When most folks think about liturgy, they think about the Eucharist, but the Eucharistic liturgy is only one of several in the Church. Each of the other sacraments is performed in the context of a liturgy. But there is an additional liturgy that the Church celebrates: the liturgy of the hours.
Recently I received some questions about the liturgy of the hours and asked <Rule 15b>Fr. Stephanos of the Order of St. Benedict</Rule15b> if he would be so kind as to answer them for the folks on the blog. I figured it could be a real service for the reader since so few of us layfolks know much about the liturgy of the hours.
I hope y’all will join me in thanking Fr. Stephanos for taking the time to help us to better understand this liturgy of the Church.
Here goes!
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SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE CANONICAL HOURS OF THE LITURGY
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First of all, a striking affirmation!
The “canonical hours of the liturgy” make up a “prayer/worship system” that, beyond the Mass, constitutes the Church’s OFFICIAL AND PUBLIC prayer life. In fact, the Church regards the “hours” as an extension of the “Liturgy of the Word” that makes up the first “half” of the Mass. Because of this the Church obligates priests and members of religious orders to offer up daily the canonical hours.
So, in union with the Pope, the Bishops and the priests, the order of obligation and devotion is: (1) the Mass, (2) the Liturgy of the Hours, (3) all other forms of personal, private devotions, prayers, reading, etc.
Many laypersons take up the canonical hours privately. It unites them to the Church’s formal, public mission of both worship offered to God and intercession offered for the world.
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THE QUESTIONS
How closely do modern-day monasteries follow the classical forms of worship based on the canonical hours (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Compline, Vespers, etc.)?
And more specifically — it’s been my impression (as a layperson whose knowledge of this material has been gained largely from reading fiction set in medieval times) that the services of the canonical hours are primarily prayer services with closely prescribed orders of worship, such that most of what happens is scripted reading/response.
Therefore, two questions: in general, how much discretion would a monastery’s religious leader have over the Scripture readings used in a given service (i.e. do monasteries typically adhere to liturgical calendars prescribed by central authority)? And in which of the daily services – if any — would the presiding priest typically give an original or personally drafted homily or sermon?"
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Now, some answers follow.
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First of all, a little explanation of the “hours.”
Although the history of the liturgical hours of worship is older than St. Benedict of Nursia (who died in A.D. 547), most of that history since he died has been dominated or at least influenced by his arrangements for monks.
St. Benedict arranged to have his monks gather in church to pray (by singing or reciting) certain Psalms at certain hours of the day. His arrangement provided for all 150 Psalms to be recited within the course of one week. Together with the Psalms, he provided for other “song-type” passages of Scripture to also be prayed. Sections of the singing or recitation would be interrupted by shorter or longer readings by a lector. There would also be responsories, hymns, intercessions.
Certain Psalms, because of what they say, fit certain times of day better than others, so they are deliberately scheduled for those times of day. Other Psalms are just distributed for the sake of distribution.
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Here is the schedule of the classical hours together with some of the various names for them throughout history).
2 or 3 A.M., MATINS (also called Vigils or Office of Readings). This is the longest liturgical “hour” of the day.
A shorter or longer break.
Around sunrise, LAUDS (Morning Prayer). Psalms 148, 149 and 150 all begin in Latin with “Lauda” (Praise!). These three psalms always concluded the Psalm section of this hour and are the source of the name “Lauds.”
Shortly after Lauds: PRIME (first hour after sunrise).
Midmorning: TERCE (from the Latin for “third”, since it is roughly three hours after sunrise).
Midday: SEXT (six hours after sunrise; the Latin for “sixth hour” is “hora sexta”). This is followed by a scheduled rest or nap. You would do the same if you had arisen at 2 or 3 A.M. The Spanish word “siesta” comes from the Latin “sexta.”
Midafternoon: NONE–rhymes with “bone”. Comes from “hora nona”—“ninth hour” in Latin. The Latins reckoned the day in rough three-hour shifts; they called the period from midday to midafternoon “nona”—from which English gets “noon.”
Sundown: VESPERS (Evening Prayer). “Vespers” is from the Latin for “evening.”
Bedtime prayers: COMPLINE (Night Prayer). The Latin is “completorium” for this service that completes the hours.
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The longest service among those hours is Matins (Vigils or Office of Readings). In St. Benedict’s arrangement it is basically: six Psalms, a long reading from Scripture, a responsory, six more Psalms, another long reading from Scripture, a responsory, a few Scriptural canticles, a reading from the Fathers of the Church, a responsory, a reading of the Gospel, two hymns.
Lauds (Morning Prayer): Several Psalms and canticles, a short reading from Scripture, a responsory, a hymn, the Benedictus canticle, intercessions, Our Father.
Vespers (Evening Prayer) has the same structure as Lauds, except it has the Magnificat instead of the Benedictus.
The other hours (prime, terce, sext, none, compline) are all basically three psalms each, with a few other elements. These hours are usually called “The Little Hours.”
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The monastery’s work periods, the meals, the times for solitary prayer and reading are woven in and out of the basic framework of the liturgical hours.
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There are not enough Psalms to fill out the one-week structure that St. Benedict arranged. So, he provided that for Wednesday through Saturday, at the hours of prime, terce, sext and none, the monks would repeat at those hours the same Psalms they had used at those hours on Tuesday.
Since the hour of prime really just sort of got tacked on at the end of Lauds, the Vatican (after Vatican II) directed the entire Church to set aside the obligation to pray prime.
Monasteries are free to still arrange to pray all 150 Psalms over the course of one week.
The Vatican’s official publication of the “Liturgy of the Hours” is a four-volume set with the Psalms basically spread out over the course of four weeks. Since it is spread out over four weeks instead of one, the individual hours (particularly Matins and Lauds) are not as long as St. Benedict had them. Diocesan priests, members of religious orders, all monasteries, deacons, etc. may all legitimately make use of this publication. Religious orders, including those that usually live in monasteries, have some legitimate permission to restructure somewhat their own procedures of the Liturgy of the Hours.
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Monasteries adapt the universal liturgical calendar to legitimately approved usages proper to the monastery. For instance, the universal calendar has July 11 as the memorial of St. Benedict. However, Benedictine monks also observe March 21 (as a feast or even a solemnity that supercedes Sunday), since it is the day St. Benedict died.
Monasteries may use the readings the Vatican published for the calendar of the hours, or they may select other Scripture readings. Some religious orders, with legitimate permission, have assembled their own selection of readings into an outright Lectionary.
As for homilies preached during the canonical hours … this may be done … but it practically never is.
The correct places for a homily: after the Gospel during Matins (Vigils); after the short reading at Lauds or Vespers.
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It is legitimate to incorporate the hours into the Mass. This is regularly done in many monasteries and even at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
For instance, say a monastery is going to incorporate Lauds into the morning Mass. The priest vests as for Mass. The entrance song is sung. Lauds begins—but just the psalms. Then, the priest offers the Opening Prayer of the Mass, and then the Mass proceeds as normal from there. At communion, instead of the communion song, the Benedictus for Lauds is sung. (The same structure for Vespers with evening Mass, with the Magnificat for Vespers sung at communion.)
One occasion when Vespers is always incorporated into the Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome: the annual Papal Mass for the Opening of the Academic Year.
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Final comments about the personal advantage of using the “Liturgy of the Hours.”
It unites you to the official, round-the-world prayer and worship of the pope, all bishops, priests, deacons and religious orders.
The themes expressed in the Psalms and throughout the Liturgy of the Hours don’t necessarily line up with your own concerns and moods and moments. So, if you let it do so, the Liturgy constantly calls you to a bigger picture than your lonely only. It is to be offered up as a sacrifice of praise and a sacrifice of intercession.
It can ground you in the two major movements of EVERYTHING: (1) the worship of God, (2) the world’s salvation (in all matters big and small). You end up praying God’s Word about himself, and praying God’s Word for the world and yourself.
“GLORY TO GOD in the highest … and on earth PEACE TO MEN on whom his goodwill rests!” (That does cover EVERYTHING, folks.)
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Father Stephanos of the Order of Saint Benedict
Great introduction! I’ll recommend it to folks who have questions.
If may provide my own testimony: I began saying parts of the Divine Office early in college, and found it a tremendous boon. I admired Muslims for their rigoruous daily prayer, and when I found that Catholics had a similar form of worship that predated Islam itself, well, sign me up! The ability to “sanctify time” and set one’s own schedule to prayer (albeit not nearly as rigorously as a monks) has been a great grace.
Thank you, Jimmy and Father Stephanos. I too picked it up early in college, and it’s been wonderful. I can’t recommend it enough.
I only recently began using the book Shorter Christian Prayer (a sort of *mini-Office* consisting only of Lauds, Vespers, & Compline) & am totally loving it. When Fr Stephanos says “the Liturgy constantly calls you to a bigger picture,” he’s not kidding! But I find my personal intentions are still included when I pray the Hours, even though they might not all be specificially mentioned. God is good!
And, I’ve got to say, for some time I felt called to the next level of prayer & recently realized I was to pray the Hours, but I resisted for a while. If others are feeling that way because of a time issue (that was part of it for me) or because the books of the Hours can be a bit confusing at first (which was the other part of it for me – I am a bear of very little brain & had no previous Hours experience), please persevere! The Shorter Christian Prayer book only takes 20 minutes or so, 2 or 3 times a day depending if you do all 3 or not; you can start with only one or 2 & work into more. It’s very versitale for laypeople. My days have changed dramatically since I started! There is power in the Hours! 😉
Thanks for this post, Jimmy!
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THE LONG, SHORT AND WHEN OF IT
Calling them “hours” does not mean that each of the prayer hours lasts an hour.
The two pivotal hours of the day–Lauds (Morning Prayer, at sunrise) and Vespers (Evening Prayer, at sundown)–each take under fifteen minutes if you simply recite at a steady, unhurried pace. These two hours are the hinges of the day, and if you want to begin regularly praying the Liturgy of the Hours, you do well by regularly praying at these two times of the day. If you don’t have the published Liturgy of the Hours, you could pray anyway (whatever you already pray) at sunrise and sundown, thereby joining intentionally and spiritually with the public, liturgical mission of the Church.
A suggested, literally “homemade” (not official, not published), abbreviated participation (if you don’t have the published form):
at sunrise, pray the Sign of the Cross, the Glory Be, the Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79) and the Our Father;
at sundown, pray the Sign of the Cross, the Glory Be, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) and the Our Father.
Four Volumes?
Yes, the official published form of the Liturgy of the Hours is in four volumes. It is structured in such a way that buying only one of the volumes is useless. However, there is a published, abridged edition in one volume:
“CHRISTIAN PRAYER (The Liturgy of the Hours).”
It has fewer of the variations (less of the variety) offered in the four volumes.
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I’ve been praying the Liturgy of the Hours for about the last year and it’s really made a difference in my life. I recommend it to all my friends, hoping to get them to start as well.
Thanks for the history, Fr Stephanos!
Great! I prayed the Liturgy of the Hours for a bit after finding out about them from my brother when he entered seminary. They are fantastic! I want to get back into them. They can be very daunting (the four volume version) to a newcomer and I still have difficulty at times knowing how the liturgy is to flow.
Are you going to explain how the four volume work is supposed to flow Father? I know that it changes depending on the season also, but maybe you can help out with general points on how to do morning and evening prayers.
Actually, it would appear that this site has it all set up so that you can see how the liturgy is set up. Then you can find how they found how to do these particular psalms and readings in the book. Cool!
http://www.universalis.com/
A more visually appealing site that uses the approved (for the U.S.) English translations is:
http://www.liturgyhours.org
What about the prayers in the Magnificat magazine? How do they compare with the Liturgy of the Hours? Are they a reasonable substitute/alternative, or are they the same thing?
Each time I bought a volume from the four-volume set, it included a small booklet with instructions on which pages to go to for each hour. It was very helpful. I think it’s called the “St. Joseph Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours.” I just tear the current page out and put it into the back of the breviary.
Aha: one of these puppies. Except you’d want one for 2005, of course.
Liturgy of the Hours EXPLAINED!
Jimmy Akin has a guest article from Father Stephanos about the Liturgy of the Hours. Go read the article, and I heartily encourage you to give the Hours a shot…
Great post,
I started praying the Liturgy of the Hours about 6 months ago, and I concur with many of the comments posted above.
Father, what can you tell us about the Antiphonale Monasticum. From what little I know it is an older version of the Liturgy of the Hours (in Latin, with chant). I believe it is stillin use in Benedictine monsatic communities. Is this what you use?
Tex
The “Antiphonale monasticum” is in Latin, and it contains printed music (Gregorian chant) for the parts of the Liturgy of the Hours that are normally sung. At present (to my knowledge) it is available only as reprints of the pre-Vatican II structure. Nonetheless, it is still a valid resource for musical settings of parts of the Liturgy of the Hours which may be sung in Latin still.
In my own monastery (see http://www.princeofpeaceabbey.org) a few parts of the daily Liturgies are always in Latin. On some feasts and solemnities we have preserved Vespers in sung Latin (Gregorian chant).
I’m delighted to discover this blog entry! Thankyou so much Fr. Stephanos!
I have, in the last few minutes, just finished watching a three part series broadcast by the BBC, entitled, “The Monastery”. (about time we got something decent out of ’em…the BBC, not the Monastery).
I am fascinated by the Rule of St.Benedict, though my introduction to it primarily, has been via brief snatches of Monastic conversations aired in the show.
As I am not in a position to purchase the complete Liturgy of the Hours, I wonder if you could advise me as to whether another option/introduction into a more structured prayer life might be,
“Divine Office; Morning and Evening Prayer”
(which my budget still doesn’t stretch too, but might one day!)
Incidentally, the Liturgy of the Hours is available much more cheaply in the U.S, than in the UK…and also, in it’s four volume set…as opposed to the three volume set that seem’s pretty standard over here. Sad.
God Bless.
The Morning and Evening Prayer printed in the Magnificat magazine is a great abbreviated form of the Hours. If I recall correctly, a psalm, Old Testament canticle, Gospel canticle, petitions, etc. These eventually got me interested in praying the full Hours – it was a wonderful introduction to the practice. Highly recommended!
The U.K.’s three-volume versus the U.S.’s four-volume.
The U.S. volumes are:
(1) Advent and Christmas seasons;
(2) Lent and Easter seasons;
(3) Ordinary Time weeks 1-17;
(4) Ordinary Time weeks 18-34.
I had the chance to examine the U.K. version once. My memory guesses that the U.K. volumes are:
(1) Advent and Christmas seasons;
(2) Lent and Easter seasons;
(3) Ordinary Time–all 34 weeks.
I wrote a Liturgy of the Hours Resource Page that has oodles of resources for prayer and study of the LoH:
http://www.dboyko.info/loh.html
It’s funny that this should come up right about now.
My priest assigned me the Liturgy of the Hours as penance about a month or two ago. He has scheduled meetings with me to show me how to do it.
All this great info will help me out even more.
Gah! I didn’t even see you are from the Prince of Peace Abbey Father.
I was just there about two weeks ago on a Saturday with a group of my husbands’ RCIA class. If you were there then maybe you saw us. One of the ladies left her cell phone on during mass and it went off during the homily. It must have rang for like a minute. Boy was it ever the longest ring I ever heard. ehehehe =/
Our abbey church has lively acoustics, and a ringing cell phone positively takes over.
Liturgy Of The Hours
Jimmy Akin’s got a real good post by Fr. Stephanos, O.S.B. on the Liturgy of the Hours. If your Catholic and not familiar with the “other liturgy” of the Church, I highly recommend you read it. Lots of good information there.
here….
Prince of Peace Abbey – I’ve been there too! I made a weekend retreat there, with some other folks from the Catholic center at UCI, in Fall ’90.
Lost my little guide book, is there anywhere on the internet where one could be printed (free)?
Thanks.
Sr. KM