The Liturgy of the Hours: Praying with the Church

What in the world, sisters and brothers, is the Liturgy of the Hours? The Liturgy of the Hours—if you think about the old movies with Bing Crosby, the priest walking around outside the rectory in his cassock—he would have this big book, and he'd be saying his prayers. That was the Divine Office. Today we would call that the Liturgy of the Hours, in which is contained one set of prayers called the Divine Office.

The Liturgy of the Hours is actually the daily prayer of the Church. It's the prayer that all laypeople, priests, deacons, and bishops are invited to pray. Now, bishops, priests, and deacons are expected to pray the Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer—often the Divine Office—in the course of their lives. It's a daily requirement. Laypeople are invited, and there is a movement in the Church for us to have more gatherings where we pray the Liturgy of the Hours.

It's a prayer that can be prayed individually or collectively.

One of the beauties of the Liturgy of the Hours is the expression that says, when the Liturgy of the Hours is being prayed by anyone, we are united to the entire prayer of the Church on earth as we pray this day. It's a formula—a set of prayers, a number of psalms, intervening prayers, a canticle, intercessions, and a concluding prayer.

You can find these in a variety of ways. There's a big four-volume set that is the Liturgy of the Hours, which reflects the seasons of the Church year. There's the Divine Office for every day, with writings from saints, doctors of the Church, and from the Second Vatican Council. There's a smaller version called Christian Prayer, which includes morning and evening prayer.

You'll find in a lot of parishes people using these two little missalettes: Give Us This Day or Magnificat. Each of them has a simplified morning prayer—oftentimes an introductory psalm, another psalm, a prayer, the Our Father, a canticle—and we're done. It's a fairly shortened form of the Liturgy of the Hours.

Also, Word on Fire—Bishop Barron's great ministry—has produced a subscription version where you can get the month-to-month Liturgy of the Hours so that you can pray morning and evening prayer without having to figure out the complexities of how the full books work.

So, sisters and brothers, the Liturgy of the Hours is a way for us to be united with the entire Church at prayer. It connects us to the seasons of the Church and the feasts of the Church as well. It's a wonderful way for us to spend ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening to unite our life to Christ in a new way.

That leads not only to the renewal of ourselves but to the renewal of the Church and the world.

Reflection Questions:

1. How might incorporating the Liturgy of the Hours into your daily routine deepen your relationship with God?
   
   

2. In what ways does communal or global prayer strengthen your sense of belonging to the Church?
   
   

3. What small changes could you make to begin or revive the habit of structured prayer each day?