As a part of my spiritual renewal over the past few months I have taken to performing the Night Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours before I go to bed. As I was praying last night, I realized that not many people know about this cornerstone of Catholic prayer. So, I decided I’d let you know what the deal is. Liturgy of the Hours / Divine Office / Breviary…all three names refer to the same reality, the official prayer of the Church offered at various times of the day in order to sanctify it. Clergy and religious have a canonical obligation to pray the Liturgy of the Hours as official representatives of the Church. Increasingly, the laity (such as myself) are also praying it, though they do not do so in the name of the Church.
The Liturgy of the Hours is further proof of the Catholic Church's deep Jewish roots. Formerly more commonly known as the "Divine Office" or "breviary," these prayers have a long and venerable history that stretches back to apostolic times. The Divine Office owes its remote origin to the inspiration of the Old Covenant. God commanded the Aaronic priests (c.1280 BC) to offer a morning and evening sacrifice (Ex. 29:38-29). During the Babylonian Exile (587-521 BC), when the Temple did not exist, the synagogue services of Torah readings and psalms and hymns developed as a substitute for the bloody sacrifices of the Temple, a sacrifice of praise. The inspiration to do this may have been fulfillment of David's words, "Seven times a day I praise you" (Ps. 119:164), as well as, "the just man mediates on the law day and night" (Ps. 1:2).
After the people returned to Judea, and the Temple was re-built, the prayer services developed in Babylon for the local assemblies (synagogues) of the people were brought into Temple use, as well. We know that in addition to Morning and Evening Prayer to accompany the sacrifices, there was prayer at the Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours of the day. The Acts of the Apostles notes that Christians continued to pray at these hours. Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descending on the apostles, was at the third hour (Acts 2:15). Peter prayed on the housetop at the sixth hour (Acts 10:9). And Peter and John went to the Temple to pray at the ninth hour (Acts 3:1). And, although the Apostles no longer shared in the Temple sacrifices, they had its fulfillment in the "breaking of the bread" (the Eucharist).
Monastic and eremitical (hermit) practice as it developed in the early Church recognized in the Psalms the perfect form of prayer and did not try to improve upon it. The practices were quite individual from monastery to monastery. At first some tried to do the entire Psalter (150 Psalms) each day, but eventually that was abandoned for a weekly cycle built around certain hours of the day. Among the earliest Psalter cycles of which we have a record is the division given by St. Benedict with canonical hours of Lauds (Morning Prayer) offered at sunrise, Prime (1st hour of the day), Terce (3rd hour, or Mid-morning), Sext (6th hour or Midday), None (9th hour or Mid-Afternoon), Vespers (Evening Prayer) offered at sunset, and Compline (Night Prayer) before going to bed. In addition, the monks arose to read and pray during the Night. This Office of Matins (Readings) likewise had its divisions, into nocturnes, corresponding to the beginning of each of the "watches of the night" (Ps. 63:6), that is, 9 pm, midnight and 3 am. With the reforms of the Second Vatican Council the traditional one-week Psalter cycle became a four-week cycle.
The history of the early Church's prayer times is difficult to follow after the first century, largely due to the periodic destruction of documents during persecutions. By the fourth century, however, under the Roman emperor Constantine (d. 337), practices of the faith—including communal daily prayers—became legal and, because of that, public. The persecution of Christians had ended, and the faithful found themselves free to gather without fear around their bishop for what became known as the "cathedral office." Since lay people had daily work and families to care for, the cathedral office was by necessity brief, consisting of perhaps a psalm, antiphon (short verse from a psalm or sentence from the Bible), Scripture reading, homily and intercessions.
Over time, the cathedral office as a communal liturgical celebration died out in the Western Church. Monasteries in urban centers became closer to the dominant influence on liturgical development, and the office consequently became the long, complex monastic office. It was seen more and more as the exclusive duty of priests and Religious, and among the former was not usually prayed in common. The increased demands of clerics in the Middle Ages made the need for a shorter, reformed office evident. In monasteries, it was common for monks to use a number of large books for the Divine Office. They might have a psalter (book of psalms), another book for antiphons, a Bible, a hymn book and yet another volume containing the non-scriptural readings required. This worked fine for clerics who lived and prayed in one location, but the newer, more mobile clerics, such as the Franciscans, needed to travel light. (St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscans, died in 1226.) For them the Vatican devised a condensed version of the office. Its name, breviary, comes from the Latin word for "abbreviated." The Franciscans spread the use of the breviary throughout Europe and beyond.
The reform of the Liturgy of the Hours has been ongoing since the 1500s, with Pope Pius X utilizing the liturgical-renewal movement, and the Second Vatican Council eventually revising and streamlining the office, resulting in a simpler, more flexible liturgy. Since the council, the Church has reaffirmed the public, communal nature of the Liturgy of the Hours as the prayer of the entire Church and has underlined the need for lay participation in it. In fact, since the revision of the Divine Office after Vatican II, lay people have been encouraged to participate in the Liturgy of the Hours, either with the priest, among themselves or even individually. When they do, they join with the entire Church throughout the world in its common prayer, sanctifying the day and night, giving praise and worship to God in a rich and beautiful tradition of our Catholic heritage.
Example of Sunday Night Prayer for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
| Introduction |
God, come to my assistance.
Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.
Amen. Alleluia.
This is an excellent moment for an examination of conscience. In a communal celebration of Compline, one of the penitential acts given in the Missal may be recited.
|
Hymn |
| Psalm 90 (91)
|
Night holds no terrors for me sleeping under God’s wings.
He who lives under the protection of the Most High
dwells under the shade of the Almighty.
He will say to the Lord:
“You are my shelter and my strength,
my God, in whom I trust.”
For he will free you from the hunter’s snare,
from the voice of the slanderer.
He will shade you with his wings,
you will hide underneath his wings.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day;
nor the plague that walks in the shadows,
nor the death that lays waste at noon.
A thousand will fall at your side,
at your right hand ten thousand will fall,
but you it will never come near.
His faithfulness will be your armour and your shield.
You will look with your eyes
and see the reward of sinners.
For the Lord is your shelter and refuge;
you have made the Most High your dwelling-place.
Evil will not reach you,
harm cannot approach your tent;
for he has set his angels to guard you
and keep you safe in all your ways.
They will carry you in their arms
in case you hurt your foot on a stone.
You walk on the viper and cobra,
you will tread on the lion and the serpent.
Because he clung to me, I shall free him:
I shall lift him up because he knows my name.
He will call upon me and for my part, I will hear him:
I am with him in his time of trouble.
I shall rescue him and lead him to glory.
I shall fill him with length of days
and show him my salvation.
He will shade you with his wings; you will not fear the terror of the night.
| Reading | Revelation 22:4-5 |
They will see the Lord face to face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. It will never be night again and they will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will be shining on them. They will reign for ever and ever.
| Short Responsory |
Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
You have redeemed us, Lord, God of faithfulness.
– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
| Canticle |
Protect us Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace.
Now, Master, you let your servant go in peace.
You have fulfilled your promise.
My own eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples.
A light to bring the Gentiles from darkness;
the glory of your people Israel.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Protect us Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace.
Let us pray.
Today we have celebrated the mystery of the Lord’s resurrection, and so now we humbly ask you, Lord, that we may rest in your peace, far from all harm, and rise rejoicing and giving praise to you.
Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
May the almighty Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.
AMEN
Hail, Holy Queen
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy!
Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished
children of Eve, to thee do we send
up our sighs, mourning and weeping
in this valley of tears.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us; and
after this our exile show unto us the
blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus;
O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.
Pray for us, O holy Mother of God
That we may be made worthy of the
promises of Christ.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment