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From the earliest days of the Church, following Jewish forms of prayer in the Temple and synagogues, Christians have attempted to sanctify the day by set hours of prayer. St. Luke records this practice in the Acts of the Apostles. This form of prayer has gone by many names throughout the centuries: the Divine Office (meaning, a divine “obligation”), Liturgy of the Hours, the Breviary (i.e., an “abbreviated” monastic service).
Clergy and Religious are “bound” to the faithful recitation of this consecration of the day; their performance of this “duty” or “obligation” is also an encouragement of the laity to enter into the prayerful sanctification of the day to the extent their state in life permits.
Nearly every pope of the modern era has modified the structure of the Divine Office in one way or another. In its current form, we have the following “hours” (which are not 60-minute periods but “times”): the Office of Readings (Matins), Lauds (Morning Prayer), Midday Prayer, Vespers (Evening Prayer), Compline (Night Prayer).
Sacred Scripture (especially the Psalms) provides the “meat and potatoes” of the Hours. The Office of Readings contains a long reading from the Bible, followed by a passage of relatively equal length from an ecclesiastical source, most often from one of the Fathers of the Church. Lauds, Vespers, and Compline are beautified by three canticles from the Gospel of Luke: the Benedictus, Magnificat,and Nunc Dimittis. Lauds and Vespers include a series of petitions for the Church and the world.
Continued below.
The Breviary: Pray Constantly - The Catholic Thing
Clergy and Religious are “bound” to the faithful recitation of this consecration of the day; their performance of this “duty” or “obligation” is also an encouragement of the laity to enter into the prayerful sanctification of the day to the extent their state in life permits.
Nearly every pope of the modern era has modified the structure of the Divine Office in one way or another. In its current form, we have the following “hours” (which are not 60-minute periods but “times”): the Office of Readings (Matins), Lauds (Morning Prayer), Midday Prayer, Vespers (Evening Prayer), Compline (Night Prayer).
Sacred Scripture (especially the Psalms) provides the “meat and potatoes” of the Hours. The Office of Readings contains a long reading from the Bible, followed by a passage of relatively equal length from an ecclesiastical source, most often from one of the Fathers of the Church. Lauds, Vespers, and Compline are beautified by three canticles from the Gospel of Luke: the Benedictus, Magnificat,and Nunc Dimittis. Lauds and Vespers include a series of petitions for the Church and the world.
Continued below.
The Breviary: Pray Constantly - The Catholic Thing
