When Do You Pray the Office of Readings

Liturgical prayers of the Catholic Church, used at fixed times throughout the day and night

This article is about the public prayer of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. For other liturgical rites of the Cosmic Church building and other communions, see Approved hours.

The Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: Liturgia Horarum) or Divine Office (Latin: Officium Divinum) or Opus Dei ("Work of God") are the canonical hours,^[a] ofttimes also referred to every bit the breviary,^[b] of the Latin Church. The Liturgy of the Hours forms the official set of prayers "marking the hours of each 24-hour interval and sanctifying the mean solar day with prayer."^[3] The term "Liturgy of the Hours" has been retroactively practical to the practices of saying the canonical hours in both the Christian Due east and West –particularly inside the Latin liturgical rites – prior to the 2nd Vatican Council,^[iv] and is the official term for the approved hours promulgated for usage by the Latin Church in 1971.^[v] Earlier 1971, the official form for the Latin Church building was the Breviarium Romanum, first published in 1568 with major editions through 1962.

The Liturgy of the Hours, like many other forms of the canonical hours, consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns, readings, and other prayers and antiphons prayed at fixed prayer times.^[6] Together with the Mass, it constitutes the public prayer of the Church. The chant or recitation of the Divine Part therefore forms the basis of prayer within in the consecrated life, with some of the monastic or mendicant orders producing their ain permutations of the Liturgy of the Hours and older Roman Breviary.^[vii]

Prayer of the Divine Role is an obligation undertaken by priests and deacons intending to become priests, while deacons intending to remain deacons are obliged to recite only a part.^{[8] [nine]} The constitutions of religious institutes generally oblige their members to celebrate at to the lowest degree parts and in some cases to do so jointly ("in choir").^[10] Consecrated virgins take the duty to celebrate the liturgy of hours with the rite of consecration.^[xi]

Within the Latin Church, the lay faithful "are encouraged to recite the divine function, either with the priests, or among themselves, or fifty-fifty individually," though at that place is no obligation for them to do so. The laity may oblige themselves to do pray the Liturgy of the Hours or function of it by a personal vow.^[12]

The liturgical canonical hours, forth with the Eucharist, has formed part of the Church building's public worship from the primeval times. Christians of both Western and Eastern traditions (including the Latin Catholic, Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian, Lutheran, Anglican, and some other Protestant churches) celebrate the canonical hours in various forms and under various names.

The nowadays official form of the entire Liturgy of the Hours of the Roman Rite is that contained in the four-volume Latin-linguistic communication publication Liturgia Horarum, the first edition of which appeared in 1971. English and other vernacular translations were soon produced and were made official for their territories past the competent episcopal conferences. For Catholics in primarily Commonwealth nations, the three-volume Divine Function, which uses a range of different English Bibles for the readings from Scripture, was published in 1974. The four-book Liturgy of the Hours, with Scripture readings from the New American Bible, appeared in 1975 with approval from the United States Briefing of Catholic Bishops.^[13]

In the Byzantine Rite, the corresponding services are plant in the Horologion ( Ὡρολόγιον ), significant Book of Hours. The Lutheran analogue is contained in the liturgical books used by the various Lutheran church building bodies, such as The Brotherhood Prayer Book. Anglican canonical hours differ depending on the jurisdiction, but are by and large constitute in locally approved editions of the Book of Common Prayer. Alternate options are also establish in the Church of England's Daily Prayer of Common Worship, likewise as in Anglo-Catholic texts such equally the Anglican Breviary.

Other names in Latin liturgical rites for the Liturgy of the Hours include "Diurnal and Nocturnal Office", "Ecclesiastical Part", Cursus ecclesiasticus, or simply cursus.^[7]

Origins [edit]

The General Instruction of the Liturgy of Hours in the Roman Rite states: "The public and communal prayer of the people of God is rightly considered among the first duties of the Church. From the very commencement the baptized 'remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the alliance, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers' (Acts 2 :42). Many times the Acts of the Apostles testifies that the Christian customs prayed together. The testimony of the early Church shows that individual faithful besides devoted themselves to prayer at certain hours. In diverse areas the practice shortly gained basis of devoting special times to prayer in common."^[five]

Early Christians were in fact continuing the Jewish practise of reciting prayers at certain hours of the twenty-four hours or night. In the Psalms are constitute expressions like "in the morning I offer you my prayer";^[14] "At midnight I will rise and thank you";^[15] "Evening, morning and at apex I will cry and complaining"; "7 times a day I praise you". The Apostles observed the Jewish custom of praying at the tertiary, 6th, and 9th hours, and at midnight (Acts 10:3, 9; xvi:25; etc.). As such, from the time of the early Church, the practice of seven fixed prayer times take been taught; in Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus instructed Christians to pray seven times a day "on rise, at the lighting of the evening lamp, at bedtime, at midnight" and "the 3rd, sixth and ninth hours of the day, being hours associated with Christ's Passion."^{[16] [17] [eighteen] [19]}

The Christian prayer of that time consisted of almost the aforementioned elements equally the Jewish: recital or chanting of psalms and reading of the Old Testament, to which were before long added readings of the Gospels, Acts, and epistles, and canticles.^[20] Other elements were added later in the course of the centuries.

Historical evolution [edit]

Judaism and the early church [edit]

The canonical hours stemmed from Jewish prayer. This "sacrifice of praise" began to be substituted for the sacrifices of animals.^[21]

In Roman cities, the bell in the forum rang the beginning of the business organisation day at about six o'clock in the morning time (Prime number, the "commencement 60 minutes"), noted the day'southward progress past striking again at about nine o'clock in the morning (Terce, the "third hour"), tolled for the lunch break at noon (Sext, the "sixth hr"), called the people back to work again at well-nigh three o'clock in the afternoon (None, the "9th hr"), and rang the close of the business concern 24-hour interval at virtually 6 o'clock in the evening (the fourth dimension for evening prayer).^{[ citation needed ]}

The healing of the crippled man at the temple gate occurred as Peter and John were going to the temple to pray (Acts 3:1) at the "ninth 60 minutes" of prayer (about 3 pm). The decision to include Gentiles among the community of believers, arose from a vision Peter had while praying at noontime, (Acts 10:9–49) the "sixth hr".

The early on church was known to pray the Psalms (Acts four:23–30), which have remained a office of the canonical hours. By 60 AD, the Didache recommended disciples to pray the Lord's Prayer three times a day; this practice found its way into the approved hours besides. Pliny the Younger (63 – c. 113), mentions not simply stock-still times of prayer past believers, only likewise specific services – other than the Eucharist – assigned to those times: "they met on a stated twenty-four hour period earlier information technology was light, and addressed a form of prayer to Christ, as to a divinity, … subsequently which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble, to swallow in common a harmless repast."^[22]

By the second and third centuries, such Church Fathers as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Tertullian wrote of the practice of Morning time and Evening Prayer, and of the prayers at terce, sext, and none. Daily forenoon and evening prayer preceded daily Mass, for the Mass was offset express to Sundays and so gradually spread to some feast days. The daily prayer kept alive the theme of gratitude from the Sunday "Eucharist" (which means gratitude).^[23] The prayers could be prayed individually or in groups. By the third century, the Desert Fathers began to alive out Paul's control to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians v:17) by having one group of monks pray one fixed-hour prayer while having another group pray the next prayer.^{[ citation needed ]}

Centre Ages [edit]

Every bit the format of unbroken fixed-hr prayer adult in the Christian monastic communities in the East and West, longer prayers before long grew, simply the bicycle of prayer became the norm in daily life in monasteries. By the fourth century, the characteristics of the canonical hours more or less took their present shape. For secular (not-monastic) clergymen and lay people, the fixed-hour prayers were past necessity much shorter. In many churches and basilicas staffed by monks, the form of the fixed-hour prayers was a hybrid of secular and monastic practice.

In the East, the development of the Divine Services shifted from the expanse effectually Jerusalem to Constantinople. In item, Theodore the Studite (c. 758 – c. 826) combined a number of influences from the Byzantine court ritual with monastic practices mutual in Asia Minor, and added thereto a number of hymns composed by himself and his brother Joseph (see Typicon for further details).

In the West, the Rule of Saint Benedict modeled his guidelines for the prayers on the customs of the basilicas of Rome. It was he who expounded the concept in Christian prayer of the inseparability of the spiritual life from the physical life. The Benedictines began to phone call the prayers the Opus Dei or "Work of God."

As the Divine Role grew more important in the life of the church, the rituals became more elaborate. Soon, praying the Function began to require diverse books, such as a psalter for the psalms, a lectionary to find the assigned scripture reading for the twenty-four hour period, a Bible to proclaim the reading, a hymnal for singing, etc. As parishes grew in the Centre Ages away from cathedrals and basilicas, a more than concise way of arranging the hours was needed. Then, a sort of list adult called the Breviary, which gave the format of the daily function and the texts to be used.

The spread of breviaries eventually reached Rome, where Pope Innocent III extended its employ to the Roman Curia. The Franciscans sought a ane-volume breviary for its friars to use during travels, and then the lodge adopted the Breviarium Curiae, but substituting the Gallican Psalter for the Roman. The Franciscans gradually spread this breviary throughout Europe. Pope Nicholas Iii would and so adopt the widely used Franciscan breviary to be the breviary used in Rome. By the 14th century, the breviary contained the entire text of the canonical hours.

Roman Rite since the Quango of Trent [edit]

Revision by Pope Pius V [edit]

The Quango of Trent in its final session on iv December 1563 entrusted the reform of the breviary to the then pope, Pius Iv.^[24] On 9 July 1568, Pope Pius V, the successor to Pius IV who closed the Council of Trent, promulgated an edition, known as the Roman Breviary, with his Apostolic Constitution Quod a nobis, imposing it in the same mode in which, 2 years later, he imposed his Roman Missal and using language very similar to that in the bull Quo primum with which he promulgated the Missal, regarding, for instance, the perpetual strength of its provisions, the obligation to utilize the promulgated text in all places, and the total prohibition of calculation or omitting anything, declaring in fact: "No one whosoever is permitted to alter this letter or heedlessly to venture to go opposite to this find of Our permission, statute, ordinance, control, precept, grant, indult declaration, volition decree and prohibition. Should anyone, however, presume to commit such an human activity, he should know that he volition incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul."^{[25] [26]}

With the aforementioned balderdash, Pius V ordered the general abolition of all breviaries other than his reformed breviary, with the aforementioned exception that he was to brand in his Quo primum bull: he immune those legitimately in use for at least 200 years to continue.^[27] Examples of such breviaries are the Benedictine (Breviarium Monasticum),^[28] the Carmelite,^[29] the Carthusian,^[thirty] the Dominican,^[31] the Premonstratensian,^[32] and the Ambrosian.^[33]

St. Marker's Basilica in Venice, along with the 4 churches nether its jurisdiction, retained its own unique liturgies, psalms, and Latin translations into the 19th century. Many other churches whose local rites predated Pius V'due south breviary by 200 years or more, such as that of Mantua, connected to use their own breviaries, liturgical calendars, and psalms, too.^[34]

Farther revision betwixt the 16th to 20th centuries [edit]

Afterward popes altered the Roman Breviary of Pope Pius V. Pope Cloudless Eight instituted obligatory changes on 10 May 1602, 34 years after Pius V'southward revision. Pope Urban Eight made farther changes, including "a profound amending in the character of some of the hymns. Although some of them without doubt gained in literary style, nonetheless, to the regret of many, they also lost something of their erstwhile charm of simplicity and fervour."^[35]

Pope Pius X made a radical revision of the Roman Breviary, to exist put into effect, at latest, on 1 January 1913. Run into Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X.

Pope Pius XII allowed the use of a new translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew and established a special commission to study a general revision, apropos which all the Catholic bishops were consulted in 1955. His successor, Pope John XXIII, implemented these revisions in 1960.

Revision following the Second Vatican Council [edit]

Latin typical editions [edit]

Following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church'south Latin Church building, hoping to restore their graphic symbol as the prayer of the entire church, revised the liturgical book for the commemoration of the Divine Role, and published it under the title "Liturgy of the Hours".

The Quango itself abolished the office of Prime number,^[36] and envisioned a manner of distributing the psalms over a menstruation of more than 1 week.^[37] In the succeeding revision, the character of Matins was changed to an Office of Readings and so that information technology could be used at whatsoever time of the twenty-four hours as an office of Scriptural and patristic readings. Furthermore, the flow over which the Psalter is recited has been expanded from one week to 4. The Latin hymns of the Roman Office were in many cases restored to the pre-Urban class, albeit several of them were shortened.

This Liturgy of the Hours (Liturgia Horarum in Latin) is published past Libreria Editrice Vaticana in four volumes, arranged according to the liturgical seasons of the church year.

• Volume I: Advent Flavor, Christmas Season
• Volume II: Lenten Season, Easter Season
• Volume Iii: Ordinary Time, Weeks 1 to 17
• Volume Four: Ordinary Time, Weeks 18 to 34

The liturgical books for the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours in Latin are those of the editio typica altera (2d typical edition) promulgated in 1985 and re-issued past the Vatican Publishing House – Libreria Editrice Vaticana – in 2000 and 2003.

Midwest Theological Forum has published an edition iuxta typicam with updating of the commemoration of saints. It is arranged in six volumes:

• Volume I: Adventus–Nativitatis
• Volume II: Tempus Quadragesimæ
• Volume III: Tempus paschale
• Volume Four: Tempus per annum I–XIV
• Volume V: Tempus per annum XII–XXIV
• Volume Six: Tempus per annum XXI–XXXIV

Although about priests and other clerics in the Latin Church at present employ the Roman breviary, some (such every bit those in the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter or like societies) continue to use the breviary equally revised by Pope Pius X, the latest edition of which was issued under Pope John XXIII. The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum in 2007 authorized every Latin Church cleric to utilise this edition to fulfill his canonical obligation to pray the Divine Office. An English/Latin parallel edition was published by Baronius Press in April 2012.

Official English translations [edit]

Three English translations are in utilise.

The Divine Office (non-ICEL translation) [edit]

The Divine Office was produced by a committee set by the Episcopal Conferences of Australia, England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland. First published in 1974 by HarperCollins, this edition is the official English edition for use in the dioceses of the to a higher place countries equally well as many other dioceses around the world, especially in Asian and African countries. Information technology is arranged in three volumes:

• Volume I: Advent, Christmastide & Weeks one–nine of the Year
• Book II: Lent and Eastertide
• Volume III: Weeks of the Church Year 6–34.

The psalms are taken (with slight adaptations) from the 1963 Grail Psalms, while the Scripture readings and non-Gospel canticles are taken from various versions of the Bible, including the Revised Standard Version, the Jerusalem Bible, the Expert News Bible, the New English Bible and Ronald Knox's Translation of the Vulgate. Some of the canticles taken from the Revised Standard Version were amended slightly to conform the English text to the Vulgate in The Divine Function. The intercessions, final prayers, antiphons, curt responses, responsories, second readings in the Office of Readings, the Te Deum and the [Glory be to the Male parent]] are all translations canonical past the Episcopal Conferences mentioned and confirmed by the Holy See in December 1973. The Gospel canticles (Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis) are from the 1963 Grail Translation, but an appendix at the stop of the book gives the English language Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC)) versions of the Gospel canticles every bit alternatives.^[38]

Collins also publishes shorter editions of The Divine Function:

• Daily Prayer – comprising the complete Divine Office, except for the Office of Readings (but the full Role of Readings are printed for Christmas, Skilful Friday and Holy Sabbatum)
• Morning & Evening Prayer – comprising the consummate Morning, Evening and Night prayers from the Divine Office
• Shorter Morning & Evening Prayer – comprising the Psalter for Forenoon, Evening and Night prayers and a selection of texts from the liturgical seasons and feasts.

Between 2005 and 2006, Collins republished The Divine Function and its diverse shorter editions with a new comprehend and revised Calendar of the Movable Feasts.

Also these shorter editions of The Divine Role, in that location used to exist A Shorter Prayer During the Day comprising the Psalter for the Middle Hours also published by Collins. The last known reprint yr is 1986, but this edition is now out of print. In 2009, Prayer during the day was published by Catholic Truth Lodge.

Liturgy of the Hours (ICEL translation) [edit]

The Liturgy of the Hours, produced by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, was kickoff published in 1975 by Catholic Book Publishing Company in the USA. This edition is the official English edition for apply in the Usa, Canada and some other English language-speaking dioceses. It is in four volumes, an arrangement identical to the original Latin typical edition.

The psalms are taken (slightly adjusted) from the 1963 Grail Psalms, while the Scripture readings and non-Gospel canticles are taken from the original 1970 starting time edition New American Bible. The prayers and intercessions are translated by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). The ELLC versions are used for items such every bit the Gospel canticles. An additional feature are psalm-prayers at the end of many Psalms, which were ICEL's translation of the Liber Orationum Psalmographus, the Book of Psalm-Prayers which originated in the Mozarabic Rite.

Shorter editions of the Liturgy of the Hours are as well bachelor from various publishers: Christian Prayer (Daughters of St Paul and Catholic Book Publishing Company), Shorter Christian Prayer (Cosmic Volume Publishing Company) and Daytime Prayer (Catholic Book Publishing Company). In 2007, Liturgy Training Publications released the Mundelein Psalter, containing Morning, Evening and Night Prayers and the Part for the Expressionless, with the 1963 Grail translation of the Psalms gear up to specially composed chant, and with hymns translated from the hymns of the Latin Liturgia Horarum.

The Divine Office and the Liturgy of the Hours editions are both based on the Latin 1971 editio typica.

Liturgy of the Hours (ICEL/African translation) [edit]

In 2009, on the occasion of the Synod of African Bishops in Rome, the Catholic Church in Africa, through Paulines Publications Africa, published a new English language edition of the Liturgy of the Hours based on the Liturgia Horarum, editio typica altera. The antiphons and orations in this edition are taken from ICEL'south 1975 translation of the Liturgy of the Hours, with independent translations for the offices for the new saints added to the Full general Roman Calendar every bit well as the Benedictus and Magnificat antiphons for the 3-year bicycle on Sundays added in the Liturgia Horarum, editio typica altera.

The Psalms are taken from the Revised Grail Psalter with the rest of the biblical texts taken from the New American Bible. To date, this is the only official English edition of the Function that is based on the Liturgia Horarum, editio typica altera.

Anglican Use [edit]

Post-obit the establishment of the personal ordinariates for former Anglicans in the 2009 churchly constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, in that location was sought an Anglican Use form of the Function that reflects Anglican tradition. In the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales, the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham was adopted.^[39]

In 2020, the Divine Worship: Daily Office was announced as the new Divine Office of the Anglican Utilise personal ordinariates. There are two editions: the North American Edition released in tardily 2020 for utilise by the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter and the Commonwealth Edition to be released in 2021 to replace the Customary in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and introduce an role for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cantankerous in Australia, Japan, and Oceania. While adult primarily from the Anglican tradition, the Divine Worship: Daily Office is considered to be a specific employ of the Liturgy of the Hours.^[40]

Previous structure [edit]

By the time of Benedict of Nursia (480–548 Advertizement), the monastic Divine Office was composed of seven daytime hours and one at dark. In his Dominion of St. Benedict, he associated the do with Psalm 118/119:164, "Vii times a mean solar day I praise y'all", and Psalm 118/119:62, "At midnight I rise to praise you".^[41] Of these eight hours, Prime and Compline may be the latest to announced, because the 4th-century Churchly Constitutions Eight iv 34 do not mention them in the exhortation "Offer up your prayers in the morning time, at the 3rd hour, the sixth, the ninth, the evening, and at cock-crowing".^[42] The eight are known by the following names, which practice non reflect the times of mean solar day at which in the 2nd millennium they have traditionally been recited, as shown past the employ of the word "apex", derived from Latin (hora) nona,^{[43] [44]} to mean midday, not three in the afternoon:

• Matins (during the dark, at nearly 2 a.m.); sometimes called Acuity and composed of ii or three nocturns
• Lauds (at dawn, well-nigh v a.m., but earlier in summer, later in winter)
• Prime (first Hour = approximately six a.m.)
• Terce (third Hour = approximately nine a.m.)
• Sext (sixth Hr = approximately 12 noon)
• None (Ninth Hour = approximately iii p.yard.)
• Vespers ("at the lighting of the lamps", about half dozen p.thou.)
• Compline (before retiring, nearly 7 p.grand.)

This organisation of the Divine Function is described past Benedict. Even so, it is found in John Cassian's Twelve books on the institutes of the coenobia and the remedies for the viii pricipal faults, which describe the monastic practices of the Desert Fathers of Arab republic of egypt.^[45]

Current structure in the Roman Rite [edit]

After the Second Vatican Council, which decided that the 60 minutes of prime number should be suppressed,^[46] Pope Paul Vi decreed a new arrangement of the Liturgy of the Hours.^[47] The structure of the offices, the distribution of psalms, and the prayers were updated. The stardom, already expressed in the 1960 Code of Rubrics,^[48] between the three major hours (Matins, Lauds and Vespers) and the small-scale hours (Terce, Sext, None and Compline) has been retained.^[49]

• The Office of Readings, (lat. Officium lectionis) or Matins or Vigils) – major hour
• Lauds – major 60 minutes
• Terce (for the invocation of the Holy Spirit, in monasteries often direct before the Convent's mass) – minor hour
• Sext (midday) – pocket-sized hour
• None (afternoon) – pocket-sized hour
• Vespers – major hour
• Compline (nighttime prayer) – pocket-sized 60 minutes

All hours, including the minor hours, start with the versicle from Ps 70 (69) v. 2^[fifty] (every bit exercise all offices in the traditional breviary except Matins and Compline): V. Deus, in adiutorium meum intende; R. Domine, ad adiuvandum me festina ("O God, come to our assistance: O Lord, brand haste to help united states of america"), followed by the doxology. The verse is omitted if the hour begins with the Invitatory (Morning Prayer/Lauds or the Office of Reading). The Invitatory is the introduction to the first hour said on the current mean solar day, whether it exist the Function of Readings or Morning Prayer.

The opening is followed by a hymn. The hymn is followed past psalmody. The psalmody is followed by a scripture reading. The reading is called a chapter (capitulum) if it is curt, or a lesson (lectio) if information technology is long.

The reading is followed by a versicle. The hour is closed by an oration followed by a concluding versicle. Other components are included depending on the verbal type of hour being celebrated. In each office, the psalms and anthem are framed by antiphons, and each concludes with the doxology.

Major hours [edit]

The major hours are the Function of Readings, Lauds and Vespers. The Office of Readings consists of:

• opening versicle or invitatory
• a hymn
• 3 psalms or portions of psalms
• a long passage from scripture, usually arranged consecutively from the same book of the Bible for 1 or more weeks
• a long patristic or magisterial passage or, on the feast of a saint, a hagiographical passage concerning the saint
• on nights preceding Sundays and feast days, the office may be expanded to a vigil past inserting three Old Testament canticles and a reading from the gospels
• the hymn Te Deum (on Sundays outside of Lent, during the octaves of Easter and Christmas, on solemnities and feasts)^[51]
• the terminal prayer
• a short concluding verse (especially when prayed in groups)

The character of Lauds is that of praise and dignifying the morning; of Vespers that of thanksgiving. Both follow a similar format:

• opening versicle "O God, come up to our aid: O Lord, make haste to assistance united states" (this course of introduction is not used when the invitatory, that open introduces the whole office immediately precedes Lauds)
• a hymn
• two psalms, or parts of psalms with a scriptural canticle. At Lauds, this consists of a psalm of praise, a anthem from the Onetime Testament, followed by another psalm. At Vespers this consists of ii psalms, or i psalm divided into two parts, and a scriptural canticle taken from the New Attestation.
• a short passage from scripture
• a responsory, typically a verse of scripture, but sometimes liturgical poetry
• a canticle taken from the Gospel of Luke: the Canticle of Zechariah (Benedictus) for Lauds, and the Anthem of Mary (Magnificat) for Vespers
• intercessions
• the Lord's Prayer
• the concluding prayer
• if a priest or a deacon is present, he dismisses the people with the greeting "The Lord be with you" and a blessing; Otherwise the celebration is concluded with "The Lord bless us", etc.^[52]

Small hours [edit]

The daytime hours follow a simpler format, like a very compact form of the Function of Readings:

• opening versicle
• a hymn
• three curt psalms, or, three pieces of longer psalms; if only i of the minor hours is said, it follows a variable psalmody which unremarkably opens with part of the longest psalm, psalm 118/119; when all iii are said this psalmody is used at one of the hours, while the other two follow the complementary psalmody which consists of 119/120–121/122 at Terce, 122/123–124/125 at Sext and 125/126–127/128 at None
• a short passage of scripture, followed past a responsorial verse
• the final prayer

Compline has the character of preparing the soul for its passage to eternal life:

• opening versicle
• an examination of conscience
• a hymn
• a psalm, or two short psalms; The psalms of Sunday – Psalm xc/91 or 4 and 133/134 – may always exist used as an alternative to the psalm(due south) appointed on weekdays
• a short reading from scripture
• the responsory In manus tuas, Domine (Into Your Easily, Lord)
• the Anthem of Simeon, Nunc dimittis, from the Gospel of Luke, framed by the antiphon Salva nos (Salvage u.s.a. Lord)
• a final prayer
• a short approval (Noctem quietam et finem perfectum concedat nobis Dominus omnipotens. Amen.)
• a Marian antiphon used for the appropriate liturgical season. In addition to the antiphons given in The Divine Office, others may be approved past the Episcopal Briefing.^[53]

Liturgical variation [edit]

In improver to the distribution of almost the whole Psalter over a iv-week cycle, the Church also provides advisable hymns, readings, psalms, canticles and antiphons, for utilise in mark specific celebrations in the Roman Calendar, which sets out the gild for the liturgical year. These selections are found in the 'Proper of Seasons' (for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter), and the 'Proper of Saints' (for banquet days of the Saints).

Usage [edit]

The invitatory precedes the canonical hours of the day beginning with the versicle "Lord, open my lips. And my oral cavity will proclaim your praise" (Ps 50/51 v.17), and continuing with an antiphon and the Invitatory Psalm, ordinarily Psalm 94/95.

All psalms and canticles are accompanied by antiphons.

Unless the invitatory is used, each hour begins with the versicle "O God, come to our aid: O Lord, make haste to help us" (Ps 69/70 v.two) The "Glory be to the Father" follows.^[54]

Matins or the Office of Readings is the longest hour. Earlier the reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X, Matins involved the recitation of 18 psalms on Sundays and 12 on ferial days. Pope Pius X reduced this to nine psalms or portions of psalms, yet arranged in iii nocturns, each set of three psalms followed by three readings, normally 3 consecutive sections from the same text. Pope Paul VI'due south reform reduced the number of psalms or portions of psalms to three, and the readings to two, simply lengthened these. On Sundays outside of Lent, during the octaves of Easter and Christmas, on solemnities and feasts, the Te Deum is sung later the second reading with its responsory.

After Pius Ten'southward reform, Lauds was reduced to four psalms or portions of psalms and an Onetime Testament canticle, putting an end to the custom of adding the last three psalms of the Psalter (148–150) at the finish of Lauds every day. The number of psalms or portions of psalms is now reduced to two, together with one Old Testament canticle called from a wider range than before. After these at that place is a short reading and response and the singing or recitation of the Benedictus.

Vespers has a very similar construction, differing in that Pius Ten assigned to it five psalms (now reduced to two psalms and a New Testament anthem) and the Magnificat took the identify of the Benedictus. On some days in Pius X's arrangement, but now always, there follow Preces or intercessions. In the present organisation, the Lord's Prayer is too recited before the concluding prayer.

Terce, Sext and None have an identical structure, each with three psalms or portions of psalms. These are followed past a short reading from Scripture, once referred to as a "little affiliate" (capitulum), and by a versicle and response. The Lesser Litany (Kyrie and the Lord's Prayer) of Pius Ten's arrangement have at present been omitted.

Prime and Compline also were of similar structure, though different from Terce, Sext and None.

Books used [edit]

In monasteries and cathedrals, celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours became more elaborate. Served by monks or canons, regular commemoration required a Psalter for the psalms, a lectionary for the Scripture readings, other books for patristic and hagiographical readings, a collectary for the orations, and too books such equally the antiphonary and the responsoriary for the various chants. These were usually of large size, to enable several monks to chant together from the same volume. Smaller books called breviaries (a give-and-take that etymologically refers to a compendium or abridgment) were developed to indicate the format of the daily office and help in identifying the texts to be chosen.

These developed into books that gave in abbreviated class (because they omitted the chants) and in small lettering the whole of the texts, and so could be carried when travelling. Pope Innocent 3 made them official in the Roman Curia, and the itinerant Franciscan friars adopted the Breviarium Curiae and soon spread its employ throughout Europe. By the 14th century, these breviaries contained the unabridged text of the approved hours. The invention of printing fabricated it possible to produce them in great numbers.

In its concluding session, the Quango of Trent entrusted to the Pope the revision of the breviary.^[55] With his Apostolic Constitution Quod a nobis of nine July 1568, Pope Pius V promulgated an edition of the breviary, known as the Roman Breviary, which he imposed in the same way in which, two years later, he imposed his Roman Missal. Using language very similar to that in the bull Quo primum, with which he promulgated the Missal – regarding, for instance, the perpetual force of its provisions – he made it obligatory to utilize the promulgated text everywhere.^[25]

He totally prohibited adding or omitting annihilation: "No one whosoever is permitted to alter this alphabetic character or heedlessly to venture to go opposite to this find of Our permission, statute, ordinance, control, precept, grant, indult proclamation, will decree and prohibition. Should anyone, nonetheless, presume to commit such an human activity, he should know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul."^[25]

Information technology is obvious that he did non thereby intend to bind his successors. Pope Cloudless 8 fabricated changes that he fabricated obligatory on 10 May 1602, 34 years after Pius V'due south revision. Urban Viii fabricated further changes, including "a profound alteration in the character of some of the hymns. Although some of them without doubt gained in literary style, still, to the regret of many, they also lost something of their old charm of simplicity and fervour."^[35] For the profound revision of the book by Pope Pius X see Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X.

Finally, a new revision was made by Pope Paul 6 with his Apostolic Constitution Laudis Canticum of 1 Nov 1970.^[56]

Many of the complicated rubrics (or instructions) that governed recitation of the Liturgy were clarified, and the actual method of praying the part was made simpler. Prime had already been abolished by the Second Vatican Council. Of the three intermediate Hours of Terce, Sext and None, but 1 was to be of strict obligation. Recitation of the psalms and a much increased number of canticles was spread over four weeks instead of one. By a personal decision of Pope Paul VI against the majority view of the revising commission,^[57] three imprecatory psalms (58, 83, and 109) were omitted from the psalter and some similar verses were omitted from other psalms, as indicated in the heading of each. These omissions, lamented by Joseph Briody,^[58] are attributed in the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours to "sure psychological difficulties, fifty-fifty though the imprecatory psalms themselves may be found quoted in the New Attestation, e.yard. Rev vi:10, and in no fashion are intended to be used as curses".^[59]

Ii typical editions of the revised Liturgy of the Hours (Liturgia Horarum) according to the Roman Rite have been published past Rome. The current typical edition is the Liturgia Horarum, editio typica altera, promulgated in 1985 (printed betwixt 1985 and 1987, and reprinted in 2000). This uses the New Vulgate Latin Bible for the readings, psalms and canticles rather than the Clementina.

It has changed the text of some of the readings and responsories in line with the New Vulgate, and it provides the Benedictus and Magnificat on each Sun with 3 antiphons that reflect the 3-year cycle of Gospel readings. Pope Urban 8's lamented alterations of the hymns are undone. Verse numberings are added to the Psalms and the longer Scripture readings, while the Psalms are given both the Septuagint numbering and (in parentheses) that of the Masoretic text. New texts, taken from the Missale Romanum, have been added in an appendix for solemn blessings and the penitential acts.

Thus far, this second Latin typical edition has only been translated in the "Liturgy of the Hours for Africa" The earlier edition has appeared in two English language translations, one under the title "Liturgy of the Hours", the other equally "The Divine Office".

Obligation of recitation [edit]

In the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, bishops, priests, and deacons planning to become priests are obliged to recite the total sequence of the hours each 24-hour interval, observing as closely as possible the associated times of day, and using the text of the canonical liturgical books that apply to them.^{[5] [60]} Permanent deacons are to do and so to the extent adamant by their Episcopal Conference.^[threescore] Members of institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, or other religious associations (east.thou., Benedictine oblates, Third Order Dominicans) who are non clerics and are therefore not subject to these obligations are bound according to the norm of their constitutions.^[61] Members of such institutes and societies who are deacons, priests, or bishops, remain bound to their more severe obligation equally clergy.

Latin Church clerics tin can lawfully fulfill their obligation to pray the Role using the edition of the Roman Breviary promulgated by John XXIII in 1961 rather than the current edition of the Liturgy of the Hours.^[62] While the 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum states that communities belonging to institutes of religious life and societies of apostolic life crave say-so simply past their major superiors to utilize the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal for their conventual or community Mass frequently, habitually or permanently;^[63] information technology makes no such statement regarding use of the 1962 Roman Breviary, which yet could be immune by their constitutions.

Laity, especially if they are involved in ministries of the Church building (lector, cantor, extraordinary government minister of Holy Communion, catechists, religious education directors or school principals, altar servers, those contemplating religious life or the seminary), are strongly encouraged to participate.

The constitutions of some institutes of consecrated life, in particular many congregations of Benedictine monks and nuns but also others, oblige them to follow an arrangement of the Psalter whereby all the psalms are recited in the course of a single week, partly through an extension of the Function of Readings, and past maintaining the Hour of Prime.

Run across also [edit]

• Angelus
• Book of hours
• Plenarium
• Ramsha
• The Picayune Office of the Immaculate Conception

Notes [edit]

1. ^ The term "canonical hours" can hateful either the times of day at which the dissimilar parts of the Liturgy of the Hours are to be recited or the prayers said at those times.^[1]
2. ^ A "breviary" tin can as well refer to the volume of prayers to be said rather than the liturgy and prayers themselves.^[2]

References [edit]

1. ^ "canonical hours". American Heritage Dictionary of the English Linguistic communication (5th ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. 2011.
2. ^ "breviary". American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. 2011.
3. ^ The states Briefing of Catholic Bishops. "Liturgy of the Hours". Retrieved 19 January 2015.
4. ^ Br. Sam Joutras, O.S.A. (13 November 2018). "Why We Pray the Liturgy of the Hours". Augustinian Vocations . Retrieved 17 July 2021.
5. ^ ^{a b c} "The Full general Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours" (PDF). Congregation for Divine Worship. 1971. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
6. ^ Kurian, George Thomas; Lamport, Marking A. (2015). Encyclopedia of Christian Instruction. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 754. ISBN978-0-8108-8493-9. The Liturgy of the Hours, also called the Divine Hours or the Divine Office, is the historical Christian practice of fixed times throughout the day for prayer. … By the heart of the tertiary century, Christian leaders such equally Cloudless, Origin, Tertullian, and Cyprian made references to the importance of intervals of prayer throughout the day. They based this practice on biblical passages such as Daniel 6, the Markkan references to the hours of the events that took place on the day of Christ's crucifixion, and the Pauline exhortations to pray without ceasing. In the Churchly Tradition (c. 215), attributed to Hippolytus, believers were exhorted to pray as soon as they rose from their beds and, if possible, to participate in this with the local church. This prayer fourth dimension became known as matins or lauds. Believers were to farther pray at the third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day (the "little hours"); in the evening (vespers); when they went to bed; at midnight; and once again equally the cock crowed. These fourth dimension frames roughly represent what was to get the long-standing Christian tradition of the liturgical horarium.
7. ^ ^{a b} "Divine Office". Catholic Encyclopedia.
8. ^ McNamara, Edward. "What Should Be Prayed in the Liturgy of the Hours". Eternal Word Telly Network . Retrieved 18 April 2020.
9. ^ "Lawmaking of Canon Law, canon 276 §2 3º". Vatican.va. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
10. ^ Pope Paul VI (4 December 1963). "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy". The Holy See – Documents of Vatican II. Vatican city. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
11. ^ Instruction Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago on the Ordo virginum, 34. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/07/04/180704d.html
12. ^ "Catechism of the Cosmic Church, 1175". Vatican.va. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
13. ^ "Liturgy of the Hours / Divine Function / Breviary". Ewtn.com. Retrieved 27 Nov 2013.
14. ^ Miller, Charles East. (2004). Together in Prayer: Learning to Dear the Liturgy of the Hours. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 71. ISBN978-1-59244-626-1.
15. ^ Woolfenden, Graham (2000). Daily Prayer in Christian Spain. SPCK. ISBN978-0-281-05328-5.
16. ^ Danielou, Jean (2016). Origen. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 29. ISBN978-i-4982-9023-4. Peterson quotes a passage from the Acts of Hipparchus and Philotheus: "In Hipparchus'southward house at that place was a specially decorated room and a cross was painted on the eastward wall of information technology. There before the prototype of the cross, they used to pray seven times a day … with their faces turned to the e." It is piece of cake to come across the importance of this passage when you lot compare it with what Origen says. The custom of turning towards the ascent sun when praying had been replaced by the habit of turning towards the due east wall. This we find in Origen. From the other passage we see that a cross had been painted on the wall to prove which was the east. Hence the origin of the practise of hanging crucifixes on the walls of the private rooms in Christian houses. We know too that signs were put up in the Jewish synagogues to show the direction of Jerusalem, considering the Jews turned that way when they said their prayers. The question of the proper way to face for prayer has always been of great importance in the East. It is worth remembering that Mohammedans pray with their faces turned towards Mecca and that 1 reason for the condemnation of Al Hallaj, the Mohammedan martyr, was that he refused to conform to this practice.
17. ^ Henry Chadwick (1993). The Early Church. Penguin. ISBN978-1-101-16042-8. Hippolytus in the Apostolic Tradition directed that Christians should pray seven times a day - on rising, at the lighting of the evening lamp, at bedtime, at midnight, and also, if at home, at the tertiary, sixth and ninth hours of the twenty-four hours, being hours associated with Christ's Passion. Prayers at the third, 6th, and ninth hours are similarly mentioned by Tertullian, Cyprian, Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and must have been very widely practised. These prayers were ordinarily associated with individual Bible reading in the family.
18. ^ Weitzman, Thou. P. (7 July 2005). The Syriac Version of the Sometime Testament. Cambridge Academy Press. ISBN978-0-521-01746-6. Clement of Alexandria noted that "some fix hours for prayer, such equally the third, 6th and ninth" (Stromata seven:seven). Tertullian commends these hours, considering of their importance (see beneath) in the New Attestation and considering their number recalls the Trinity (De Oratione 25). These hours indeed appear as designated for prayer from the earliest days of the church. Peter prayed at the sixth hr, i.e. at noon (Acts 10:9). The ninth hr is called the "hour of prayer" (Acts 3:ane). This was the hr when Cornelius prayed fifty-fifty every bit a "God-fearer" attached to the Jewish community, i.e. before his conversion to Christianity. it was also the hour of Jesus' final prayer (Matt. 27:46, Mark 15:34, Luke 22:44-46).
19. ^ Lössl, Josef (17 February 2010). The Early Church building: History and Memory. A&C Black. p. 135. ISBN978-0-567-16561-9. Not only the content of early Christian prayer was rooted in Jewish tradition; its daily structure too initially followed a Jewish blueprint, with prayer times in the early morning, at noon and in the evening. Later on (in the form of the second century), this blueprint combined with another one; namely prayer times in the evening, at midnight and in the morning. As a result vii 'hours of prayer' emerged, which later on became the monastic 'hours' and are withal treated as 'standard' prayer times in many churches today. They are roughly equivalent to midnight, 6 a.m., nine a.m., noon, 3 p.grand., half dozen p.m. and 9 p.1000. Prayer positions included prostration, kneeling and standing. … Crosses made of forest or stone, or painted on walls or laid out every bit mosaics, were as well in use, at first non direct equally objections of veneration but in order to 'orientate' the direction of prayer (i.eastward. towards the e, Latin oriens).
20. ^ Taylor Marshall, The Crucified Rabbi: Judaism and the Origins of the Catholic Christianity, Saint John Press, 2009 ISBN 978-0-578-03834-six pages 133–5.
21. ^ "Hebrews 13:fifteen".
22. ^ Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, Book X, Letter xcvii.
23. ^ "Has the Cosmic Church always offered Mass daily?". Chicago Catholic . Retrieved 13 July 2020.
24. ^ Council of Trent, Decree on Reformation, Chapter XXI
25. ^ ^{a b c} "In Defense of the Pauline Mass". Matt1618.freeyellow.com. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
26. ^ I.eastward., the standard formula used at the conclusion of papal bulls until quite recent centuries.
27. ^ Catòlica, Església (1675). "Text of Quo primum in Breviarium Romanum (Henault, Paris, 1675)". Retrieved twenty May 2019.
28. ^ "Breviarium Monasticum juxta Regulam S. Patris Benedicti". 1777. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
29. ^ Church building, Cosmic (29 January 2009). "Breviarium Ordinis fratrum beatissimae Virginis Mariae de monte Carmelo". Retrieved 20 May 2019.
30. ^ Breviarium Sacri Ordinis Cartusiensis . Net Archive. 1717. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
31. ^ "Breviarium Juxta Ritum Sacri Ordinis Praedicatorum". 24 April 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
32. ^ "Breviarium canonicorum regularium Ordinis Praemonstratensis". 6 March 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
33. ^ "Breviarium Ambrosianum". 26 April 2007. Retrieved twenty May 2019.
34. ^ James H. Moore, Vespers at St. Marking's (1981) 270–271; Giulio Cattin, Musica due east Liturgia a San Marco (1990) 55–59;
35. ^ ^{a b} Breviary in Catholic Encyclopedia. The article likewise spoke of "blemishes which disfigure this volume."
36. ^ "Sacrosanctum Concilium". 4 Dec 1963. Art. 89d. The hour of Prime is to be suppressed.
37. ^ Sacrosanctum Concilium Fine art 91. So that it may actually exist possible in do to observe the course of the hours proposed in Art. 89, the psalms are no longer to be distributed throughout one week, but through some longer period of time.
38. ^ "Adoremus Message, April 1999". Adoremus.org. 25 Oct 2010. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
39. ^ Clayton, David (9 Feb 2020). "The Ordinariate Office - A Wonderful Gift For Lay People and a Hope for the Transformation of Western Civilisation?". newliturguicalmovement.org. New Liturgical Movement. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
40. ^ "Oft Asked Questions". Rochester, NY: St. Alban's Catholic Church. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved xviii July 2021.
41. ^ Rule of Saint Benedict, chapter 16 (original Latin); English translation by Leonard J. Doyle
42. ^ "Constitutions of the Holy Apostles". Ccel.org. 1 June 2005. Archived from the original on vii August 2006. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
43. ^ "Online Etymological Lexicon". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
44. ^ Maddox, Maeve. "Maeve Maddox, "Why 'Noon' is no longer the 'Ninth Hour'"". Dailywritingtips.com. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
45. ^ http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0360-0435,_Cassianus,_Institutes_Of_The_Coenobia_And_The_Remedies_Vol_3,_EN.pdf
46. ^ "Second Vatican Quango, Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, 89 d". Vatican.va. 4 Dec 1963. Retrieved xx May 2019.
47. ^ "Churchly Constitution Laudis canticum". W2.vatican.va. 20 Nov 1947. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
48. ^ "Code of Rubrics, 138" (PDF) . Retrieved 20 May 2019.
49. ^ "Felix Just, "The Liturgy of the Hours"". Catholic-resources.org. Retrieved xx May 2019.
50. ^ "Nova Vulgata, Psalmus lxx (69)". Vatican.va. Retrieved 27 Nov 2013.
51. ^ The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours, no. 68
52. ^ The General Teaching on the Liturgy of the Hours, no. 54
53. ^ The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours, No. 92
54. ^ The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours, no. 41
55. ^ "Affiliate XXI". History.hanover.edu. Retrieved 27 Nov 2013.
56. ^ "Laudis Canticum". Adoremus.org. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
57. ^ Ferrone, Rita (2007). Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium. Paulist Press. ISBN978-0-8091-4472-3.
58. ^ Joseph Briody, "The Imprecatory Passages of the Psalms and their use in the Divine Role" in Psallite Sapienter: The Liturgy of the Hours, Proceedings of the Eleventh Fota International Liturgical Briefing, 2018 (Smenos Publications, 2019), pp. 39-63
59. ^ "Full general Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, 131" (PDF). Liturgy Office, England & Wales. Retrieved xiii Oct 2019.
60. ^ ^{a b} canon 276 §2 iii² of the 1983 Lawmaking of Catechism Police force
61. ^ canon 1174 §i of the 1983 Lawmaking of Canon Law
62. ^ "Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, Article nine §3". W2.vatican.va. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
63. ^ "Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, Commodity three". W2.vatican.va. Retrieved xx May 2019.

External links [edit]

This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 20 August 2013 (2013-08-twenty), and does non reverberate subsequent edits.

• "General Educational activity" from the Breviary
• The Divine Part: A Written report of the Roman Breviary by the Rev. E.J. Quigley
• EWTN article on the Liturgy of the Hours / Divine Office / Breviary
• Discovering Prayer: How to Pray the Liturgy of the Hours by Seth H. Murray (also available with audio samples)
• Breviary Timeline – A timeline of official 20th century breviaries
• Divinum Officium – an online dynamic version of the Breviarium Romanum according to the rubrics of 1960

vergaraawase1957.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgy_of_the_Hours

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