Prayer ...
Liturgy of the Hours
The liturgy of the hours, or divine office, is the prayer of the church. It consists of a set of daily prayers that are to be said at various times of the day. The liturgy of the hours has its origin in the very early Christian church and grew out of the Jewish practice of praying at different times of the day. The practice of daily prayer in the Christian church goes back to the time of the Desert Fathers, around the third and fourth centuries A.D. John Cassian, an early church theologian and one of the Desert Fathers, and St. Benedict of Nursia are credited with organizing the prayers into the format we use today. Prior to Vatican II there were eight times for prayer each day:
- Matins (during the night)
- Lauds or Dawn Prayer (at Dawn)
- Prime or Early Morning Prayer (First Hour = 6 a.m.)
- Terce or Mid-Morning Prayer (Third Hour = 9 a.m.)
- Sext or Midday Prayer (Sixth Hour = 12 noon)
- None or Mid-Afternoon Prayer (Ninth Hour = 3 p.m.)
- Vespers or Evening Prayer ("at the lighting of the lamps")
- Compline or Night Prayer (before retiring)
Vatican II reduced the number of prayer times to four and encouraged the whole church, not just priests and members of religious orders to take part. The four remaining prayer times are:
- Lauds
- Daytime prayer
- Vespers
- Compline
The Evening Prayer, or Vespers, is probably the one that we are most familiar with. When performed in public, it is often sung. At St. Basil’s we celebrate the beginning of the season of Advent with Advent Vespers, which includes a beautiful programme of music, psalms and prayer.
The liturgy of the hours is a public prayer of the church but it can also be prayed privately in solitude. There are various resources online (search for “liturgy of the hours”) or you can purchase a Breviary and keep it handy at home.