St. Peter Canisius Apostolate

From In Conversation with God: Volume One: Advent and Christmastide, First Sunday of Advent:

“At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come … Watch, therefore — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning — lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch!” (Mark 3.33-37)

To maintain this state of alertness we need to struggle, for we all have a tendency to live with our eyes fixed on the things of the earth. Especially during this time of Advent let us not forget that our hearts are darkened by gluttony and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and so loose sight of the supernatural dimension which every action of ours should have as its milieu. St. Paul compares this guard over ourselves to that of “the well-armed soldier who does not allow himself to be taken by surprise.” This adversary tries to wreak havoc in whatever way he can; and since he does not devise his tactics without attention to detail, neither should we.

We will remain at the ready if we are attentive to our personal prayer, which enables us to avoid lukewarmness and the dwindling and cooling of our desires for sanctity. We will be constantly on the alert if we do not become slipshod about those little mortifications which keep us awake to the things of God. We will remain attentive through a refined examination of conscience, which makes us look to those points at which, almost without noticing it, we are departing from our path.

We normally don’t think of Advent as a penitential season. In fact, I must confess that in past years Advent for me has been little more than a countdown to Christmas.  This year, however, I’m making a point to be more serious about entering into the spirituality of the season itself — to live it as a time of anticipation and preparation. I found that the above passage not only provides the rationale for such an attitude (we are tempted by many things during this time of year, and therefore we must pay attention to the details of our spiritual life), but at it also offers some solid points on how to live this season (an attentiveness to prayer, mortification, and our examination of conscience).

If there’s any point in the liturgical season during which the Church calls us to an attitude that is at odds with our culture, it is Advent. Society, in general, is focused on slowing down for the holidays and putting off things until next year, whereas the Church calls us to be more attentive to the basics of the spiritual life. And during a time in which we are to make lists of “all the things we want,” part of our meditation is on a family who had so little that their first and only child had to be born in a cave, swaddled in rags, and placed in a trough for a bed.

Though I’m not sure how I’d change my family’s celebration of Christmas — with a wife and kids, not to mention grandparents and two aunts, I can’t just call it off — but I am thankful for feeling ill over how far removed our Western culture in general and my own circumstances in particular are from the spirit of Advent. Perhaps that’s how it should be.

From Dom Hubert van Zeller’s Holiness: A Guide for Beginners:

If personal holiness is thought of as being a name at the top of a list, it is understood wrong. If it is thought of as something that merits a feast in the Church’s calendar, it is understood wrong. If it is thought of as something to which is attached the power of working miracles, it is understood wrong. If it is thought of as mooning about in a state of pious contentment (or sweet ecstasy or noble and aloof virtue), it is understood wrong. There is nothing “superior” — in the sense of being one up on everybody else — about it.

The way to think of sanctity is as something that, by being generous and faithful to grace, gives back to God the love He has given to the soul. So it is for God’s sake, more than for our own, that we should want to be saints. We work away at holiness not because we are ambitious, and want to be experts in a particular kind of lofty career, but because God wants us to be saints and it praised by our striving after sanctity.

Anyone can be holy, or rather act holy, so long as others are saying, “There’s a saint for you,” but sooner or later this sort of holiness wears off. Either the person sees the trap, becomes humble, and goes ahead toward real holiness, or keeping up the act becomes too much of a strain and there’s a swing toward worldliness and perhaps to a lasting unholiness. The whole secret of sanctity is that it is a thing of grace, and so cannot be switched on as a part to be played.

This means that however determined you are to be a saint, you will not become one if you rely on your own strength of mind. The thing that can get you to sanctity is God’s grace. You will need all the strength of mind you have just to work together with God’s grace, but if you imagine that making good, strong resolutions will carry you the whole way, you are wrong. About the first thing to happen will be that God lets you break some of those good, strong resolutions before you get properly started. This will be to put you in your place, and show that you can do nothing without Him.

From Fr. Thomas Dubay’s Seeking Spiritual Direction:

Our first sign of growth comes from the lips of the Lord himself, and it strikes at the very heart of reality: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Lk 12.34). Or as St. Paul expressed it: since you have risen with Christ, mind the things above, not those on earth (Col 3.1-2). Love is like gravity: everything in the lover’s life tends toward the beloved. People growing toward God find that more and more the indwelling Trinity is their center of gravity. While they do not neglect duties toward others, their thoughts and choices are focused on their one love. When St. Francis of Assisi looked at a rose or a bird, he did not see only a remarkable artifact of the Creator. Deep in the center of the flower or the animal, he saw a glimpse of the divine glory, which is one reason why he and all the saints did indeed rejoice in the Lord always; they sought and found the supreme Beloved everywhere, even in hardships and sufferings.

From a spiritual conference by Father John Hardon:

In the words of St. Ignatius, I quote, “Christ our Lord, the Lord of all the world, chooses so many persons, apostles, disciples and sends them throughout the whole world to spread His Sacred doctrine among all men. No matter what their state or condition may be, the address which Christ our Lord makes to His servants, whom He sends on this enterprise, is to urge them to seek to help everyone. First, by attracting them to the highest spiritual poverty and should it please the Divine Majesty and should He deign to choose them, even to actual poverty. Secondly, by encouraging them to desire insults and contempt, for from these two things comes humility. So then, there are three steps. The first poverty, opposed to riches, the second scorn or contempt, opposed to worldly honor, the third humility, opposed to pride. From these three steps Christ leads them to all virtues.”

We now have the contrast and what a contrast this is. Christ’s strategy is the direct opposite of Satan’s. It begins by inspiring His followers and future apostles in every age, in every state of life to practice the first beatitude, ‘blessed are the poor in spirit’, detachment of heart from earthly possessions. And even, if it is God’s will, attracting them to dispossession.

In all my years in the priesthood I don’t go to theological analysis when I invite people to work in the apostolate, but behind every invitation is the principle behind the Two Standards. The first condition is that the person who wants to serve Christ in winning souls for His Divine Majesty is himself, at least internally, detached from everything and I mean everything, and I mean everything, in this world, money is the most obvious but not only. This is so fundamental in the apostolate that in two thousand years, what am I saying, I mean it, in two thousand years there have been no exceptions, the only persons that Jesus Christ uses to spread His gospel are the people detached from the things of this world. And nobody cheats. You cannot play both sides. You cannot love, as Christ tells us, both God and mammon.

Then Christ inspires His followers just the opposite of the devil’s instigation. And those are the two words I always use theologically — instigation by the devil, inspiration by Christ. Christ inspires His followers to actually desire, of course, of course, under the influence of grace, to be scorned or contempted. I know whereof I speak. I made the Spiritual Exercises for the first time at the ripe old age of twenty-two. I have not had to change one syllable ever since. You must want, I mean it, you must want, and I quote Ignatius, “to be scorned, despised, ignored, rejected.”

That doesn’t mean you go around behaving as somebody who is well, out of his mind. But, for the world, and I mean that in the most generic sense possible, for the world anyone who follows Christ faithfully is out of his mind, do you hear me. And in the world’s estimate we are only as out of our mind as we are faithful in the following of Christ. And having, God knew I didn’t know then, having done my own graduate studies and got my degree in psychology, having read, because, well I had to, volumes of Siegmund Freud. One of his favorite definitions of a psychotic, “a psychotic is anyone who believes that he will be rewarded after death for the good that he has done here on earth.” Pardon me ladies and gentlemen, my dear fellow psychotics. In other words, presumed behind all that we are saying is that sincerely to imitate Jesus Christ is to be considered, well, not just unworldly, but irrational. And the best we can do is, well, hide or protect or mask what the world calls our irrationality, quite an art. I give a whole course on that subject.

(Don’t forget to read Part 1: The Standard of Satan: Pride)

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From a spiritual conference by Father John Hardon:

Let me first quote from St. Ignatius, “The chief of all the enemy summons innumerable demons and scatters them. Some to one city and some to another throughout the whole world, so that no province, no place, no state of life, no individual is overlooked. He goes around to lay snares for men to seek to chain them. First they are to tempt them to covet riches, as Satan himself is accustomed to do in most cases, that they more easily obtain the empty honors of this world and then come to overweening pride. The first step then, will be riches, the second; honor, the third; pride, from these three steps the one leads to all other vices.”

Now some explanation, the devil’s strategy is to get people to become attached to earthly things. He urges them to, well, acquire say material wealth, which is the cheapest kind of riches, or acquire education. Ah, dear Lord, how clever the devil is. Or acquire mastery in the use of their emotions, or cultivate gifts in the social order, or, would you believe it, the devil will even tempt people to acquire spiritual riches. Forty-seven years in the priesthood, as I keep telling people, have taught me an awful lot. Twenty-five years of teaching the most highly intellectual people that the Church can gather, members of the Society of Jesus, oh how hungry men can be for knowledge. But whatever the possession, whether as cheap a thing as money, or special things say as, secular knowledge or even spiritual wisdom, the beginning is to become wealthy and thus to attain to recognition, praise, honor. How well I know, I’ve lived with too many people, too many highly gifted individuals, who have fallen like cheap tinder because they’ve allowed themselves to be beguiled by the evil spirit.

Attachment to the things of this world gradually makes a person, not only satisfied with what he or she possesses, but hungry for acceptance, recognition, praise, and honor. And once, as Ignatius says, once a person becomes a victim of empty honors, then pride follows as a matter of course. I’ve struggled with too many multi-millionaires not to know how weak these wealthy people can be if they allow their attachment to the things of this world to bewitch them, and as a consequence makes them an easy prey by making them proud. Because once a person falls into pride, there is no limit to that person’s malice. Proud people are the agents of the devil. He uses them to seduce others. In fact, he uses them to work with him, and under his demonic power he organizes proud people into what some of the Fathers of the Church, as I have said, call a distinct power, call it the mystical body of satan. By whatever name, it is mastered by the father of lies. And God allows the demons to exercise superhuman power over those who allow themselves to be victimized.

(Don’t forget to read Part 2: The Standard of Christ: Humility)

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Let’s say you have Shorter Christian Prayer and want to start praying the hours. How exactly should you go about it?

Before you can begin praying the Divine Office, you need to know which Week of the Psalter you should be praying. The Office cycles through four weeks of prayers. To determine which week you should be praying, you have to know which liturgical week the Church is in. In other words, you can’t just start on Week 1. Remember, the Divine Office is not a private prayer. Even if you say it by yourself, you are still praying along with the Church. And since the Church follows a liturgical calendar, your praying of the Office must also follow that calendar.

If We’re In Ordinary Time

1. To determine which liturgical week the Church is in, go to the daily Mass Readings provided by the USCCB and click on the current date.

2. Under the calendar date itself, it will tell you the Church’s date. This will be either the name of a feast (Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, bishop) or the numerical liturgical week of the Church (Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time).

3. If you see the numerical liturgical week of the Church, you’re set. If you see the name of a feast day, you’ll have keep clicking on the different days of the week until you get the numerical liturgical week.

4. Open your copy of Shorter Christian Prayer to page 503, the beginning of Ordinary Time, and find the corresponding Sunday of that liturgical week. For example, if it’s the 15th week of Ordinary Time, you’ll find the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time on page 518.

5. Underneath the bold heading, in red letters, it will tell you which week from the psalter to read. For example, if it’s the 15th Week of Ordinary time, you will pray Week 3.

6. Turn to the corresponding week in the psalter, and then find the current day of the week (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc.).

7. Begin praying!

If We’re Outside of Ordinary Time

1. To determine which liturgical week the Church is in, go to the daily Mass Readings provided by the USCCB and click on the current date.

2. Under the calendar date itself, it will tell you the Church’s date. This will be either the name of a feast (Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary) or the numerical liturgical week of the Church (Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent).

3. If you see the numerical liturgical week of the Church, you’re set. If you see the name of a feast day, you’ll have keep clicking on the different days of the week until you get the numerical liturgical week.

4. Open to Sunday of Week One of the psalter, on page 37. In the middle of the page, in red print it will read:

Advent:

Lent, 1st Sunday:

Lent, 5th Sunday:

Easter, 5th Sunday:

(Note: the four weeks of the psalter correspond to the four week of Advent)

If you see the numerical liturgical week listed there, you’re set. If you don’t see the numerical liturgical week listed here, turn to Sunday of Week Two of the psalter, on page. 111. If you don’t see numerical liturgical week listed on page 111, then turn to Sunday of Week Three, and, if necessary, Sunday of Week Four.

5. Now find the current day of the week (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc.).

6. Begin praying!

I’m Ready to Begin Praying, Anything Else?

I have one final recommendation: Pray through the four-week psalter one time before trying to incorporate the feast days of the Church into your prayer. In other words, during your first month of praying the Office, you should have two goals: first, to get comfortable with praying the Office, and second, to get in the habit of praying Morning and Evening Prayers at a more-or-less fixed time. Once you have this down, then you can begin to worry about modifying the Office to fit the different feast days.

The Divine Office is a complicated prayer, and the last thing you want to do is to set it aside because you’ve become too frustrated. Once you master the basic structure of Morning and Evening Prayers as well as get in the habit of praying at fixed times, the initial shock of the the Office evaporates. You’ll then feel more confident to bring the Church’s feast days into your reading of the Office.

Related Posts

• The Liturgy of the Hours (annotated lists of all posts)
• What is the Liturgy of the Hours?
• The Three Versions of the Liturgy of the Hours
• Liturgy of the Hours — Sunday Prayer
• Start with Shorter Christian Prayer
• Liturgy of the Hours — Cheat Sheet
• Example of Sunday Morning Prayer
• Example of Sunday Evening Prayer II
• Example of Night Prayer
• The Divine Office as a Form of Sacrifice

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Here is an excellent article by the late Fr. John Hardon on the discipline it takes to pray the Divine Office (the Liturgy of the Hours). Not everything he says can be applied to the individual recitation of the Office. However, much of it is applicable.

The two kinds of sacrifice that I find most challenging are the sacrifice of time . . .

This kind of sacrifice again differs immensely with different people, and for some no doubt it hardly seems to be a sacrifice at all. It all depends on what a person is doing, or could be doing, or would be doing at the precise time when the call is given for the recitation of the Divine Office.

Time, it has been said, is our most precious commodity after the grace of God. Wise men are miserly of this time, and saints have been careful not to waste any time, seeing how little we have of this priceless possession, and how quickly it runs out or better, how quickly time is running headlong into eternity.

In order to make the sacrifice of time, spent as we say on the Divine Office, we must be sure that no time could be better expended. We must, if necessary, steel ourselves to the conviction that after the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, the time surrendered to the Divine Office is most acceptable to God.

. . . and the sacrifice of sentiments . . .

Closely associated with the foregoing is the sacrifice of sentiments when we pray the Liturgy of the Hours.

What would normally be on my mind or in my heart might be far removed (even as prayer) from what, e.g., the Psalm that I am singing bids me to think and, as it were, tells me to desire.

Yet, out of love for God and in deference to His Church I subordinate my personal sentiments to those which the Church wants me to have. I submit my mind to the Church’s mind in praying what, for the present, she wants me to ask of God, and not what I might prefer if I had my choice in the matter.

I may be feeling sad, and the prayers of the Office tell me to be glad. I may be feeling glad, and the prayers of the Office tell me to mourn for the sins of the world. I may have a strong attraction for the Savior in His heavenly glory, and the Office may require that I sacrifice these sentiments to turn instead to the Savior’s bloody Passion.

So it goes, and so it is. But that is precisely what the recitation of the Office requires of the Church’s faithful who have learned to give up even their deepest interior feelings in conformity with the Church’s directives seeing that these directives come through the Church from Christ Himself.

Related Posts

• The Liturgy of the Hours (annotated lists of all posts)
• What is the Liturgy of the Hours?
• The Three Versions of the Liturgy of the Hours
• Liturgy of the Hours — Sunday Prayer
• Start with Shorter Christian Prayer
• Liturgy of the Hours — Cheat Sheet
• Example of Sunday Morning Prayer
• Example of Sunday Evening Prayer II
• Example of Night Prayer
• So I have Shorter Christian Prayer, now what?

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Here’s a little cheat sheet to help you say Morning and Evening Prayers.

Opening for Morning Prayer: the Invitatory for Morning Prayer: “Lord, open my lips. And my mouth shall proclaim your praise.” Recite the antiphon. Then recite either psalm 95, 100, 67, and 24. If said privately, you do not have to repeat the antiphon between the stanzas. Close with the Glory Be, and then repeat the antiphon.

Opening for Evening Prayer: the standard opening for evening prayer is: “God, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me.” Then the Glory Be. Close with “Amen. Alleluia.”

Hymn: recite, sing, or chant; remember liturgical seasons.

The Three Psalms: open each with the antiphon, recite the psalm, recite the Glory Be, say the psalm-prayer (if there is one), close by repeating the antiphon.

Reading

Reponsory: If praying the hours by yourself, you don’t have to “respond” if the response is a repetition. Here’s an example. Recite everything except that which is crossed out.

My God stands by me, all my trust is in him.

– My God stands by me, all my trust is in him.

I find my refuge in him, and I am truly free;

– all my trust in is him.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit

– My God stands by me, all my trust is in him.

Gospel Canticle: Canticle of Zachariah during Morning Prayer, Canticle of Mary during Evening Prayer. Say antiphon, recite canticle, recite Glory Be, repeat antiphon.

Intercessions. Read as written. I sometimes add my own intercessions after reading the formal ones.

Our Father

Concluding Prayer

Related Posts

• The Liturgy of the Hours (annotated lists of all posts)
• What is the Liturgy of the Hours?
• The Three Versions of the Liturgy of the Hours
• Liturgy of the Hours — Sunday Prayer
• Start with Shorter Christian Prayer
• Example of Sunday Morning Prayer
• Example of Sunday Evening Prayer II
• Example of Night Prayer
• So I have Shorter Christian Prayer, now what?
• The Divine Office as a Form of Sacrifice

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Here’s a recording of me reciting Wednesday Night Prayer as found in Shorter Christian Prayer (there are slight variations between the three versions of the Hours).

 

 Divine Office - Night Prayer (Example) [5:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (30)

Things to keep in mind.

1. I tend to pray the Office slower than what you’ll hear — taking longer pauses for reflection between each “movement,” sometimes pausing for several minutes. This is one of the nice things about saying the Office privately. I encourage you to do the same: Make the Divine Office a source of meditation and contemplation.

2. After the Introduction (God, come to my assistance . . .), I don’t immediately jump into the Act of Contrition. I take a few moments — about as long as the priest gives us at the beginning of Mass before the Confiteor — to call to mind my sins and shortcomings of the day.

3. Though I closed Night Prayer (and thereby the day’s prayer) with the Hail Mary, the Church gives us an option of which Marian hymn or prayer we can recite. In case you’re wondering, I close the day with a Hail Mary.

Related Posts

• The Liturgy of the Hours (annotated lists of all posts)
• What is the Liturgy of the Hours?
• The Three Versions of the Liturgy of the Hours
• Liturgy of the Hours — Sunday Prayer
• Start with Shorter Christian Prayer
• Liturgy of the Hours — Cheat Sheet
• Example of Sunday Morning Prayer
• Example of Sunday Evening Prayer II
• So I have Shorter Christian Prayer, now what?
• The Divine Office as a Form of Sacrifice

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Here’s a recording of me reciting Sunday Evening Prayer II from Week 1 of the psalter as found in Shorter Christian Prayer (there are slight variations between the three versions of the Hours).

 

 Divine Office - Evening Prayer (Example) [8:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (16)

Because of the slight variations that take place on Sundays, please note that for this example I used the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, which is found on page 525 of Shorter Christian Prayer.

Note that it’s not necessary to announce which hymn you will recite (or sing, or chant). I did that so you could follow along more easily.

Usually, after reciting the Intentions, I will add my own. I didn’t do this here for obvious reasons.

Finally, I tend to pray the Office slower than what you’ll hear — taking longer pauses for reflection between each “movement,” sometimes pausing for several minutes. This is one of the nice things about saying the Office privately. I encourage you to do the same: Make the Divine Office a source of meditation and contemplation.

Related Posts

• The Liturgy of the Hours (annotated lists of all posts)
• What is the Liturgy of the Hours?
• The Three Versions of the Liturgy of the Hours
• Liturgy of the Hours — Sunday Prayer
• Start with Shorter Christian Prayer
• Liturgy of the Hours — Cheat Sheet
• Example of Sunday Morning Prayer
• Example of Night Prayer
• So I have Shorter Christian Prayer, now what?
• The Divine Office as a Form of Sacrifice

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Here’s a recording of me reciting Sunday Morning Prayer from Week 1 of the psalter, as found in Shorter Christian Prayer (there are slight variations between the three versions of the Hours).

 

 Divine Office - Morning Prayer (Example) [12:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (19)

Because of the slight variations that take place on Sundays, please note that for this example I used the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, which is found on page 525 of Shorter Christian Prayer.

Note that it’s not necessary to announce which hymn you will recite (or sing, or chant). I did that so you could follow along more easily.

Usually, after reciting the Intentions, I will add my own. I didn’t do this here for obvious reasons.

Finally, I tend to pray the Office slower than what you’ll hear — taking longer pauses for reflection between each “movement,” sometimes pausing for several minutes. This is one of the nice things about saying the Office privately. I encourage you to do the same: Make the Divine Office a source of meditation and contemplation.

Related Posts

• The Liturgy of the Hours (annotated lists of all posts)
• What is the Liturgy of the Hours?
• The Three Versions of the Liturgy of the Hours
• Liturgy of the Hours — Sunday Prayer
• Start with Shorter Christian Prayer
• Liturgy of the Hours — Cheat Sheet
• Example of Sunday Evening Prayer II
• Example of Night Prayer
• So I have Shorter Christian Prayer, now what?
• The Divine Office as a Form of Sacrifice

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The Divine Office (the other name for the Liturgy of the Hours) follows the same format. Morning Prayer follows the same structure every morning; Evening Prayer, likewise. In that sense, the Office is just like the Mass. And just like the Mass, the Office has variations depending on the day.

The biggest variation you must be aware of when praying the Office is Sunday Prayers. Open your version of the Liturgy of the Hours to Week 1 of the Four-Week Psalter. The first thing you’ll see is that it’s Sunday, and that we’re on Evening Prayer 1. Now every day has a Morning Prayer and an Evening Prayer except Saturdays and Sundays. Saturday only has a Morning Prayer. Why? Because for the Church, the celebration of the Lord’s Day begins on Saturday Evening. The Church has a vigil Mass on Saturday evenings, and in the Liturgy of the Hours the Church begins her Sunday celebration with Evening Prayer 1. Sunday’s Evening Prayer which is actually recited on Sunday evening is called Evening Prayer 2. So all the days have both Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer except Saturdays and Sundays. Saturday doesn’t have an Evening Prayer at all, and Sundays have two Evening Prayers.

The other fundamental difference is that Sunday prayers follow the liturgical weeks. What do I mean by this? As noted, the Office follows the same structure every day. Part of that structure is that both Morning and Evening Prayers recite one of the Gospel Canticles of Luke 1. During Morning Prayer, we recite the Canticle of Zachariah; during Evening Prayer, the Canticle of Mary. Both Canticles open and close with an antiphon. During the weekday, the antiphon is found within the psalter itself. But on Sundays, the antiphon that opens and closes these Canticles is found in the Proper of Seasons.

The same is also true of the Concluding Prayer. On everyday except Sundays, the Concluding Prayer is found within the psalter itself. But on Sundays, it is contained in the Proper of Season. This means that when you pray the Office on Sundays, you’ll have to flip back to the appropriate Sunday in the Proper of Season to find the antiphon for the Gospel Canticles and the Concluding Prayer.

If you’re using Shorter Christian Prayer, the weeks of Ordinary Time begin on page 503. This coming Sunday (11/9/2008) is the 32nd Week of Ordinary Time. So you find the antiphons that open and close the Gospel Canticles, as well as the Concluding Prayer, on page 537.

If you’re using Christian Prayer, the 32nd Week of Ordinary Time is found on page 638.

And if you’re using the Liturgy of the Hours, the Gospel Canticle antiphons and the Concluding Prayer for the 32nd Week of Ordinary Time is found on page 500 of Volume 4.

Related Posts

• The Liturgy of the Hours (annotated lists of all posts)
• What is the Liturgy of the Hours?
• The Three Versions of the Liturgy of the Hours
• Start with Shorter Christian Prayer
• Liturgy of the Hours — Cheat Sheet
• Example of Sunday Morning Prayer
• Example of Sunday Evening Prayer II
• Example of Night Prayer
• So I have Shorter Christian Prayer, now what?
• The Divine Office as a Form of Sacrifice

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If you’ve never prayer the Liturgy of the Hours, I recommend you start with Shorter Christian Prayer.

My rationale should be fairly obvious (if you’ve read my previous post). Simply put, Shorter Christian Prayer is the best way for the beginner to learn how to pray the Hours without being burdened by complexity. Because let’s face it, the Liturgy of the Hours is a complex prayer. It takes time to feel comfortable saying it. It also takes time to get used to saying Morning and Evening Prayers at more or less set times. And so the less complicated the Hours can be, the better suited they are for the beginner. Eventually, however, you’ll want to progress from Shorter Christian Prayer to Christian Prayer and maybe even to the four-volume Liturgy of the Hours itself.

Related Posts

• The Liturgy of the Hours (annotated lists of all posts)
• What is the Liturgy of the Hours?
• The Three Versions of the Liturgy of the Hours
• Liturgy of the Hours — Sunday Prayer
• Liturgy of the Hours — Cheat Sheet
• Example of Sunday Morning Prayer
• Example of Sunday Evening Prayer II
• Example of Night Prayer
• So I have Shorter Christian Prayer, now what?
• The Divine Office as a Form of Sacrifice

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There are three different versions of the Liturgy of the Hours. There’s the full-fledged four-volume version, which is called the Liturgy of the Hours. Then there’s the one-volume version that’s called Christian Prayer. And finally there’s the abbreviated form of Christian Prayer called Shorter Christian Prayer.

What’s the difference between these three versions?

Now, the four-volume version, which is called the Liturgy of the Hours, is the complete version. By that, I mean that it contains all of the hours, all of the psalms, all of the prayers, and all of the readings for every day of the liturgical year.

Both Christian Prayer and Shorter Christian Prayer are one-volume versions of the Liturgy of the Hours. What makes them different is that Christian Prayer has a fuller version of what’s called the Proper of Seasons and the Proper of Saints. Remember, the Church’s liturgical year is divided in two ways. First, we have different liturgical seasons — Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time. Also, many days throughout the year are set apart to honor the various saints. So that part of the Liturgy of the Hours which treats the liturgical seasons is called the Proper of Seasons, and that part which treats the saints is called the Proper of Saints.

Both the Proper of Seasons and the Proper of Saints in Christian Prayer are much longer and far more substantial than they are in Shorter Christian Prayer.

The other major difference between the two is that Christian Prayer has supplemental version (not the full version we find in the Liturgy of the Hours) of Daytime Prayer whereas Shorter Christian Prayer does have any version of daytime prayer.

But both Christian Prayer and Shorter Christian Prayer have the full, four-week cycle of Morning Prayers and Evening Prayers, and both contain Night Prayers.

Related Posts

• The Liturgy of the Hours (annotated lists of all posts)
• What is the Liturgy of the Hours?
• Liturgy of the Hours — Sunday Prayer
• Start with Shorter Christian Prayer
• Liturgy of the Hours — Cheat Sheet
• Example of Sunday Morning Prayer
• Example of Sunday Evening Prayer II
• Example of Night Prayer
• So I have Shorter Christian Prayer, now what?
• The Divine Office as a Form of Sacrifice

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The name itself tells us much. First, the Liturgy of the Hours is a liturgy, which means that it’s part of the Church’s official prayer. That means that it’s a public prayer. Even if we pray it privately, we are still engaging in public prayer because we are praying the Church’s own prayer. That’s what the word “liturgy” means.

The word “hours” refers to what’s known as the canonical hours of the day. The Church has established set times throughout the day that Christians are called to separate themselves from their daily duties and engage in the prayer of the Church — or to engage in prayer along with the Church.

Now the Church has established seven set hours for prayer. In the order in which they are prayed, they are called the Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Midmorning Prayer, Midday Prayer, Midafternoon Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer, and they would normally be prayed at the following times: 3 a.m., 6 a.m, 9 a.m, 12 noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9 p.m.

However, because of the circumstances of modern life, the Church made some modifications to this  traditional format. The Office of Readings, which would normally be said at 3 a.m. — or, at the very latest, before Morning Prayer — may now be recited at any hour of the day. The Church has also allowed for some variations of the three daytime prayers so that, on the one hand, these prayers don’t unnecessarily interrupt the flow of work, and on the other hand, they allow those who want to pray daytime prayer the opportunity to pray it when time allows. Also, Nighttime Prayer may now be said anytime after Evening Prayer, just before retiring for the night, even after midnight.

The two hours that have the least flexibility are Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, because as Vatican II said in Sacrosanctum Concilium: “In keeping with the ancient tradition of the universal Church, Morning and Evening Prayer form a double hinge of the daily Office and are therefore to be considered the principle Hours and celebrated as such.”  This means that Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer should be said as close to their canonical hours as possible, which are 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. respectively.

By way of summary, the best definition of the Liturgy of the Hours is that it is the official prayer of the Church said throughout the day at more-or-less fixed times.

Related Posts

• The Liturgy of the Hours (annotated lists of all posts)
• The Three Versions of the Liturgy of the Hours
• Liturgy of the Hours — Sunday Prayer
• Start with Shorter Christian Prayer
• Liturgy of the Hours — Cheat Sheet
• Example of Sunday Morning Prayer
• Example of Sunday Evening Prayer II
• Example of Night Prayer
• So I have Shorter Christian Prayer, now what?
• The Divine Office as a Form of Sacrifice

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