Hi Friends! Welcome to Episode Five of the Reaching Hurting Women Podcast: A Contemplative Path of Recovery where we are learning new and healthy ways of coping with our daily struggles. My name is Tamara and I’ll be your host.
With the healing power of the Holy Spirit as our guide, we are integrating the traditional 12 Step Recovery principles with Benedictine Spirituality and other contemplative practices which we will be learning and discussing each week. It’s my hope to have a new podcast each Monday to discuss our theme of the week on ReachingHurtingWomen.com
This week our theme topic is: The Liturgy of the Hours 
The Liturgy of the Hours otherwise known as the Divine Office, the Work of God, the canonical hours or the Breviary; is the official set of prayers that mark the hours of each day and sanctifying the day.
It consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns, readings and other prayers. It constitutes the official public prayer life of the Church and forms the basis of prayer within Christian monasticism.
The Liturgy of the Hours along with the Eucharist has formed the Church’s public worship from earliest times in both Eastern and Western tradition, Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches.
The early Christians continued the Jewish practice of reciting prayers at certain hours of the day or night in adherence to Psalm 119:164 “Seven times a day I praise you.”
In the cities of the Roman Empire, the forum bell rang the beginning of that day at six o’clock each morning, noted the day’s progress by striking again at nine o’clock, sounded the lunch break at noon, called citizens back to work at three o’clock and closed the markets by sounding again at six o’clock in the evening. Every part of the day within Roman culture was marked and ordered by the ringing of the forum bells, including Jewish prayer and by natural extension Christian prayer also. Christian prayer at that time consisted primarily of reciting or chanting psalms, reading portions of the Old Testament, and later adding a reading from the Gospels, Acts, the Epistles and canticles.
Around the end of the 5th Century The Liturgy of the Hours was made up of seven offices; Benedict of Nursia added an eighth office in the 6th Century. The eight offices attributed to St. Benedict are:
- Matins/also known as Vigils (The Midnight Office)
- Lauds/Dawn Prayer (Dawn or 3am)
- Prime or Early Morning Prayer (1st Hour 6am)
- Terce/Mid-morning Prayer (3rd Hour 9am)
- Sext/Midday Prayer (6th Hour Noon)
- None/Midafternoon Prayer (9th Hour 3pm)
- Vespers/Evening Prayer (at lighting the lamps 6pm)
- Compline/Night Prayer (before retiring 9pm)
In 1972 in alignment with the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI announced The Liturgy of the Hours, which modified the office to an order very similar to the one instituted by the Anglican Book of Common Prayer; by reducing the previously mandated eight office hours down to four; dividing them into Major and Minor hours. The Major hours, which I try to keep most, are:
- The Office of Readings (formerly Matins)
- Lauds/Morning Prayer
- Vespers/Evening Prayer
- Compline/Night Prayer
Volumes of books have been written explaining and describing the history of The Hours, so I would be hard pressed to condense it into a single podcast. Suffice it to say, as we are reciting or chanting the Daily Office we are keeping a religious tradition that even Jesus Christ kept when he walked here on Earth.
One of the most beautiful things about The Liturgy is that there are thousands of people praying it at the same time around the world, cascading from each time zone to the next surrounding the Earth with God’s Word, which is either being prayed silently, spoken or chanted aloud.
When I was first introduced to The Liturgy, I was drawn to the regularity of schedule, marking the hours of the day with specific prayers and songs. As time went by and I became more connected with the practice, I found it was a very practical way of keeping myself focused and tethered to God and His Word, which was vital to me as a recovering addict.
There are many books and variations of The Liturgy of the Hours. My personal favorites are:
- The Divine Office iPhone app, which is a recorded production of a prayer service, which you can participate with by reciting along with the word on the app.
- A second favorite of mine is Phyllis Tickle’s beautiful book series The Divine Hours that takes us around the seasons and church calendar, making use of the four major daily offices.
I’ve been using both the app and Phyllis’s books in tandem for almost four years now.
Since I began practicing The Liturgy more than three years ago it has given my prayer life new direction, energy and purpose. Rearranging my day around prayer has helped keep my heart; mind and soul focused more on the things of God.
I hope you will take an opportunity to investigate this beautiful practice of The Liturgy of the Hours for yourself. You will find a variety of resources in today’s show notes and also new postings each day this week on ReachingHurtingWomen.com.
Thanks for joining me today on The Reaching Hurting Women Podcast: A Contemplative Path of Recovery. As always I look forward to from you. Until next time, may the grace and peace of God be yours.
RESOURCES:
RHW Book Review: A Book of Hours with Thomas Merton
The Benedictine Handbook Liturgical Press 2003
The Divine Hours: A Manual for Prayer by Phyllis Tickle
Benedict’s Way: An Ancient Monks Insights for a Balanced Life by Lonni Pratt and Fr. Daniel Homan
How to be a Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job: An Invitation to Oblate Life by Benet Tvedten
Monk Habits for Everyday People: Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants by Dennis Okholm
St. Benedict’s Toolbox: The Nuts and Bolts of Everyday Benedictine Living by Jane Tomaine**
Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict by Esther de Waal
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