Divine office 27/1/2023 Here are links containing the office of Compline to get you started, they are mostly unofficial translations of the medieval office, don’t worry about singing… unless you want to. In most monasteries it is said from memory with minimal lighting. The Council gives the Divine Office 2 main purposes: the glorification of God, and the sanctification of man (SC 7). You can make it your evening, or before bed prayer. It’s short, it’s sweet and the monastic form of it is the same every day. Our common divine praise consists of Lauds, Day Office, Vespers and Compline. It ought to implore us to restore our tradition in our own church.įor private celebration by laymen I would suggest the best place to start is Compline. The Opus Dei is in itself a proclamation of faith. Personally I don’t find it too troubling since it is our own prayer tradition that is being maintained by them, while we are neglecting it. I know some Catholics may have scruples about attending ‘services’ outside our church. In Anglican/Episcopal (and Catholic Anglican Use) parishes choral morning-song (Matins and Lauds) and evening-song (Vespers and Compline) is a strong tradition. In Easten Churches there are often public Vespers on Saturday evenings and Matins Sunday morning before Divine Liturgy (Mass). If that doesn’t work Eastern Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican/Episcopal (and some Lutheran) churches often have public offices, though the form is somewhat different. Check their websites, information pamphlets or on signs near the entrance. Monasteries and similar religious houses usually have their ‘horarium’ or schedule of Hours published. You can see if there are any religious orders in your area. Most parish priests say their breviary privately and most laity are ignorant of its existence. Unfortunately, while there are exceptions, this is now unheard of in Roman Catholic Churches. The easiest way to experience the office is by attending public celebrations of it. It seems better to adopt one particular office to start with. First, I think it is unrealistic for a laity to think they will celebrate the entire office throughout the day in the manner of a monastic. For now though, I will offer some simple ways to join in this practice. I am planning on following this up with a post on the different forms of the Divine office books, resources and such. It has carried over and developed naturally from old covenant to new. This practice has it’s roots in the Old Testament morning and evening sacrifices and daily cycle of temple liturgy. Both the year with feasts fasts and seasons, and also the day with the Divine Office. You can see how the Church sanctifies time by her liturgy. They are Matins (aka- Vigils or Office of Readings) Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. There are seven canonical “Hours” each day. “ Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy just judgments.” Psalm (118)119:164. These prayers are part of the Church’s liturgy, and as such are public corporate prayer of the whole Church (this is the nature of liturgical prayer, even when said privately by individuals it is a participation in the universal prayer of the whole Church). It is known under a number of different names including: The Divine Office, The Hours, The canonical Hours, The Breviary, the Liturgy of Hours. Clergy and members of religious orders are obligated to celebrate the divine office. It consists mainly in the praying of the Psalms (from the book of psalms in the Bible). In general, the Divine Office is a series of liturgical prayers which take place at different periods of the day. What is it anyway? This is intended as a sort of introduction. ~ General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours GILH), Nos.I suggested in my pre-lent posting possibly taking up part of the “divine office”. Finally, in this Hour, we join with the Eastern Churches and invoke ‘blessed Jesus Christ, the Light of our Heavenly Father’s sacred and eternal glory as the sun sets we behold the evening light and sing to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit…’. This ‘evening sacrifice’ ‘may be more fully understood as that true evening sacrifice which was given in the evening by our Lord and Savior when he instituted the most holy mysteries of the Church at supper with his apostles or which on the following day he offered for all time to his Father by the raising up of his hands for the salvation of the whole world.’ Placing our hope in that Sun which never sets, ‘we pray and beg that his light may shine on us again we pray that Christ may come bringing the grace of eternal light’. We also call to mind our redemption, through the prayer we offer ‘like incense in the sight of the Lord’, and in which ‘the raising up of our hands’ becomes ‘an evening sacrifice’. VESPERS is celebrated in the evening when the day is drawing to a close, so that ‘we may give thanks for what has been given us during the day, or for the things we have done well during it’.
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