Benedict in his Rule for Monasteries (chapters 8-19) around 550, with canonical hours of lauds (morning prayer) offered at sunrise, prime (first hour of the day), terce (third hour, or midmorning), sext (sixth hour, or midday), none (ninth hour, or midafternoon), vespers (evening prayer) offered at sunset, and compline (night prayer) before going to bed. With the reforms of the Second Vatican Council the traditional one-week Psalter cycle became a four-week cycle.Īmong the earliest Psalter cycles of which we have a record is the division given by St. 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. The practices were quite individual from monastery to monastery. 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. And, although the apostles no longer shared in the Temple sacrifices - they had its fulfillment in the “breaking of the bread” (the Eucharist) - they continued to frequent the Temple at the customary hours of prayer (Acts 3:1). The Acts of the Apostles notes that Christians continued to pray at these hours (see Acts 2:15 10:3). 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 inspiration for this development may have been sentiments in Psalms such as King David’s prayer, “Seven times a day I praise you” (Ps 119:164), and the statement that God’s law is studied by those who are righteous “day and night” (Ps 1:2).Īfter the people returned to Judea, and the Temple was rebuilt, the prayer services developed in Babylon for the local assemblies (synagogues) of the people were brought into Temple use as well. During the Babylonian Exile (587-521 B.C.), when the Temple did not exist, the synagogue services of Scripture readings, psalms and hymns developed as a substitute for the bloody sacrifices of the Temple, a sacrifice of praise. 1280 B.C.) to offer a morning and evening sacrifice (see Ex 29:38-39). The Divine Office owes its remote origin to the inspiration of God’s Covenant with the Jewish people. Why are these prayers important in the life of the Church? “Seven times a day I praise you”
Many Catholics hear that priests are required to recite the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Divine Office, and assume it is a “private” prayer said only by priests and those in religious orders.Īlthough clerics and religious are obligated by Church law to say the Divine Office (see Canons 1173-1175), laymen and women are increasingly making the Liturgy of the Hours part of their spiritual growth and development by reciting morning and evening prayer.
0 kommentar(er)
