray with the Church, to be part of the ongoing universal prayer constantly going up to God. I have chosen just one of the “hours” to pray, though: I have simply been praying Lauds in the morning. Little Offices are just what they sound like: a similar cycle of prayers and psalms that lay people can perhaps more easily fit into their busy schedules. Eventually she realized that she wanted something much more reverent and beautiful than the current incarnation of the Breviary, and after a long search she found the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ![]() (By now I am sure you know about the feelings churning through my heart whenever I type “1970s.”) But she had learned enough about the changes to the liturgical calendar, the faulty/ugly translations of prayers and Scripture verses published, and tragic omissions made to the texts of the Mass and Divine Office in those times to know that when after a while something just didn’t feel right as she prayed throughout the day, she knew shouldn’t give up on praying, she should just give up on that 40-something year-old edition. (Praying the Divine Office is what the book known as a Breviary is used for.) Popes, including Pope Benedict XVI very recently, have encouraged lay people to pray some of the Divine Office too, specifically the “hours” of Lauds, Vespers, and Compline.įor a long time my mother used the standard American version of the Divine Office that was translated by the ICEL and published in the 1970s. That surprised me. The Divine Office, now often referred to as “The Liturgy of the Hours”, is the ongoing prayer of the Church: made up of a cycle psalms, hymns, and prayers, priests and religious must pray it, as part of their vocations, several times a day. ![]() None of this turned out to be true, of course–and, partially due to her example, in time I came to appreciate the beauty of this ancient prayer myself! They are a timeless expression of the human person’s need to live into and out of his relationship with God, a God of all history and time, who enters into every experience and listens as we cry out to him, a God who waits for his children to give voice to their joys and sorrows, fears and triumphs, consolations and desolations.Oh, how skeptical and dismissive I was-and oh, how many slices of humble pie I get to eat, while my mother watches! When she started praying the Divine Office years ago, I thought that she must: 1) have too much free time, 2) think that “normal” Catholic devotions aren’t good enough for her, or 3) be pleasantly but completely crazy. These ancient poems and songs which are knit into Israel’s self expression have passed seamlessly into Christian mouths since the moment Christ himself prayed them. ![]() With it, she invites her members to join in one heart and one soul to offer a sacrifice of praise to God and also to take up the necessary work of the consecration of each day and each place in which we pray.Īt the heart of the Work of God is the praying of the psalms. The prayer of the Divine Office has been the Church’s prayer throughout her history. In other words, he asks that we bring our total self to this work of prayer and praise. He exhorts his monks to ‘Sing wisely’ and in such a way that ‘our minds are in harmony with our voices’. Compline, or night prayer, said before retiring to bed.īenedict is conscious that, during the praying of the Work of God, we should be more than ever aware that we are in the divine presence.Vespers, or evening prayer, said as the light of the day fades.Terce, Sext and None, shorter offices recited at the third, sixth and ninth hours.Prime, an office which was suppressed in the 1960s.Lauds, or morning prayer, said as dawn breaks.Seven times each day the community gathers, at given signals, for this spiritual work, and once during the night: The monks are expected to leave whatever task occupies them and gather in the church of the monastery to pray the psalms together and listen to readings. St Benedict gives detailed direction as to how the principal community prayer – the Opus Dei or Work of God – is to be carried out. You can find the Divine Office online here:, on the Universalis App or in a breviary.
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