Prayers of the Hours

[All4Christ]

Many of our traditions have prayers set aside for the different hours of the day. I'd like to have a fellowship thread where those whose tradition have a prayer of the hours, or those who would like to share a prayer can post them here. We can join together in prayer.

(Please don't use this as a thread to debate the merits of regular prayers at certain times of the day!)

I'll start with one of the Eastern Orthodox Church's prayers.

Prayer of the 6th Hour

O You Who on the sixth day and hour
Nailed to the cross the sin which rebellious Adam committed in Paradise,
Tear asunder also the bond of our iniquities, O Christ our God, and save us.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit

Prayer of Saint Basil the Great

O God, Lord of hosts and Maker of all created things, who in Your great compassion and mercy sent down Your Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, for the redemption of mankind, and by His precious cross destroyed the writing of our sins, thereby triumphing over the source and power of darkness.
O Lord and Lover of man, accept also the thanksgiving and fervent prayers of us sinners.
Deliver us from every dark and harmful transgression and from all the visible and invisible enemies which seek to destroy us.
Nail our flesh to the fear of You, and do not incline our hearts to words or thoughts of guile, But wound our souls with Your love, that ever looking to You, and guided by You in the light, and beholding You, the Light ineffable and ever lasting, we may offer ceaseless praise and thanksgiving to You:
To the Father who has no beginning, together with Your only-begotten Son and Your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

PRAYER OF THE HOURS

O Christ our God, You are worshiped at all times and in all places and are glorified both in heaven and on earth. You are patient, generous in mercy, rich in compassion, loving to the just and merciful to the sinner. You call all of us to repentance through the promise of blessings to come.

O Lord, receive our supplications at this very hour. Direct our lives in the way of Your commandments. Sanctify our souls, purify our bodies, set our minds aright, cleanse our thoughts, and deliver us from all affliction, wrath, danger and need. Surround us with Your holy angels, so that, guided and guarded by their ranks, we may reach unity of the faith and the knowledge of Your unutterable glory. You are blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

 

[dzheremi]

The sixth hour prayer and prayer of the hours that you've posted are the same as what we have in our Agpeya (Coptic horologion). Makes sense, since they're the same hours to begin with, and the daily office was largely popularized with the spread of monasticism, which spread outward from Egypt. I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but I think I remember reading something in the introduction to my Agpeya about the early date at which it was first assembled, and it was well before the Chalcedonian schism.

Anyway, I'm going to assume from what you've posted already that most/all of the litanies are the same as what you already have, but I don't know that other churches have the Thanksgiving prayer, which is part of the introduction to every hour (I heard it chanted once as part of an interview with a Coptic monk on AFR, and the EO interviewer made it out to be some special monastic prayer that they'd never heard, so I'm guessing you guys don't have it, anyway). In the introduction, it comes after the Lord's prayer and before Psalm 50. It reads as follows:

Let us give thanks to the beneficent and merciful God, the Father of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, for He has covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us unto Him, spared us, supported us, and brought us to this hour. Let us also ask Him, the Lord our God, the Almighty, to guard us in all peace this holy day and all the days of our life.


O Master, Lord, God the Almighty, the Father of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, we thank You for every condition, concerning every condition, and in every condition, for You have covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us unto You, spared us, supported us, and brought us to this hour.


Therefore, we ask and entreat Your goodness, O Lover of mankind, to grant us to complete this holy day, and all the days of our life, in all peace with Your fear. All envy, all temptation, all the work of Satan, the counsel of wicked men, and the rising up of enemies, hidden and manifest, take them away from us, and from all Your people, and from this holy place that is Yours.


But those things which are good and profitable do provide for us; for it is You Who have given us the authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy.


And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, by the grace, compassion and love of mankind, of Your Only-Begotten Son, our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, through Whom the glory, the honor, the dominion, and the adoration are due unto You, with Him, and the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giver, Who is of one essence with You, now and at all times, and unto the ages of all ages. Amen.

 

[All4Christ]

The sixth hour prayer and prayer of the hours that you've posted are the same as what we have in our Agpeya (Coptic horologion). Makes sense, since they're the same hours to begin with, and the daily office was largely popularized with the spread of monasticism, which spread outward from Egypt. I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but I think I remember reading something in the introduction to my Agpeya about the early date at which it was first assembled, and it was well before the Chalcedonian schism.

Anyway, I'm going to assume from what you've posted already that most/all of the litanies are the same as what you already have, but I don't know that other churches have the Thanksgiving prayer, which is part of the introduction to every hour (I heard it chanted once as part of an interview with a Coptic monk on AFR, and the EO interviewer made it out to be some special monastic prayer that they'd never heard, so I'm guessing you guys don't have it, anyway). In the introduction, it comes after the Lord's prayer and before Psalm 50. It reads as follows:

Let us give thanks to the beneficent and merciful God, the Father of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, for He has covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us unto Him, spared us, supported us, and brought us to this hour. Let us also ask Him, the Lord our God, the Almighty, to guard us in all peace this holy day and all the days of our life.


O Master, Lord, God the Almighty, the Father of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, we thank You for every condition, concerning every condition, and in every condition, for You have covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us unto You, spared us, supported us, and brought us to this hour.


Therefore, we ask and entreat Your goodness, O Lover of mankind, to grant us to complete this holy day, and all the days of our life, in all peace with Your fear. All envy, all temptation, all the work of Satan, the counsel of wicked men, and the rising up of enemies, hidden and manifest, take them away from us, and from all Your people, and from this holy place that is Yours.


But those things which are good and profitable do provide for us; for it is You Who have given us the authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy.


And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, by the grace, compassion and love of mankind, of Your Only-Begotten Son, our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, through Whom the glory, the honor, the dominion, and the adoration are due unto You, with Him, and the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giver, Who is of one essence with You, now and at all times, and unto the ages of all ages. Amen.

That's a beautiful prayer...thank you! It's good to hear that the prayers of the hours are the same!

 

[~Anastasia~]

I just want to say that I appreciate reading the prayers here, and also I have not seen the prayer of thanksgiving above, but yes, it is beautiful as well. I'm very familiar with the sentiments, at least, but no, it doesn't seem to be a regular part of our prayers that I recognize.

Thanks for the thread!

 

[dzheremi]

I have some general questions about the hours in the EO tradition, if the OP and/or Anastasia or any other EO person wouldn't mind indulging me.

1- How commonly are they prayed by laypeople? I suppose I had assumed that they are prayed very commonly, as in my own tradition, as I know that the EO are also heavily inclined towards monasticism and prayer traditions coming from monasticism, but then when I was seeking to answer my own question just now I found this episode of Coffee with Sr. Vassa where she says they are almost purely a monastic practice, so now I don't know what is really the case.

I am very sad if this is true. Praying the hours is such a part of the daily prayer life in the Coptic tradition that I've honestly never imagined any Eastern Christians not doing so, and I've also never been to a Coptic person's house that didn't have multiple Agpeyas just...around. Y'know, one on the coffee table, one in the bedroom, one in English in case your non-Coptic friend (me ) comes over...they're kind of everywhere. Heck, I owned two even before I attended my first liturgy, because that's the first thing that Coptic people will give you when they hear you're even thinking about their Church! I'm not kidding: I told an internet acquaintance of mine in the Carolinas who is Coptic that I was moving to New Mexico and was hoping to find the Church there, and a week later I got a package from her with Agpeyas in it (one travel-sized, for you to take with you when you're out and you need or want to pray from it, and another larger one for at home) and a note that said something like "I've never heard of a church in New Mexico, so I thought you might need this." (I guess for if I got there only to find out that it had disbanded or was an error in the diocese's listing of communities? I don't know. Haha.)

2- If/when laypeople pray the hours, are they chanted or more plainly read? I have heard both in my own church, though I am almost certain that this has more to do with the confidence that the person doing the reading has in their own voice and memorization of the Coptic style of chant (which I'm not going to lie, is incredibly difficult to get a hang of; at least it is for me, who wasn't raised with it) than to do with strict guidelines regarding what needs to be chanted and what doesn't, though there probably are places where there are such guidelines (the Coptic Orthodox Church still has various regional traditions like that concerning how exactly the prayers are chanted, such that someone from one part of Egypt going to a liturgy served by a priest from another part of Egypt may plausibly claim to not be able to follow it without at least some hesitation; that's what people told me in the monastery in NY when I was there a few years ago, and they're all in America now!).

For myself, since I do not have such a strong voice, I generally read everything, though I do know the melodies for the set responses to the litanies (in Greek), and can at least identify those used for the other prayers, if not perfectly reproduce them myself (yet! I've only had...what...six years now to learn them? Haha. Ouch). I find that this is the case often when we pray the hours in Church, too, as we do for Matins and Vespers: those who are very confident will chant or attempt to, but most will just read, perhaps intoning a very basic outline of a melody. Apparently Coptic people are more inclined to chant at home, however, or at least the Coptic people who I know and have asked about this.

Examples of what I mean:

Chanted Thanksgiving Prayer in private prayer (English):

Chanted Thanksgiving Prayer in public prayer (Coptic and English), with HG Bishop David of NY and New England, followed by the prayers for the patriarchs (by his deacon, in English):

And in Arabic (just to compare the melody; it seems so much more plain in Arabic! I assume that this is because it's in his native language, so he can recite faster than the previous examples in English and/or Coptic. This is how I'm used to hearing it in church, with this very simple basically two-note melody that mostly rises or falls at the beginning and end of clauses, rather than with particular words):

 

[All4Christ]

Apologies for the brevity of this post: In my prayer book, we have morning prayers, afternoon prayers and evening prayers. We don't have it specifically by the hours.

That said, I know of multiple people that do pray the hours. One of the apps on my iPhone has the hours that match each time of the day, though it is just the sections I posted instead of the entire text. There are prayer books specifically for the hours as well. PrayAlways also has the hours. I tend to use a variety of prayer books.

The book "Praying with the Orthodox Tradition " is one of my favorite books with prayers for each hour. Praying with the Orthodox Tradition: Stefano Parenti: 9780881411560: Amazon.com: Books

On the other hand, we do have prayers in our prayer book for the different times of day: Vespers, Matins, Compline, Daybreak, Midday, etc.

I believe people chant them if they have the ability or inclination, but it is acceptable to read them as well. I tend to chant in my prayers, but I do that in church regularly, so I'm used to it.

 

[All4Christ]

Is the Agpeya the only prayer book used in the Coptic tradition?

 

[dzheremi]

Is the Agpeya the only prayer book used in the Coptic tradition?

I don't know that it's the only one, but it is the one that forms the basis of the Coptic daily prayer rule. That was the reason for my questions, because it seemed like from the video by Sr. Vassa that there is some big separation between the two in the EO tradition such that it is not normative to recite the daily hours in the EO tradition, while it is very much normative in my own tradition.

But now that you mention it, the same friend who sent me the Agpeya in the mail included in the same package a psalter attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian (from a Russian translation of the same, published by an Eastern Orthodox publishing house; it's a very fine book), containing prayers at least recognized by the EO as being connected to him (I don't know how/if this compares to whatever one might find in the Syriac tradition, as I don't know it as well as I do my own; @Paul Yohannan how does all of this compare with the Syriac Orthodox usage of the Sh'himo, and/or whatever other books you might use?). So I'm assuming that we could also use that, I guess, but it's not established as normative in the Coptic Orthodox Church as the Agpeya is. I think it's just something that my friend happened to have that she figured I could benefit from (mission accomplished, by the way).

 

[~Anastasia~]

Apologies for the brevity of this post: In my prayer book, we have morning prayers, afternoon prayers and evening prayers. We don't have it specifically by the hours.

That said, I know of multiple people that do pray the hours. One of the apps on my iPhone has the hours that match each time of the day, though it is just the sections I posted instead of the entire text. There are prayer books specifically for the hours as well. PrayAlways also has the hours. I tend to use a variety of prayer books.

The book "Praying with the Orthodox Tradition " is one of my favorite books with prayers for each hour. Praying with the Orthodox Tradition: Stefano Parenti: 9780881411560: Amazon.com: Books

On the other hand, we do have prayers in our prayer book for the different times of day: Vespers, Matins, Compline, Daybreak, Midday, etc.

I believe people chant them if they have the ability or inclination, but it is acceptable to read them as well. I tend to chant in my prayers, but I do that in church regularly, so I'm used to it.

I would say the same.

I know laypeople who pray the hours. I know those who pray daybreak, morning, Vespers, etc. I know those who pray only morning and evening. Morning/evening is the most common prayer rule I know, but I also know that typically spiritual fathers give a blessing to pray more often, but don't make it a regular requirement - I think pretty much everyone I know from who pray morning/evening as their prayer rule normally do pray at other times as well.

But it's not something we typically compare notes on. I only know from people mentioning in passing.

And most prayer books I know have morning prayers and then Vespers/evening prayers, as well as often some other prayers for various needs (but not always the extra ones).

I would like a reliable way to be reminded to pray at the right times ... so far I have usually failed in doing that.

 

[All4Christ]

We all have prayer rules, but they often are different person to person. We have a few general prayer rules, often with variations based on whether it is Slavic, Greek, etc. The Psalter is a big part of the Eastern Orthodox prayer rule, with both monastics and laypersons. I think some of the prayers from the hours are included in the morning, afternoon and evening prayers. We definitely don't all have one single prayer rule, but like I said, we definitely have prayer rules to follow.

 

[All4Christ]

Also, we often have Akathists read, or Canons. They aren't every day prayers (for most), but often are incorporated into the prayer rule. Again, this varies from person to person, though the ROCOR require several akathists and canons before the Eucharist.

 

[All4Christ]

Evening Compline

Grant us, Master, as we depart for sleep, rest for body and soul. Protect us from the gloom of sinful sleep and from all dark pleasures of the night. Calm the impulses of passion, and quench the fiery darts of evil which are treacherously cast against us. Check the turbulence of our flesh and lull all our earthly and mundane thoughts. Grant us, O God, a watchful mind, prudent reason, a vigilant heart and tranquil sleep, free from all evil dreams. Raise us up at the hour of prayer, strengthen us in your commandments, and keep unshaken within us the remembrance of your judgments. Grant us to glorify you all night long that we may praise and bless and glorify your all honorable and magnificent name, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Evening Compline

Grant us, Master, as we depart for sleep, rest for body and soul. Protect us from the gloom of sinful sleep and from all dark pleasures of the night. Calm the impulses of passion, and quench the fiery darts of evil which are treacherously cast against us. Check the turbulence of our flesh and lull all our earthly and mundane thoughts. Grant us, O God, a watchful mind, prudent reason, a vigilant heart and tranquil sleep, free from all evil dreams. Raise us up at the hour of prayer, strengthen us in your commandments, and keep unshaken within us the remembrance of your judgments. Grant us to glorify you all night long that we may praise and bless and glorify your all honorable and magnificent name, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Amen ...

 

[Paul Yohannan]

I don't know that it's the only one, but it is the one that forms the basis of the Coptic daily prayer rule. That was the reason for my questions, because it seemed like from the video by Sr. Vassa that there is some big separation between the two in the EO tradition such that it is not normative to recite the daily hours in the EO tradition, while it is very much normative in my own tradition.

But now that you mention it, the same friend who sent me the Agpeya in the mail included in the same package a psalter attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian (from a Russian translation of the same, published by an Eastern Orthodox publishing house; it's a very fine book), containing prayers at least recognized by the EO as being connected to him (I don't know how/if this compares to whatever one might find in the Syriac tradition, as I don't know it as well as I do my own; @Paul Yohannan how does all of this compare with the Syriac Orthodox usage of the Sh'himo, and/or whatever other books you might use?). So I'm assuming that we could also use that, I guess, but it's not established as normative in the Coptic Orthodox Church as the Agpeya is. I think it's just something that my friend happened to have that she figured I could benefit from (mission accomplished, by the way).

The Shimo is alas not as widely used as the Agpeya.

 

[inquiring mind]

Other Baptists (or Protestants) that follow this forum may correct me, but other than the Lord’s Prayer as a model (and several different verses on how and what circumstances to pray) and of course instructions to pray continually and give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18), I’m not aware of any defined schedule such as hourly prayer requirements. I may be wrong. I’m not debating, just curious and have a couple questions to those traditions with prayer rules please:
(1) Does “meeting the requirement” ever distract you from the “desire to”?
(2) Does following a set script ever make it mundane and of a lesser personal relationship?

Thanks

 

[All4Christ]

Other Baptists (or Protestants) that follow this forum may correct me, but other than the Lord’s Prayer as a model (and several different verses on how and what circumstances to pray) and of course instructions to pray continually and give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18), I’m not aware of any defined schedule such as hourly prayer requirements. I may be wrong. I’m not debating, just curious and have a couple questions to those traditions with prayer rules please:
(1) Does “meeting the requirement” ever distract you from the “desire to”?
(2) Does following a set script ever make it mundane and of a lesser personal relationship?

Thanks

Good question! I'd say that this cannot and should not keep us from having a desire to pray to God, and that it should not be our only prayer. In my tradition, all of these spiritual practices are to help us grow in wanting to pray more, and to remember to pray continuously. I wouldn't consider it to be the same as the Muslim practice of specific hours of prayer, in which they are sinning if they don't do that at a specific time, etc. etc.

Remember that the early Christians were often Jewish. The Jewish faith already had requirements to pray three times a day. Now I'm not saying we are under the law to do this, but we can guess that it was a standard practice to have specific times of prayer in the normal practice of early Christians. So I don't see much in the New Testament discussing set times of prayer, but I can see historical precedence with it. I wouldn't be surprised if it was just so much a part of their daily life that it wasn't necessary to mention it.

Coming from a Pentecostal background, I understand your perspective. From personal experience, I would say that the set times of prayer increase my personal relationship with a God. It doesn't replace personal prayer, though it does teach us how to pray ( Thanksgiving, worship, repentance, requests). It helps me focus on what I am saying to God since it trains me how to do that, just as we see in the Lord's Prayer. It also increases prayer as a community. It definitely doesn't replace a desire to pray.

That's my personal experience with it. I find that recognizing what God has done for us on a regular basis is a wonderful thing to do and increases my awareness of praying to God continually and thanking Him always for what He does for us. Having these "hours" or a prayer rule helps with that significantly.

 

[All4Christ]

I did find one NT scripture: Bible Gateway passage: Acts 10 - New International Version

It's spread out throughout the chapter.

 

[inquiring mind]

That's my personal experience with it. I find that recognizing what God has done for us on a regular basis is a wonderful thing to do and increases my awareness of praying to God continually and thanking Him always for what He does for us. Having these "hours" or a prayer rule helps with that significantly.

Thank you for your reply. I think personal experience is one of God's primary ways of communicating with us.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I see you did post where Peter was praying at the hour of prayer. There may be other brief mentions in Scripture - I'm really not sure - but that's the one I noticed when reading.

What my prayer rule has done for me is to help instill discipline and make prayer a priority. I prayed before about the same amount, but there was something more "me-focused" back then, which could make me vulnerable to praying less based on my overall feelings. Now, I don't ever abandon prayer for any significant time (a day even) no matter what my personal feelings or situation might be, though I confess I do sometimes miss keeping my rule. But it's not a legalistic thing for us. It is something that forms us.

And as to the reading of formal prayers, yes, it is true that one must guard against them becoming rote. But I find exactly the same issue with extemporaneous prayers - praying for the same requests or sometimes using the same phrases extemporaneously can also become rote. We simply as humans must guard against ANY praying becoming rote, or shallow. Either way, whether making up the words or reading/reciting them, we must learn to always involve the heart.

In some ways, the formal prayers have advantages. They are so beautifully said that if they are prayed with the whole heart, they do MUCH to form us in Christ. My experience has been that they are one of the most helpful tools the Church can offer. And if read with the heart engaged, they also have the advantage of not having to cast about in our minds for how to say what we want to say. Most of us say our extemporaneous prayers something like, "Lord, please do this thing, and Lord we just thank you so much Lord, Lord please hear us Lord ... " Poorly written on my part, but maybe you get the idea that if we REALLY examine our extemporaneous prayers, they often involve a bit of "stuttering" ... at least that's really how we are often taught to pray by preachers, so it tends to creep in.

I'm not saying that extemporaneous prayers are bad. Not at all. I probably pray more extemporaneously than I do the formal prayers, and those are necessary for me. But to be honest, the formal prayers are much more effective in changing me, and while I haven't analyzed it or anything, I have the idea that they are "answered" just as well and as often as the personal ones. They are certainly more effective at praising God. They are as effective in drawing me close to Him.

Like I said, both kinds are quite valuable. I wouldn't like to do without either.

One thing occurs to me - if one only says the Lord's Prayer, and no other formal prayer, then I think the risk if it becoming rote is much greater than praying a full range of prayers. We have a small section called the Trisagion which includes the Lord's Prayer (Our Father) as well as two other short prayers, and a lot of Glory to God, Have mercy, etc. short phrases. The Trisagion is prayed as a sort of opening for many/most/all prayer sessions (depending on one's rule and habit) and so becomes very quickly learned. But there are many other prayers that can be changed up (that is what my spiritual father has me do in my rule) to go with them. I find that I engage much more easily with the ones that I change up, although I have memorized them as well, I pray them each one much less frequently than the Trisagion ... so I have to concentrate more to keep the Trisagion coming from the heart. If that makes sense? Very long roundabout way of saying - if the Lord's Prayer is the only formal prayer one uses, and knows it well, then there is more risk of rote recitation rather than real prayer than there would be if many different prayers were used.

Sorry, I'm obviously rambling. If anyone is still reading. I hope it answers some of the questions though.

 

[inquiring mind]

One thing occurs to me - if one only says the Lord's Prayer, and no other formal prayer, then I think the risk if it becoming rote is much greater than praying a full range of prayers.

This prayer is more a model than a quote each time. "After this manner therefore pray thee"... daily needs, forgiveness of sins, etc. Just wanted to be clear on what I meant.