For the past week or so, I found myself praying the entire Liturgy of the Hours every day. That means all of:
- Lauds (morning)
- Terce (mid-morning)
- Sext (midday)
- None (mid-afternoon)
- Vespers (evening)
- Compline (night)
- Office of Readings (usually the longest hour, sometime during the day)
It didn’t happen immediately, but it did happen organically, completely unforced on my part.
The remarkable bit: I sacrificed nothing of importance in my daily routine. The bits of activity that I did give up turned out to be wasted time: listening to podcasts whose content I barely remember afterwards, engaging in unimportant social media…and hitting dead ends in my work life because I was “too busy to take a break”.
The entire Divine Office, every day, media vita (“in the middle of life”).
It’s not about how much time we have to spare in our busy-ness.
It’s about how much we love God, that we’re willing to toss out the crap that litters our waking moments, to make room for Him-and-us.
Here’s how you can do “seven-a-day”, without breaking a sweat:
Get a prayer app. I prefer the smell and feel of my Everyday Prayer book, but an app is the most practical way to pray the entire Liturgy. My personal preference is Universalis, available for both Android and iOS. For a one-time payment of US$12.60 (Android) or US$11.00 (iOS), you get both the entire Divine Office and daily scripture on your phone, each day neatly compiled, customized for our local liturgical calendar, and offline (no Internet required, a major boon when traveling).
Set reminders. Universalis has a convenient settings section to set up reminder notifications on your phone for each hour, and even customize the exact time at which you receive each reminder. When a notification comes up on your phone, tapping on it takes you directly to the hour in question, ready for prayer.
And probably the most important bit…
Keep calm and pray on. When I first set up Universalis reminders on my phone, I decided for some reason to do all seven hours. It turned out to be a blessing; the Universalis authors had decided to use just one notification bubble, and simply change the named hour/link therein as each reminder ticked by. If I missed Sext, for example, I’d see None the next time I took a breather and looked at my phone. Then I’d carve out a 10 minute break (toilet or otherwise) in the middle of an endless and fruitless meeting, tap that notification, and pray None. If I miss even that, I’d hit Vespers and Office of Readings on the long ride home.
That persistent notification bubble is how you’ll come around to praying the entire Liturgy. You might initially feel a twinge of guilt, as I did, when you realize you missed all the hours in a day, but as you successfully add one hour (probably Vespers) to your daily routine, then another (preferably Lauds), the “rhythm of prayer” will eventually get you into the habit of carving out those chunks of “busy” time that really weren’t productive at all, and turn them into refreshing “coffee breaks with Jesus” that just might clear your mind and inspire you to success in your working life.
But it does require that first step: buying the app. When I coached a group at Church of the Risen Christ to chant the Divine Office, a couple of folks were moaning about the cost. Honestly:
- we generally don’t treasure the stuff we get for free, like our salvation for which Jesus paid the ultimate price, and
- a one-time payment of US$10+ is a pittance for the tools to establish a lasting, meaningful, and daily relationship with our Father.
As the popular devotional song says:
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
Let it be, dear friends…or not. The choice is ours.