The Liturgy of the Hours: A Devotion for Our Time

The world continues to become busier and the days seem to go by faster, especially now in the midst of summer. Yet the Church in her wisdom always can pull from her treasury to give the world what it needs in the particular age it is in. 

Many today are looking for ways to deepen their love of the Holy Mass, others are looking for ways to sanctify their day, and some struggle to easily schedule in prayer alongside their daily obligations. There are many devotions that have, thanks be to God, become popular again (the Rosary and Adoration to name a couple). However, the one I believe is best suited to modern everyday life is the Liturgy of the Hours. 

The Liturgy of the Hours is a very ancient practice in the Church and so some background information is in order. (and no its not called the Liturgy of the Hours because it takes hours to pray)

In the first 500 years of the Church the cycle of prayers we today call the Liturgy of the Hours was beginning to develop. It grew alongside monastic movements like the desert fathers who would go off into the wilderness to connect with God. These early monastics would eventually form communities that would pray the Psalms together. In some cases the monks would pray all 150 Psalms each day. 

They would spread this out throughout the span of a day, praying at specific times from dawn to the middle of the night, which is why it's called the Liturgy of the Hours. They took inspiration from King David when he said in Psalm 119, “seven times a day I have given praise to thee” and “I rose at midnight to give praise to thee." This being the case they would pray a total of eight times a day: Matins around midnight, Lauds and Prime around dawn, Terce at 9am, Sext at noon, None at 3pm, Vespers around dusk and Compline after nightfall. Matins also would often be combined with Lauds in the early morning for communities who couldn’t do it the night before. 

The practice of dividing the day in those times really originates with St Benedict who made some changes to the Liturgy of the Hours, more often called the Divine Office or Opus Dei (work of God) in his time. He also gave his monks a one week Psalter cycle, which had them pray all 150 Psalms in a week. 

In the early Church the Divine Office was typically prayed in common among priests and laity in towns, at least for the morning and evening hours of Lauds and Vespers. Since the ancient days it has been a requirement for priests and religious to say all or the majority of the liturgical hours. However, as the Church entered the medieval age laypeople attended on a much less frequent basis. At the dawn of the modern era, many were likely entirely unacquainted with what the Divine Office even is. 

That is why, following the Second Vatican Council, the Divine Office was reformed and given its most common modern title: the Liturgy of the Hours. The changes to the Office were vast, too significant to be mentioned here, and some changes are still controversial. An important point is that it was shortened a great deal and the one week cycle was changed to a four week cycle. Less Psalms being recited at each hour was to make it less of a burden for priests but especially to make it more accessible to the laity. It was also translated more widely into vernacular languages and today it is permitted to be prayed in approved translations. 

The current Liturgy of the Hours is structured into 7 hours, Prime having been removed. They are the Office of Readings (Matins), Morning prayer (Lauds), Midmorning prayer (Terce), Midday (Sext), Midafternoon (None), Evening prayer (Vespers) and Night prayer (Compline). 

All that history is quite a lot but the core point here is that the Church has made changes that make this way of prayer far more accessible to laity now that it is shortened. The Office of Readings takes around 20 minutes, Lauds and Vespers take around 10 and the other hours take 5-10 minutes at most. 

In the past you could only pray the hours if you had one of the complex and confusing books but now the entirety of it is available in apps like iBreviary, which structures it for you each day. There are many other apps that do the same, that’s just the one I like most. 

The structure of praying at certain times and not rushing to do it all at night or in the morning really helps to practice the presence of God throughout the day, even for a few minutes. As a layperson you aren’t bound to pray them either so you can pick and choose which ones to pray as you go. I recommend Night prayer/Compline because it is the shortest and a great way to end the day. 

If you like it, try Morning or Evening prayer. I can personally say it has done so much for my prayer life and growth in virtue. It reminds me that the day is from and for God above all. Though it is a recited prayer, the language of the Psalms is beautiful and inspires me in my own spontaneous prayers. It teaches you to speak to God in His own language which He has given to us in the Psalms. I liked it so much I even ended up purchasing the books of an older version of the Office. 

It can be an oasis for your soul in the desert of the world and is a prayer the Church continuously praises. Pope Leo has encouraged laity to pray it as well. The Church considers the Liturgy of the Hours the second highest form of prayer after the Mass. It directs us to the Mass and helps to prepare us for it with the prayers and readings. It is a great way for the religious soul to enter into the monastic life even as a layperson burdened with many worldly cares. 

Alongside our Supreme Pontiff, I cannot recommend it enough.