Day 161: The Liturgy of the Hours (1174-1178)

• It’s Day 161!!

• THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS

• This is also known as THE DIVINE OFFICE

• You may have noticed a priest walking around with a book called The Breviary

• It is not The Bible

• Your deacon might pray The Breviary

• Maybe even YOU pray The Breviary

• The Liturgy of the Hours is prayed 5 times a day by priests, bishops, deacons, religious sisters and brothers, and lay people

• They make a commitment to pray The Divine Office all 5 hours

• We call them hours but they are actually moments

• The Office of Readings where we pray the Psalms and a reading from Scripture followed by a reflection

• Morning Prayer

• Daytime Prayer

• Evening Prayer

• Night Prayer

• These are the times we get to stop and pray

• The importance of this is that this is technically known as THE PRAYER OF THE CHURCH

• Paragraph 1175 says, “The Liturgy of the Hours is intended to become the prayer of the whole People of God.”

• Maybe you haven’t even heard of this or encouraged by your priest, parish, or teachers to pray the Liturgy of the Hours

• AND YET…

• This prayer is meant to be THE PRAYER OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE OF GOD

• It is THE PRAYER OF THE CHURCH

• They are meant to sanctify the entire day

• They are God’s gift through the Church to US

• This is not an extra obligation placed on anyone

• BUT…

• THEY ARE IMPORTANT!!

• We are invited into participating in them, the Prayer of the Church

• There is no extra guilt laid on us

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you thanks and praise. We ask you to please send your Holy Spirit to be with us now. Send your Holy Spirit to fill our minds and our hearts. Lord, especially in Jesus’ name, I ask you to cast out any spirit of false guilt that anyone who is joining us today might be experiencing. That false guilt where I feel like I am doing something wrong, but I am not doing anything wrong. Where I feel like I am not doing enough when I am doing exactly what you are asking me to do. Lord God, in the name of Jesus your Son, cast out that spirit of false guilt. Give us a true sense of guilt. Give us a true awareness of where it is you are calling us to act, where you are calling us to speak, where you are calling us to refrain from acting or speaking. Lord, help us in our weakness. Help us in our ignorance. Help us in our blindness and in our deafness. To be able to silence that voice of false guilt and to be attentive to the Holy Spirit who convicts us and leads us into all Truth. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS exist to assist the People of God, all of us, to do exactly what the Scriptures have commanded us

• The Scriptures have told us to PRAY ALWAYS

• So here are priests, deacons, religious, lay people, who are responding to that command by setting aside some time each day and let the Lord speak and encounter God’s Word

• This is VITAL for us to do this

• The Church has given us a STRUCTURE where we read God’s Word

• We let God SPEAK TO US and then WE SPEAK BACK TO HIM

• This is the flow of The Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Daytime Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer

• There are sacred places and locations that are holy

• You can go to the Holy Land and go into the space where the tomb of Jesus is

• You can climb up Golgotha and see where Jesus Christ was crucified

• There are consecrated places

• God did not just make SPACE

• God also made TIME

• Because of that, TIME CAN BE HOLY

• TIME CAN BE SANCTIFIED

• TIME CAN BE CONSECRATED

• We are called to CONSECRATE TIME

• If you have a space in your home that has a dedicated space for prayer that is awesome

• You may not have a dedicated space in your home

• BUT…

• YOU CAN HAVE DEDICATED TIME

• We can ALL have time that is set aside

• This time is HOLY TO THE LORD

• That is what the Liturgy of the Hours is for

• Especially when we are so busy and we have so many other things competing for our time and attention

• Paragraph 1174 says, “This celebration, faithful to the apostolic exhortations to ‘pray constantly,’ is ‘so devised that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praise of God.’”

• This is not just the nuts and bolts of the 5 hours

• It is also so important

• This is the PUBLIC PRAYER OF THE CHURCH

• It is meant to be an exercise of the royal priesthood of the Baptized

• Paragraph 1178 says, “The Liturgy of the Hours, which is like an extension of the Eucharistic celebration, does not exclude but rather in a complementary way calls forth the various devotions of the People of God, especially adoration and worship of the Blessed Sacrament.”

• The heart of the Eucharistic Celebration is the TRUE PRESENCE OF JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST being offered up to the Father

• This is the ACTION of Sacrifice and worship

• We have the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ offered to the Father through the Power of the Holy Spirit

• When you pray the different hours, you are extending that Eucharistic Celebration

• It is a way to participate in it

• Especially if you are unable to get to Mass on any given day during the week

• At least pray Morning Prayer

• It is an extension of the Eucharistic Celebration, any of the hours would be

• A lot of parishes have morning Mass

• If you can’t make that, you can pray Morning Prayer

• That is one of the ways we can participate in the Eucharistic celebration

• It is one of the ways that we exercise our Baptismal priesthood

• When we pray the Liturgy of the Hours it is the prayer of the WHOLE CHURCH

• Paragraph 1174 says, “...the Liturgy of the Hours ‘is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressed to her Bridegroom. It is the very prayer which Christ himself together with his Body addresses to the Father.’”

• THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!

• It can also be a bit boring

• Fr. Mike is confessing a story here…

• Fr. Mike was more concerned with the promise to pray the Liturgy of the Hours than he was with the promise to remain celibate

• He doesn’t know how many times he did all 5

• Sometimes showing up to prayer is a burden

• If it’s once a day that is great

• But sometimes it’s hard to make time more than once

• It’s hard to make 5 times a day

• It’s even harder when you don’t get anything out of it

• That was Fr. Mike’s experience

• It felt very hollow and like he was getting nothing out of it

• AND YET…

• The night before getting ordained he was about to promise to pray the Liturgy of the Hours every single day

• He is so grateful that the Lord called him to make that promise because in the months, years, and decades since he made that promise the Lord has transformed the Liturgy of the Hours for him

• Here’s another story about Fr. Mike’s friend

• The Liturgy of the Hours is a staple of his diet

• It has become a great gift

• Here’s another story…Fr. Mike went on retreat…let’s all listen…you don’t need me to type all of this out do you???? 😉

• What started out as mechanical prayer had taken root in his heart and really transformed the way he approaches the Lord

• EVERYONE IS CALLED TO DO THIS!!

• Paragraph 1175 says, “‘Pastors of souls should see to it that the principal hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and on the more solemn feasts. The laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually.’”

• This is NOT meant to EXCLUDE OTHER DEVOTIONS

• The Rosary is great

• The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is great

• Stations of the Cross are great

• The Liturgy of the Hours is meant to be complementary to all those other devotions

• Here is your invitation to SANCTIFY TIME

• Track down one of the hours

• The office of readings has more readings and Scripture

• Choose one of them and begin 

• Night prayer is a great thing to pray as a family because it is the shortest one and it is the end of the day

• The nights are always the same whereas the other hours are on a different schedule

• Here’s another story about Fr. Mike about ribbons and flipping back and forth…

• I can relate…I used to have the Breviary and couldn’t figure out how to use the ribbons and flip back and forth so I gave them to J.J. 😃

• So we have APPS!!!

• DIVINE OFFICE is one app that is great

• LAUDATE is another one

• HALLOW has part of the Liturgy of the Hours but not all 5 

• There are also podcasts that have recorded people praying the Liturgy of the Hours and you can listen along

• This is the prayer of the whole People of God

• You get to exercise the Baptismal priesthood

• So download one of those apps or podcasts (here is one: https://divineoffice.org/ )

• TRY IT!!

• SEE WHAT IT FEELS LIKE!!

• Each hour of the day YOU are a Kingdom Priest

• Each hour of the day YOU get to exercise your priesthood

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!