The Divine Office is not new to me, because I've been praying it in some form for years. Nicole and I are Benedictine Oblates, so we are already under a promise to pray the Office (three times a day, not just twice!). You might think "wow, David, you are way ahead of the game, you know how to do this." Well...sort of. If there is one thing that the formation experience is teaching me it is that the things about our Faith that I thought I really knew well, I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did, but I am eager to learn. Other things about the faith that I didn't think I was very educated about, I am learning that I probably knew a little more than I thought about those things. Deaconate formation has completely reawakened the passion for the Office that I had when I was first introduced to Benedictine spirituality. I have definitely learned that I didn't know nearly as much about the Liturgy of the Hours as I thought I knew.
Those of you who may have had any part of your faith formation in the Benedictine tradition may have been introduced to the Divine Office in the short form, and in my case I was given one week's worth of the Office along with some additional hymns and canticles in a little three-wing binder called the Benedictine Oblate Companion. Every few months Oblates of St. Meinrad Archabbey are sent things to put in that little three-ring binder. It is all good spiritual information that fits well with the Benedictine way of doing things and specifically with ongoing Oblate formation at St. Meinrad. When presented with the Office, Oblates are presented with a one-week cycle. I discovered the other three weeks via what in those days was a fairly new spiritual tool called the internet. I found a website called Universalis which had a translation of every office every day, as it is supposed to be prayed for every day of the year, and you could choose your calendar based on what country you lived in. "Wow," I thought, "this is great. Now I can pray essentially the same prayers as everyone else does in the monastery."
Years later I discovered a site called Divine Office, which not only gave me the written prayers to pray, but included a podcast of people praying the Liturgy of the Hours in a worshipful way in which I could join in. I love this, and I use it every day now. Divine Office begins each day by giving you these volume numbers and page numbers, and last month I finally learned what that was all about.
Four volumes of psalmody, canticles, antiphons, hymns, and ordinary instructions for how to pray the Office. This is the Breviary, folks, all of it...
All of us Aspirants had to purchase a set of the entire Office, and we had to do this because Deacon Tim Elliott, are Deacon Director, wants us all learning from the same source, so the shorter volumes that have only those prayers of the Office which we would be required to pray aren't quite acceptable enough. A brand new set of the Hours is not cheap, and I know of at least one fellow Aspirant who now has two sets (he already had one). Mind you, I'm not complaining about possessing the entire Liturgy of the Hours-I've learned more about the Office since I've gotten my hands on these books than I ever knew before. Along with the book we had to read for this month, The School of Prayer, I've already learned a few things in advance of our class this month about the Liturgy of the Hours.
One is that the Church doesn't call it the Liturgy of the Hours for nothing. Praying the Office is a liturgical act and it is a form of liturgy, just as the Mass is a liturgy. The Liturgy of the Hours is a different kind of liturgy than the Mass, and it serves a different purpose than the Mass, but it is a kind of liturgy. The Liturgy of the Hours also is not meant as the sole province of priests and religious, or of the uber-holy. The Divine Office is meant for everyone, and anyone can pray the Divine Office, alone or in a group. Priests, deacons, and religious are under an obligation to pray the Office because everyone should be praying it, so those whose lives are devoted to prayer had better be praying the Liturgy of the Hours. That brings me to the other major thing that I have learned over the last month...
People familiar with the Divine Office have long known that it is best prayed in a group. Most of us who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, though, end up praying it alone. Nicole prays with me as her schedule allows, but usually two of the three Hours that I normally pray in a day are prayed alone. Yet, in the first four centuries of the Church's life, the Liturgy of the Hours was regularly prayed by Christians in community, patterned after the Old Testament hours of prayer. Peter appears to have been praying the Hours in Acts 10:9:
And on the next day, whilst they were going on their journey, and drawing nigh to the city, Peter went up to the higher parts of the house to pray, about the sixth hour [None].Some of our parishes in the United States are praying at least part of the Divine Office every week, even if it is just one Hour. Most aren't doing that, and it may be from the lack of someone to lead the group. Many of us in formation have wondered why we need to buy a four volume set of the Office when it is freely available on the internet. The obvious answer came up ("you may be away from your computer') but I wonder if there is another motive. Like the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours contains red-letter instructions on how to lead a group in this important daily prayer.
We may need all four volumes in case any of us should need to lead a congregation of people in the Prayer of the Church
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