Tag: Daily Office

• A Reason Why Liturgy Matters: "Like Staring Out Into Eternity"

  So often, it seems to me, that people who are drawn to the Christian tradition of mysticism and contemplation are eager to learn practices like Centering Prayer or the Jesus Prayer — but they are far less enthusiastic about some of the less “glamorous” Christian practices, like participating in the Mass or the Liturgy of the Hours (also known as the Divine Office or the Daily Office).

  I confess that this has been true for me. If you invite me to deepen my breath, relax, and practice a discipline of letting go of my thoughts so I could be still and know God, my response would be, “When do I start?” But when it came to gathering with other people to pray out of a breviary (or, even worse, picking up the breviary by myself and praying in solitude), I simply failed to see the point behind it. It was so formulaic, so repetitive, so… rote! How could this be spiritually formative?

  Getting to know contemplative practitioners from other faiths, however, has forced me to reevaluate my bias against the liturgy. First (as I recount in Unteachable Lessons), I became friends with a Sufi, a Muslim who prayed five times a day, no matter what — typically reciting the same passages from The Qur’an, day in and day out. Later, I spent some time meditating daily with a group of Buddhists, who began their morning meditation with the same few chants — day in and day out. They had other chants for the evening, again, the same words each and every day. I began to think that I was spoiled: at least the Christian Liturgy changed from day to day, based on the readings and whether it was Lent or Easter or some other time of the year.

  So why do it? Why pray out of a book, prayers that consist of Psalms and canticles and other Bible verses — and even if they aren’t the same day in and day out, they do follow a rhythm, and over time you keep praying the same words over and over. Why do it?

  I’ve written about this before — see Seven Reasons to Pray the Divine Office: the Divine Office provides us with a language for prayer, it teaches us who God is (and who we are in response to God), it helps to form our identity as people of prayer, and so forth. Today, however, I’d like to share another reason for praying the Liturgy of the Hours, that comes to me from an Anglican Benedictine monk, Holy Cross Father Aidan Owen, OHC. Brother Aidan is the Guestmaster of Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, NY, and recently he sent out an email newsletter to friends of the monastery; in that newsletter he offered the following reflection, which he has given me permission to quote here on the blog.

  I’ve found myself reflecting a lot on the place of the Monastery in today’s chaotic and violent world. I have friends — many of them among our guests — who are, so to speak, on the front lines, bringing God’s message of hope, love, and justice to those at the literal and figurative borders of our world. We monks are not, largely, those people. And yet, I firmly believe that the witness of prayer we offer is essential to the greater flourishing of God’s Word and God’s Love in this hurting world.

  I’m reminded of a conversation I had with Br. Ron before I entered the Monastery. I asked him what it was like to pray the Office day in and day out for over forty years, worrying, I suppose, that it must get a bit boring. He surprised and delighted me by saying that it was like staring out into eternity. There is so much space and no hurry at all.

  It strikes me that that window into eternity is what the Monastery offers as gun violence, white supremacy, environmental degradation, and consumerism wreak havoc on God’s people. Each time we pray the Office or celebrate the Eucharist or sit in silent prayer, we return to eternity, where God always lives, and we allow God to remind us that God’s peace and justice and love are already right here and right now, even as they are not fully visible or manifest.

  

  When I first read that, I had a “wow” moment.

  Praying daily prayers, even the same daily prayers you’ve been praying for forty years, is like a window into eternity. Not that eternity is some faraway place: on the contrary, it is closer to us than we are to ourselves. The beauty of daily prayers — even daily prayers recited from a book — is that they remind us that eternity is here, now; and they help us to see what is right in front of our noses — and in our hearts — but that we all too often fail to notice.

  As you explore the path of Christian mysticism and contemplation, make the effort to balance your daily practice of silence with prayers that you sing or say. Prayers that come out of the tradition, like the Psalms or other Biblical passages — which of course are prayers that the great mystics and contemplatives throughout history have prayed; especially the Psalms, which Jesus himself prayed.

  Will you ever get bored with the Daily Office? Of course: don’t we all get bored with the quotidian tasks of our lives? But as much as we can remember that our common prayers give us “space and no hurry at all” to gaze into the silence of eternity, hovering in and between the words we offer to God — then even the most mundane words we pray will shimmer with the light of grace.

  September 3, 2019

  Daily Office, Divine Office, Liturgy of the Hours, practice, Via Mystica

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• The Easy Way to Pray the Liturgy of the Hours

  I believe that anyone who is serious about embracing the Christian contemplative path needs some form of sustainable daily prayer. For most of Christian history, this has meant using a breviary — a prayer book which contains prayer “services” or offices for praying throughout the day. Such collections of prayers are known as The Liturgy of the Hours or The Daily Office or The Divine Office.

  The Liturgy of the Hours is the structure of prayer that nearly all Christian monasteries follow. There are different liturgies for different traditions within Christianity (Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican) and for different religious communities within the various churches (Benedictine, Cistercian, Carmelite, and so forth). In our day, even some Protestant, Reformed, and Evangelical versions of the Liturgy of the Hours has been published, which is remarkable since many of the faith communities in the evangelical world tend to avoid formal types of prayer.

  But the Daily Office is a practical way to pray — even for people who don’t like to pray out of a book. Why? For the same reason that musicians collect sheet music of songs. Yes, maybe they would rather play “from heart” or memory, but musicians understand that to grow as musicians, they need to learn a variety of different tunes, songs, melodies, styles of playing — and it just makes more sense to rely on written music to expand one’s musical repertoire.

  Likewise, people who pray seriously (and regularly) might soon discover that, if they rely only on their own experience and their own vocabulary when praying, sooner or later their prayer all starts to sound the same. But if they turn to the great literature of prayer: the psalms, the canticles, great hymns, and written prayers composed and collected from throughout the ages — then over time, their “prayer lexicon” expands, and they develop a deeper and more nuanced voice for prayer.

  Among other things, daily prayer books like The Liturgy of the Hours teach us how to pray.

  

  “What Do I Do With All These Ribbons?”

  I recommend investing some money into one or more versions of the Divine Office. At the end of this post I list links to several of my personal favorite prayer books. Some are single volume collections of prayers, others run up to four volumes — the entire set consisting of almost 8000 pages of prayers! These books are designed to be used multiple times every day, day in and day out, year in and year out. Prayers are organized by the season of the year (Lent, Easter, Advent, Christmas, and so forth), with special prayers for days that commemorate key events in the life of Christ, or memorials for the lives of great saints and martyrs.

  Which means — when we pray the Liturgy faithfully, day in and day out, it not only teaches us how to pray, but it also forms us in the knowledge and memory of the Christian faith.

  But there’s a catch.

  Every year, the calendar of the Christian year changes slightly. Sure, Christmas is always on December 25 and the feast of St. Teresa of Ávila is always on October 15. But Easter varies from year to year, calculated based on the first full moon after the spring equinox. The date of Easter determines the dates of other key dates — Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Pentecost being some of the big ones. And finally, since the alignment of days on the calendar and days of the week shift each year (this year February 11 is a Monday, next year it will fall on a Tuesday), there is always a shift in what prayers need to be prayed on which particular day.

  So how is that managed?

  Traditionally, breviaries (prayer books) include certain prayers that are prayed daily or almost daily (such as the Canticle of Zechariah and the Canticle of Mary, known respectively as the Benedictus and the Magnificat), others that are prayed in a rotation (such as the 150 Psalms, which are prayed over a two-week or four-week cycle) and then of course various prayers that are only prayed on rare occasions, usually linked to a particular saint’s day or feast day of the church year). There’s no way to organize all these prayers — so the prayer books rely on a series of colored ribbons that function as bookmarks. Each day before you begin praying, you mark the pages of the Psalms, canticles and prayers that you will be using. That way, when you are actually praying, you can quickly turn from page to page to find just the specific prayers you need for that particular day.

  If it sounds like a lot of bother — that’s because it is.

  People who pray regularly get the hang of using the ribbons. But for many people, the learning curve is cumbersome. They want to be praying, for heaven’s sake — not fooling around with ribbons in a book!

  Fortunately, for those of us who are ribbon-challenged, technology has come to our rescue.

  Apps for Daily Prayer

  Several smartphone/tablet apps have been published that make praying the Liturgy of the Hours almost foolproof. You simply have to open the app, make sure it is set on the current day, and then find the particular prayers you want to prayer — Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, or several of the other “offices” of the day.

  Most of these apps are available free or for a minimal cost. Some may have a subscription service — particularly with audio files. Yes, thanks to smartphone technology, you can listen to the Liturgy of the Day in addition to (or instead of) merely reading the prayers. Definitely a blessing for people who are visually impaired.

  My personal favorite is iBreviary but I also like Universalis. Both of these apps feature the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours in English. If you are an Episcopalian or simply prefer Anglican liturgy, you can use an app called The Daily Office from Mission St. Clare (these links all take you to the Apple/iTunes App Store; but the Catholic apps can also be downloaded through Google Play and Amazon if your phone isn’t an iPhone).

  Once you’ve installed the app, then you’re ready to pray. Make it a habit! Praying the Liturgy (in part or in its entirety) is not meant to replace silent prayer practices like centering prayer or the Jesus Prayer, or for that matter Lectio Divina. And of course, praying is never meant to replace being a compassionate or loving person. On the contrary — pray the Daily Office as a way to open your heart, so that the Holy Spirit can direct you into the heart of love.

  Prefer Books to Apps? Here’s a Few to Get You Started

  • The Liturgy of the Hours — the current official Roman Catholic daily office. Very traditional, gendered language, but poetic and deeply devotional. Available in several four-volume editions; this link takes you to the least expensive version.
  • The Prayer Book Office — the daily liturgy from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. I guess most Episcopalians just use the Prayer Book, as this edition is now out of print — and used copies are expensive.
  • Benedictine Daily Prayer: A Short Breviary — a lovely one-volume prayer book edited by Benedictine monks. One of a number of liturgies based on the usage of a particular monastic community.
  • The Saint Helena Breviary — an inclusive language liturgy as used by the Episcopal Order of Saint Helena. A gorgeous book, and as a bonus — several of the canticles included are drawn from the writing of Julian of Norwich!
  • Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals — this resource comes from the neo-monastic community of ecumenical Christians seeking to revive monastic spirituality in new ways for our time. This liturgy has a strong emphasis on social justice.
  • Celtic Daily Prayer: Book One and Book Two — a two-volume breviary from the Northumbria Community in England, based on the spirituality of the Celtic Church.

  Happy praying, my friends!

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  February 11, 2019

  Daily Office, Divine Office, liturgy, Liturgy of the Hours, Prayer

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• Seven Tips for Getting Started With the Divine Office

  What does it take to get started with a daily practice of praying the Liturgy of the Hours?

  A reader of this blog asks the following question:

  I have an established practice of Lectio Divina and Centering Prayer in the early morning and Examen and Centering Prayer in the late afternoon. I’m captivated with praying the Daily Office, but I’m struggling how to incorporate Matins, Vespers, and Compline into my day. Suggestions?

  The above comment was posted recently to a previous post on this blog, Seven Reasons to Pray the Divine Office. It’s a great question so it deserves a post of its own.

  First of all, I’m so happy to hear that lectio divina and silent prayer are already a daily part of your life. That’s wonderful!

  So keep in mind — you are already praying on a daily basis. That’s the most important point, and it’s something to celebrate.

  

  Your question is really, “How do I deepen and expand my daily prayer practice?” As you have recognized, the Liturgy of the Hours — also known as the Daily Office or the Divine Office — is a rich resource for nurturing a meaningful and rich prayer life. The liturgy is the “engine” of monastic spirituality: monks and nuns have been praying the Divine Office since the days of the desert mothers and fathers, back in the third century. And the roots of the liturgy go back even further.

  The heart of the Daily Office is the Psalms and canticles, prayers and poems of devotion and praise found throughout the Bible. When you pray the liturgy on an ongoing basis, you become immersed in the spirituality of the sacred scriptures — and slowly, imperceptibly but steadily, the words of the Bible begin to shape your worldview, your values, and your sense of God’s presence in your life.

  But it’s not an easy practice to begin — or to sustain.

  Monks and nuns have it relatively easy, in that they live in a community of brothers or sisters, all of whom share their commitment to spiritual growth and to daily prayer. For a monastic person, the key to praying the daily office is simply showing up, in the chapel, every time the bell rings.

  For those of us who don’t live in a cloister, then the prospect of praying the Divine Office — day in and day out — means making a commitment that will impact our daily life in a significant way. This is because the liturgy involves what has been called “fixed-hour prayer” — praying at certain, specific, times of the day. For example, the current version of the Catholic Daily Office includes:

  • Morning Prayer (at or near dawn);
  • Noonday Prayer (which can be divided into three “Little Offices” to be prayed at approximately 9 AM, noon, and 3 PM;
  • Evening Prayer (at or new dusk);
  • Compline (right before going to bed);
  • the Office of Readings (which can be prayed at any time during the day; it is equivalent to the Vigil, or Night Office, that monks pray typically around 3 AM or 4 AM.

  So to pray the entire Liturgy of the Hours would entail 5 to 7 times of prayer each day, with a total time commitment of approximately two hours!

  Many monasteries have their own liturgies, some examples include Benedictine Daily Prayer and The Saint Helena Breviary. Orthodox Churches also have their own versions of the Divine Office, as well as some of the Protestant denominations — a liturgy can be found in the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer and the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship.

  Then there are contemporary, “independent” liturgies that you can pray, including Shane Claiborne’s Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, Phyllis Tickle’s The Divine Hours, and the Northumbria Community’s Celtic Daily Prayer. 

  This brings us to the question: “I’m struggling how to incorporate Matins, Vespers, and Compline into my day. Suggestions?”

  Matins can refer either to the middle-of-the-night prayers (the Vigil, or Night Office) or to Morning Prayer (also called Lauds). Vespers is Evening Prayer, and Compline prayer at the end of the day. So the reading wants to incorporate liturgical prayers for morning, evenings and night into daily life.

  Now, how to do it? As I said above, if you don’t live in a monastery, it can be a challenge simply finding the discipline and the perseverance to continue this prayer practice, day in and day out.

  There are a lot of reasons for this.

  Many of us lead over-busy lives, between a demanding work schedule, the time commitment that social media asks of us, to say nothing of family obligations, volunteer or church commitments, and simply relaxing and enjoying some “down time” with a favorite book or tv show. How can we fit up to two hours of prayer into such a full schedule?

  Then there is the inherent challenges in the practice itself. Prayer that is read from a book can feel stiff, wooden, or formulaic. It’s easy to argue with the words printed on the page, or to feel as if no one is listening. Like any other new commitment (like joining a gym or learning to play a musical instrument), persevering with the Daily Office, day in and day out, can seem pointless or boring, especially after the initial enthusiasm wears off.

  So: what can we do to minimize the struggle and enjoy the prayer? Here are a few thoughts:

  1. 

     Use an app. Some liturgies (including the Catholic Daily Office) are now available as apps for your tablet or smartphone. I use one called Universalis (available for iOS devices or Kindle/Android devices). You’ll pay a small price for it, but far less for the app than you would for the printed version of the Liturgy; best of all, you carry it with you wherever, making it easy to pray the office during your commute (assuming you’re not driving, of course!), while traveling, etc. Furthermore, the app is easy to use, not requiring the sometimes-complicated page turning that it takes to pray the liturgy using a book.

  2. Start small. I think it might be a mistake to begin trying to pray three offices — unless you are retired or have lots of time on your hands. What’s important is to establish the “dailiness” of the Daily Office. The best way to do that is to begin with one specific office, such as Morning Prayer or Compline, and commit to praying it on a daily basis. Once you’ve got it so established in your daily routine that you wouldn’t think of skipping it, that’s the time to introduce another one of the offices into your daily routine. So grow your commitment slowly and organically.
  3. Combine the Liturgy with other prayer forms. The reader who asked the original question (see top of this post) has an advantage in that daily lectio and silent prayer are already a daily habit. It is both easier, and more meaningful, to incorporate the Daily Office into an already-existing prayer practice. If you are already spending twenty minutes each morning doing Lectio and another twenty minutes each evening doing silent prayer, then consider praying the corresponding office of the liturgy right before or right after your already-established prayer routine.
  4. Pray with others whenever possible. While it is both acceptable and very lovely to pray the Liturgy of the Hours by ourselves, this is a kind of prayer that works best in a communal setting. Some churches have a small gathering of people who meet daily for morning and/or evening prayer; consider joining such group (or starting one in your own parish). Another option is to find a group of Benedictine Oblates, Third Order Franciscans, Lay Cistercians, Secular Carmelites, etc., and join them. Many of these kinds of groups have regular gathering days where you can join with others and pray the liturgy together. Even just praying one day a month with a group can help you to persevere in your own practice. And at least once a year, make a retreat at a monastery where you can join the nuns or monks with their daily prayers.
  5. Consider finding an accountability partner. If you can’t find a group to join, or have difficulty in starting your own prayer group, then the next best thing is one person who can pray with (and for) you. This person could be a spiritual director or spiritual companion, or simply an informal prayer partner. But it needs to be someone who shares your interest in, and desire for, daily liturgical prayer. You can gather once a month or so and pray one of the offices together; but you can also function as accountability partners to each other, checking up on and encouraging each other to persevere in daily prayer.
  6. Allow the prayers to be rote (up to a point). I think one of the challenges in praying from a book is the understandable desire to “mean it” or “do it with feeling.” We think rote prayers are insincere. But here I have found the prayer practices of other faith traditions to be instructive. Having participated in Muslim prayers and Buddhist chanting on a number of occasions, I’ve been surprised to see how comfortable people of other faiths are with “rote” prayers. Rather than fret about such prayers lacking meaning, the emphasis is on allowing the repetition to make subtle transformations in our hearts and minds. I think this works just as well for Christian prayer. Obviously, it’s important to prevent the mind from wandering all over the place during the prayer! But it’s okay to let the prayers have a rote or repetitive feel, as long as you make a basic effort to comprehend the words you are praying. Trust that the Holy Spirit is the one truly at work here, allowing the words of the prayers to form you at a level deeper than consciousness.
  7. Be gentle with yourself when you miss a day or two. Everyone has a bad day now and then, or a disorganized day, or a forgetful day. We find ourselves getting ready for bed and then realize, “Oops! Forgot to pray the liturgy today!” It happens even to the most seasoned prayer practitioner. So it will happen to you, too. My advice here is to simply resolve to do better the next day and then let go of worrying about what  you did (or did not) accomplish today. Even if you drop the practice and go several months (or years, or even decades) without praying, you can always start over again. So always be willing to begin again. Once you’ve made the commitment, you are a prayer practitioner for life. Some days you’ll practice your prayer, and some days you won’t. But always seek to return to your prayer whenever you skip a day or miss a season.

  I hope these tips are helpful. Prayer has been so meaningful for my own journey as a contemplative Christian, so I wish the same blessings for you, whoever you are that reads these words. Pray every day! And allow God to be the one in charge. It’s an adventure in love — that will last forever. Enjoy!

  February 19, 2018

  Daily Office, Divine Office, Fixed hour prayer, Liturgy of the Hours

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• Seven Reasons to Pray the Divine Office

  Everyone knows that monks devote their lives to silence, but also to daily prayer and chanting. Monastic prayer occurs at fixed-hours throughout the day. The rota of Psalms, canticles, scripture readings, antiphons and other prayers that incorporate this daily liturgy is known as the Divine Office (or the Daily Office, or the Liturgy of the Hours).

  Praying the Divine Office is central to monastic life, but even those of us who aren’t monks may find that this type of prayer is an essential part of our spiritual practice.

  But it’s a huge commitment and many people might find it daunting to pray even part of the Divine Office on a regular basis.

  If you’ve read Befriending Silence, then you know that I have a tempestuous relationship with daily prayer. In chapter 7, I make the following confession:

  When I first became a Lay Cistercian, I struggled with the liturgy… My life was too busy, too unstructured, too freeform, and too spontaneous for me to be bothered by something like daily prayers. Or so I rationalized it to myself. I muddled along, praying from time to time and justified to myself all the days that I didn’t manage to pray.

  In the book, I go on to talk about how forming a friendship with a devout Muslim, who prays five times every day, inspired me to take the Divine Office more seriously. I wish I could say that I am now a model practitioner of daily prayer, but the truth is, I still struggle with it.

  Recently I met with one of the monks who guides our Lay Cistercian community, and we talked about the liturgy. He asked me why I find the Divine Office worth praying. Just off the top of my head, I came up with four reasons, and as I reflected on it, I thought of three more. So I thought I would share them with you.

  If you pray the Divine Office, perhaps this will be inspiration to carry on. If you don’t yet pray it, or need encouragement to begin or (like me) to strengthen your commitment to regular prayer, then I hope the following reasons will be a help for you.

  1. The Divine Office provides us with a language for prayer. Sometimes it’s hard to find the words for prayer. But in the Liturgy of the Hours we have access to wisdom that stretches back to before the time of Jesus. The Psalms, canticles, and other passages from scripture form the bulk of the Daily Office; in many ways, it is the Bible at prayer. But the liturgy also contains many other prayers that convey a range of feelings and concerns — it is a rich and nuanced vocabulary for prayer, that will deepen your ability to communicate with God throughout the day.
  2. The Divine Office teaches us who God is, who the Church is, and who we are.What’s interesting about the liturgy is that not all parts of it are addressed toGod — some of it (for example, the canticles of Zechariah and Mary) is language aboutGod. But it’s still prayer — because prayer is more than just us talking to God, it’s God speaking to us. And throughout the liturgy, we encounter insight into God’s personality and character — along with similar insights into what it means to be humanin relationship with God, whether as individuals or as a community.
  3. The Divine Office forms our identity as members of the Body of Christ.The liturgy does more than just describe who God is, and who we are. It also guides us to become who God wants us to be. Our faith is clear: we are created in God’s image and likeness, but we often behave in ways that fail to live up to who God calls us to be. We need guidance to be the people we are meant to be. The wisdom abounding in the Office shows us the path God calls us to follow. It’s not magic: we still need to respond to God’s call to become holy. But the liturgy is a trustworthy map.
  4. The Divine Office helps us to pray at a level deeper than our feelings or experience. The liturgy is a daily commitment, not a “when you feel like it” commitment. It is meant to be offered to God on a regular basis, no matter what kind of mood you’re in or what’s going on in your mind. In that sense it is like marriage: a commitment of love, understanding that true love runs deeper than the emotions that ebb and flow from day to day or season to season. And while it is hard to keep praying during dry seasons or times of emotional turmoil, doing so is a powerful way to deepen your faith.
  5. The Divine Office teaches us humility, obedience, fidelity, and patience.This is the other side of the previous point. We pray on a regular, daily basis, not because our mercurial emotions tell us to, but rather because we want to be faithful to God, obedient to God’s word, and committed to a trusting relationship with God built on eternal values like humility and patience. These are values at the heart of Christian spirituality — even if they are not always held in high esteem by our secular culture. But when we grow in these authentic values, we conform more fully to the image and likeness of the God who created us.
  6. The Divine Office helps us to grow in intimacy with God.I’ve compared the liturgy to marriage, and it’s an appropriate analogy, because like marriage, the Daily Office is all about love. Too often we get unhelpful messages about God, not only from secular society but even sometimes from the Church. Too many of us have images of God that emphasize anger over love, judgment over mercy, sternness over tenderness. Yes, God is holy and just, that is true. But God is Love— and the promise of spirituality is to discover that Love and to become one with it. The Divine Office calls us to that graced discovery.
  7. The Divine Office reminds us that every day is a place where we can touch eternity. I experience the liturgy in many different ways: sometimes it inspires me, sometimes it encourages me, and frankly, sometimes I argue with it or chafe against it. All this is okay. The liturgy speaks to us in the glorious complexity of our humanity, which means we will react to it in a variety of ways. But what is always part of the Divine Office is its orientation toward eternity: it is an invitation to see God, and life, and humanity, from the vantage point of heaven rather than just earth. It reminds us that communion with God isn’t just something that happens on Sundays or at churches or monasteries. The healing and life-transfiguring power of intimacy with God can touch (and transform) our lives at all times and in all places. The very regular, ordinary, dailinessof the liturgy helps us to keep this in mind.

  I hope you find this list helpful — and may it be encouragement and inspiration for you as you continue your journey deeper into the heart of God.

  Can you think of other reasons why it’s a blessing to pray the Divine Office? If so, please share your thoughts with me, either in a comment below this post or on social media. Thanks!

  January 6, 2016

  Daily Office, Divine Office, Liturgy of the Hours, practice, Via Mystica

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• Seven Reasons to Pray the Divine Office

  Everyone knows that monks devote their lives to silence, but also to daily prayer and chanting. Monastic prayer occurs at fixed-hours throughout the day. The rota of Psalms, canticles, scripture readings, antiphons and other prayers that incorporate this daily liturgy is known as the Divine Office (or the Daily Office, or the Liturgy of the Hours).

  Praying the Divine Office is central to monastic life, but even those of us who aren’t monks may find that this type of prayer is an essential part of our spiritual practice.

  But it’s a huge commitment and many people might find it daunting to pray even part of the Divine Office on a regular basis.

  If you’ve read Befriending Silence, then you know that I have a tempestuous relationship with daily prayer. In chapter 7, I make the following confession:

  When I first became a Lay Cistercian, I struggled with the liturgy… My life was too busy, too unstructured, too freeform, and too spontaneous for me to be bothered by something like daily prayers. Or so I rationalized it to myself. I muddled along, praying from time to time and justified to myself all the days that I didn’t manage to pray.

  In the book, I go on to talk about how forming a friendship with a devout Muslim, who prays five times every day, inspired me to take the Divine Office more seriously. I wish I could say that I am now a model practitioner of daily prayer, but the truth is, I still struggle with it.

  Recently I met with one of the monks who guides our Lay Cistercian community, and we talked about the liturgy. He asked me why I find the Divine Office worth praying. Just off the top of my head, I came up with four reasons, and as I reflected on it, I thought of three more. So I thought I would share them with you.

  If you pray the Divine Office, perhaps this will be inspiration to carry on. If you don’t yet pray it, or need encouragement to begin or (like me) to strengthen your commitment to regular prayer, then I hope the following reasons will be a help for you.

  1. The Divine Office provides us with a language for prayer. Sometimes it’s hard to find the words for prayer. But in the Liturgy of the Hours we have access to wisdom that stretches back to before the time of Jesus. The Psalms, canticles, and other passages from scripture form the bulk of the Daily Office; in many ways, it is the Bible at prayer. But the liturgy also contains many other prayers that convey a range of feelings and concerns — it is a rich and nuanced vocabulary for prayer, that will deepen your ability to communicate with God throughout the day.
  2. The Divine Office teaches us who God is, who the Church is, and who we are. What’s interesting about the liturgy is that not all parts of it are addressed to God — some of it (for example, the canticles of Zechariah and Mary) is language about God. But it’s still prayer — because prayer is more than just us talking to God, it’s God speaking to us. And throughout the liturgy, we encounter insight into God’s personality and character — along with similar insights into what it means to be human in relationship with God, whether as individuals or as a community.
  3. The Divine Office forms our identity as members of the Body of Christ. The liturgy does more than just describe who God is, and who we are. It also guides us to become who God wants us to be. Our faith is clear: we are created in God’s image and likeness, but we often behave in ways that fail to live up to who God calls us to be. We need guidance to be the people we are meant to be. The wisdom abounding in the Office shows us the path God calls us to follow. It’s not magic: we still need to respond to God’s call to become holy. But the liturgy is a trustworthy map.
  4. The Divine Office helps us to pray at a level deeper than our feelings or experience. The liturgy is a daily commitment, not a “when you feel like it” commitment. It is meant to be offered to God on a regular basis, no matter what kind of mood you’re in or what’s going on in your mind. In that sense it is like marriage: a commitment of love, understanding that true love runs deeper than the emotions that ebb and flow from day to day or season to season. And while it is hard to keep praying during dry seasons or times of emotional turmoil, doing so is a powerful way to deepen your faith.
  5. The Divine Office teaches us humility, obedience, fidelity, and patience. This is the other side of the previous point. We pray on a regular, daily basis, not because our mercurial emotions tell us to, but rather because we want to be faithful to God, obedient to God’s word, and committed to a trusting relationship with God built on eternal values like humility and patience. These are values at the heart of Christian spirituality — even if they are not always held in high esteem by our secular culture. But when we grow in these authentic values, we conform more fully to the image and likeness of the God who created us.
  6. The Divine Office helps us to grow in intimacy with God. I’ve compared the liturgy to marriage, and it’s an appropriate analogy, because like marriage, the Daily Office is all about love. Too often we get unhelpful messages about God, not only from secular society but even sometimes from the Church. Too many of us have images of God that emphasize anger over love, judgment over mercy, sternness over tenderness. Yes, God is holy and just, that is true. But God is Love — and the promise of spirituality is to discover that Love and to become one with it. The Divine Office calls us to that graced discovery.
  7. The Divine Office reminds us that every day is a place where we can touch eternity. I experience the liturgy in many different ways: sometimes it inspires me, sometimes it encourages me, and frankly, sometimes I argue with it or chafe against it. All this is okay. The liturgy speaks to us in the glorious complexity of our humanity, which means we will react to it in a variety of ways. But what is always part of the Divine Office is its orientation toward eternity: it is an invitation to see God, and life, and humanity, from the vantage point of heaven rather than just earth. It reminds us that communion with God isn’t just something that happens on Sundays or at churches or monasteries. The healing and life-transfiguring power of intimacy with God can touch (and transform) our lives at all times and in all places. The very regular, ordinary, dailiness of the liturgy helps us to keep this in mind.

  I hope you find this list helpful — and may it be encouragement and inspiration for you as you continue your journey deeper into the heart of God.

  Can you think of other reasons why it’s a blessing to pray the Divine Office? If so, please share your thoughts with me, either in a comment below this post or on social media. Thanks!

  January 6, 2016

  Daily Office, Prayer, spirituality, Via Mystica

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