Category Archives: Divine Office

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.

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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.

These questions fell out of a recent series of talks on praying the Liturgy of the Hours, at which I was an “assistant tutor”.

Q: Why is it recommended to use the Everyday Prayer book instead of a Divine Office app or web site?

It isn’t. I personally use the Universalis mobile app whenever I travel, just so I can have each day’s mass readings and Liturgy of the Hours without extra weight, bulk or Internet charges.

Now, paper tends to be more useful, once you get used to flipping back and forth:

• Some electronic versions don’t have accent marks to indicate syllabic stresses, which are very useful when chanting.
• You may be in a place where electronic devices are not permitted.
• Screens can be hard on the eyes.
• Books don’t run out of battery, or crash in the middle of prayer.

Then again, there’s no flipping needed for apps, and you can pray in the dark with a smartphone.

Use whatever makes more sense to you, just start praying.

Q: I have no time to pray even twice a day. What can I do?

Do NOT skip the first Hour of the day. Lauds (morning) and Vespers (evening) are the two hinges on which the rest of the Divine Office hangs. Imagine a door to eternal life, with Lauds representing the top hinge, and Vespers the bottom one.

If you religiously pray Lauds, that starts you off each day on a Godly note. Then, if your day ends so late that you are too tired to pray Vespers, that’s like a door missing its bottom hinge: It’s not as stable as one with both hinges intact, but it still swings properly with a little care.

If you decide to skip Lauds…a door that’s missing its top hinge will soon twist right off the bottom one and fall flat, constantly battered by temptations and distractions, and upended by daily cares.

(For added assurance, add more hinges…er…Hours.)

Q: I’m having trouble finding the motivation to pray the Divine Office. What can I do?

Play to win, so that you can pray to win. Or, “proper preparation prevents poor performance.” Waking up and staggering past an empty altar is no way to win the crown of life, so it pays to do whatever prep work is necessary to replace motivation with convenience and/or workflow.

So after Lauds, I’ll always turn to the next day’s Lauds and leave the prayer book open on my home altar. (Before Vespers, I bookmark the Lauds page, then pray the evening prayers, and flip back to Lauds. Even if I end without Vespers for a reason, the book’s at the correct page for the next day.)

I’ll also make sure there’s a chair in front of the altar, and switch on the altar light manually at night, so that when I wake up and stagger towards the kitchen the next morning, I inevitably reach out to switch off the altar light, look up at Jesus staring down at me…then sit down and begin my morning prayer without having to figure out which page to start on.

Q: I’m a late sleeper, so I can’t wake up at 6am to pray Lauds. What do I pray then?

Pray Lauds whenever you wake up, then Vespers at the usual evening hour. The exact time of each hour isn’t as critical, especially when your waking hours get complicated, as in…

Q: I’m on shift duty. How can I pray the Divine Office when I’m on night shift, since my hours don’t match the Hours?

There are two options I’ve seen in use:

Option 1: Follow the wall clock. Pray today’s Vespers before you head out for work in the evening, and tomorrow’s Lauds when you return in the morning. It can be a bit jarring at first, but it’s easy to figure out with an Ordo or other prayer timetable.

For night-shift workers, this can also mean praying Compline in the middle of the night, which is quite appropriate as a ward against both physical and spiritual darkness.

Option 2: Follow your internal clock. Lauds before you head out, Vespers when you get back. This is in spiritual harmony with the intent of Lauds to “consecrate to God the first movements of our minds and hearts; no other care should engage us before we have been moved with the thought of God.” (St. Basil the Great) It’s especially appropriate to begin your “day” with the Lauds invitatory: “Lord, open my lips.” Going to bed with Compline’s conclusion of “a quiet night and a perfect end” is also a nicely literal way to finish your “day”, even if the sun’s blazing at “night”.

If you use this option, I recommend that you use the next day’s prayers, e.g. pray Friday’s Lauds and Vespers on your “day” that starts Thursday night. Think of it as “anticipated prayers”; you’re praying in union with the worldwide Church, just a few hours ahead of your local brethren. This also leads to praying a “connected” set of prayers on feasts and solemnities, e.g. praying both Lauds and Vespers of St. John the Baptist together in a “day”, instead of starting with 2nd Vespers of St. John and ending with Lauds of the next day.