I have met many young people who want to grow deeper in their prayer life and at some point come across the liturgy of the hours, wondering if this might be a good way to get some more prayer time. However, they usually find it difficult to get started. Here are five things that you should know about praying the Liturgy of the Hours.
1. Lots of Names
One of the first disorienting facts is that we refer to it by many names. We can call it the liturgy of the hours: “liturgy” coming from two Greek words meaning “work of the people.” The liturgy then, by its very etymology, is an effort on behalf of human beings to pray to God. The “liturgy of the hours” is a set of prayers that we can use to pray to God throughout the day.
We may also often hear the term “Divine Office.” This does not mean that we should be looking for a room with four walls where God sits down and receives visitors. In this context, “office” comes from the Latin “officium” meaning service. We look at this prayer as a service we offer to God.
We might also hear it called the “Breviary.” This comes from the Latin word “breviarum” referring to an abridgement of the previous set of prayers, established by Pope Gregory the Great in the 11th century. The term “Liturgy of the Hours” seems to be the most proper and correct name. However, in everyday life, we many hear the term “breviary” more frequently. As we will see, much of the vocabulary around the Liturgy of the Hours is different from what we are accustomed to in everyday spoken English.
2. An “Hour” is not an Hour
“How much do you pray, Father?” “Well, I have to pray five hours of the breviary every day.” This answer alone might be enough to discourage a young person who is thinking about taking up the practice of praying the Liturgy of the Hours. Little do they know, an “hour” is not necessarily an hour.
In the context of the Liturgy of the Hours, an “hour” refers to one of the times of prayer. There are essentially five hours every day: the Office of Readings, Morning Prayer (Lauds), Midday Prayer (with three iterations: cloistered religious tend to pray all three every day, while priests in active life can choose to pray just one), Evening Prayer (Vespers), and Night Prayer (Compline). The Office of Readings is the longest, as it includes a reading from the Old Testament and a reading from the Fathers of the Church, some saint, or perhaps another Church document. The shortest hour is Compline, which we pray right before going to bed.
3. Reformed Tradition
The heart of the Liturgy of the Hours is the prayer of the psalms. The Psalms are a collection of 150 poems that the Jews have prayed for millennia. We look to King David as one of the principal authors of the psalms, which could rightly look at it as a songbook.. They reflect many different attitudes of the person who reaches out to God. They can express fear, joy, anger, or discouragement.
Since the early days of religious life, for the psalms have been a common foundation for both personal and community prayer. The Liturgy of the Hours was born out of this tradition, in the great monasteries of the Church. Over the centuries, certain details have been reformed several times.
Before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, those praying the Liturgy of the Hours were expected to pray all 150 psalms every week. St. Pius X reduced this somewhat in his attempt to reform the Liturgy of the Hours in 1911. After the Second Vatican Council, there was a more extensive overhaul, among other things dividing 150 psalms into a four-week psalter. So, over about the course of a month, we pray all 150 psalms. There are some verses that are omitted because they are less conducive to a spirit of prayer. For example, in week 1 of the Psalter, we pray Psalm 5:2-10; 12-13. Apparently, the editors of the Liturgy of the Hours decided that verse 11
Declare them guilty, God; make them fall by their own devices. Drive them out for their many sins; for they have rebelled against you
was less conducive to prayer. When we pray the Liturgy of the Hours, we dip into the stream of a centuries-old tradition, reflecting the Church that is “ever ancient, ever new.”
4. Importance of the Choir
When we pray the Liturgy of the Hours in community, we go back and forth between two “choirs.” This term reflects the tradition in monasteries to sit in the choir portion of the church and go back and forth while reciting – or, more commonly, while singing – the psalms. By acting in tandem, the choir would be better able to get through the psalm with the extended breathing techniques required by Gregorian chant.
While we may not be singing Gregorian chant, reciting in choirs still allows us to increase our focus and take advantage of our time of prayer. We pray the psalms in a paused manner, giving ourselves time for reflection. We can almost imagine ourselves as two lungs of the Church, breathing in and out, repeating the words of praise that have been echoed down through the centuries.
5. Structure of Each Hour
All of the hours begin with an invitation to prayer. The first hour of the day (either Office of Readings or Morning Prayer) begins with an Invitatory and usually psalm 95. For the other hours of the day, there is a prayer for God’s help as we begin. This is followed by the hymn. Then we have the heart of the prayer, which are three psalms with their antiphons. At Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, the second “psalm” is a canticle, which just means that it is a religious poem taken from the Old Testament.
After the psalms, there is a short reading, followed by a prayer. Morning and Evening Prayer also have Intercessions and the recitation or singing of the Our Father. As mentioned before, the Office of Readings includes a longer reading from the Old Testament and from some spiritual author.
Praying the Liturgy of the Hours may be challenging, but it is very rewarding. You may want to go deeper by reading A Layman’s Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours: How the Prayers of the Church Can Change Your Lifeby Fr. Timothy Gallagher. I have also enjoyed reading Praying the Psalms in the Voice of Christ: A Christological Reading of the Psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours by Fr. Frank Matera. What is your favorite experience of the Liturgy of the Hours?
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