The Liturgy of the Hours: A Crash Course

I've been wanting to do a post on the Liturgy of the Hour since last Catholic Blog Week (aka Catholic Liturgy Week). Learning to pray the Liturgy of the Hours has been one of the big blessings of being in our parish's Catholic Youth Group. Last year, I thought about doing this post, but was too new of a blogger and too new at praying the Liturgy of the Hours to make it work. But this year, with a little more experience under my belt, I'm excited to pray the Liturgy of the Hours with you!

First off: what is the Liturgy of the Hours? The Liturgy of the Hours is the prayer of the Church, the heartbeat of the Church, if you will. It continues the Jewish tradition of praying the psalms multiple times per day, and also is the overall Church's answer to Jesus's commission to "pray without ceasing". It's not private, but entrusted to all of the Church, and the Church encourages us to pray it as a community. However, it's especially entrusted to priests (and religious) so that, for a priest, his obligation to say the Liturgy of the Hours is actually stronger than his obligation to say Mass every day. (And it's not only said by Catholics! Some Protestant denominations pray it as well.)

For many years in the Church, (especially before Vatican II, I think?) there were seven Hours, as follows:

3 AM: Lauds
6 AM: Prime
9 AM: Terce
12 PM: Sext
3 PM: None (pronounced "nohn")
Evening: Vespers
Before bed: Compline
12 AM: Matins

At this point, generally there are four Hours:
Morning Prayer (used to be Lauds, I believe)
Office of Readings (used to be Matins)
Daytime Prayer (or Noon prayer--but it may be said more than once, for Terce, Sext, and None, (I think it's those three--I'm not an expert on Daytime Prayer) if desired.)
Evening Prayer (still called Vespers)
Night Prayer (still called Compline)

Each has different parts, and sometimes a slightly different structure, and there's a specific introduction for the beginning of the day, no matter which hour (Morning Prayer or Office of Readings) is prayed first. That makes it sound WAY more complicated than it is, so here, lemme do a quick overview, leaving out Office of Readings, the Invitatory, and Daytime Prayer, which are the ones that are most different from the others. So, unless I say otherwise, you can assume that everything applies to Morning, Evening, and Night prayer. 

• The Hour begins with the Sign of the Cross, as you say "God come to my assistance, Lord, make haste to help me. Glory to the Father..."
  
• For Night Prayer, there is either an examination of conscience, a Confiteor, or both.
• A hymn is sung. This varies from season to season, and sometimes from day to day.
• Psalmody: Each Hour has the recitation or chanting of psalms, but the order and number varies. Morning prayer: Psalm, Old Testament Canticle, Psalm.
  Evening prayer: Two psalms, New Testament Canticle
  Night prayer: Generally one psalm, Saturday and Wednesday have two.
  For Morning prayer and Evening prayer, the psalms rotate on a monthly basis, whereas for Night prayer, they rotate on a weekly basis (i.e. each day has its own psalm(s))
  Before each psalm, a short verse ("antiphon") is said, and each psalm ends with the Glory Be, and a repetition of the antiphon.
• A short reading from the Bible.
• Responsory: this is similar-ish to a responsory psalm, and has the structure
  AB, AB
  C, B
  D, AB
  For instance, here's the one always said for Night Prayer:
  Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
  Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
  You have redeemed us, Lord God of Truth
  I commend my spirit.
  Glory to the Father...
  Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
  These vary in a rather inconsistent way: the one for Night Prayer is always the same, and for Morning and Evening prayer, in Ordinary Time, each day of the four-week psalm cycle has its own responsory...but during other seasons, i.e. Easter, the responsory is the same every day.
• Then there's another canticle with its antiphon. The canticle is always the same for each different Hour:
  Morning Prayer: The Canticle of Zechariah
  Evening Prayer: The Canticle of Mary
  Night Prayer: The Canticle of Simeon (Nunc dimittis)
  But the antiphons change from day to day for the Morning and Evening prayer, even during extraordinary liturgical seasons. 
  As the first verse of the Canticle is recited, the Sign of the Cross is made.
• Morning and Evening prayer here have ritualized Intercessions, which vary from day to day. 
• In Morning and Evening prayer, the Lord's Prayer is recited.
• In all the hours, there's a concluding prayer (for Morning and Evening prayer, it varies from day to day; for Night prayer, each day has its special prayer). 
• Conclusion
  Morning and Evening prayer each conclude with: May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life, accompanied by the Sign of the Cross.
  Night prayer concludes with: May the all powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death, again accompanied by the Sign of the Cross.
• In Night Prayer, the conclusion is followed by a Marian antiphon, anything from the Salve Regina to the Alma Redemptoris Mater, depending on the season.

*looks up* *scratches head* Hmm. That still looks a bit more complicated than it actually is. Hold onto that thought.

Quick digression into the Invitatory, Daytime Prayer, and Office of Readings...

So, the Invitatory is just a wee bit of prayer that gets plunked in front of whatever Hour comes first, whether it's Office of Readings or Morning Prayer (which is when I do it.) It's pretty simple.

• Make the Sign of the Cross over your lips while saying "Lord open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise."
  
• There's an antiophon which varies, depending on the day.
• Say the invitatory psalm--generally Psalm 95.

And that's it!

Office of Readings is an hour that sometimes gets lumped in with other ones--our parish just adds it on to Morning Prayer, right in the middle. When it's said by itself, it goes like this:

• The usual "God come to my assistance" opening.
• A hymn
• Three psalms with antiphons
• First reading: from the bible
• A responsory
• Second reading: from a Father of the Church, or another early source of Christian writings
• A responsory
• Prayer
• "Let us praise the Lord. And give him thanks"

My psalter doesn't actually...have Office of Readings, so I don't pray it unless I happen to be at Morning Prayer at my parish--which has happened precisely zero times since COVID.

Daytime Prayer, or Noon Prayer, is a simplified hour. It goes like this:

• The usual "God come to my assistance" opening
• A hymn
• Three psalms with antiphons
• Readings
• Concluding prayer
• "Let us praise the Lord. And give him thanks"

See? These two (called the Minor Hours, I believe) are pretty analogous. There are two psalmodies given for each day, in case you want to say Daytime Prayer more times, to be more like the original structure of the Liturgy of the Hours. Pretty cool!

One of the things I think is really cool about the Liturgy of the Hours is that because it's been said since the days of the Early Christians by many people in different areas, orders, and states of life, it's very versatile. There are SO many ways to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, both alone and with other people! Variations on sitting and standing, variations on who says what, variations on what is sung or said, variations on how it's sung or said. (I personally sing a lot of Compline and a little of Morning Prayer, but it varies day to day!) Some people say the psalm prayers, some (like me), don't. Some people (like me) say the antiphon before AND after the psalm, some people say it before only. When a priest is present, the conclusion is different. Basically, as long as you follow the basic outline, you can kind of do whatever you want!

Additionally, it can fit whatever your life requires! So that I remember to say it, I always say Morning Prayer while I get dressed (and it takes about the same amount of time) and Compline while I'm getting ready for bed (which also takes about the same amount of time). I don't often say Evening Prayer, just because there's not really anything to "marry" it with, but I'm hoping that'll change in the future. 

So that you can see that it's really not that complicated, I actually recorded myself saying (and singing!) Morning, Evening, and Night Prayer on various days while I was prepping this post! I added explanatory text so you know what's going on at each point, and can match it to my list above. Please enjoy (and ignore how young my voice sounds! I'm not sure how, at 17, I can sound so old in my head, and so young on a recording) (and also please excuse how fast I talk. My family informs me that at times, when I'm reading things, I am well-nigh incomprehensible. I hope that's not the case here, but it's a possibility). 

Morning Prayer (Saturday, May 15, 2021) (My usual MO: mostly spoken, with a wee bit of singing and chant)

Evening Prayer (Thursday, May 13, 2021) (Fully spoken version)

Night Prayer  (Saturday, May 16, 2021. Not that it matters what day it is actually...it just matters that it's a Saturday) (Fully sung/chanted, with mostly Dominican-ish tones.) (Also, normally Night Prayer is shorter, but Legolas and I chanted ALL of it, AND did the Dominican Salve and the Dominican O Lumen at the end, which made it probably four minutes longer than usual. XD)

"Samantha," you may be saying, "this is all well and good, but where do I find the Liturgy of the Hours to pray it?"

Glad you asked!

I have something called Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours, which is the basics of the Liturgy of the Hours all in one book. (People who are more serious about saying more hours have multiple books...I'm not that nerdy yet.) You can find it HERE. It has Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Night Prayer, and Daytime Prayer.

BUT in this digital age, there is also something called iBreviary, which complies all the pieces of the Liturgy of the Hours for you every day, in one app, without having to flip back and forth between different parts of the book! HERE's the website...I have no idea how you can download the app, since I am, for the moment, smart-phone-less, but y'all are smart people and I trust you can figure it out.

As you may have seen in the video, I actually have a separate book for Compline--it has the English on one side of the page, and the Latin on the other, so I can do bilingual Compline, which is pretty dang awesome, I'm sure you'll agree. It also has chant to go with each psalm, so you can sing the Office more easily. You can find that HERE.

Do you pray any of the Liturgy of the Hours? Have you ever chanted the Liturgy of the Hours? What's one of your favorite prayers?