Observing Fixed Hour Prayer
- Kenny Marchetti
- Mar 3, 2009
"On Observing Fixed-Hour Prayer
and Using Prayer Books for the Divine Hours"
OBSERVING FIXED-HOUR PRAYER
Choose a prayer book. Many prayer books from a variety of Christian traditions are available for free or purchase in book or online editions. (See the ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY below.) Three of the major prayer books in use today are presented under USING PRAYER BOOKS FOR THE DIVINE HOURS below.
Select your schedule. The historic tradition of fixed-hour prayer involves praying seven times a day: Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, Compline, and Lauds. Of course, few want or can embrace all seven, set times for prayer. So begin slowly, perhaps in the beginning adjusting your schedule to accommodate morning and evening prayer. Then consider adding noonday (during an open lunch hour or even during a late morning or late afternoon break) and compline (during those last waking moments in bed before closing your eyes for sleep). The evening commute is also a brilliant opportunity for adding Vespers (or if you're working late, taking a break and having some dinner.) During your Sabbath (Saturday, Sunday, or another day off during the week), you may attempt all seven times of prayer.
Be disciplined in grace, not law. Praying the divine hours will both require and bestow discipline. But receive grace to enjoy fixed-hour prayer in a spirit of love, peace, patience, and flexibility, avoiding a proud, competitive, obsessive-compulsive, self-righteous legalism. By the Holy Spirit's leading and the outworking of Divine Providence, some days may afford more fixed-hour prayer than others. So guard against a stiff ritualism that won't allow for the gracious accommodation of life's surprises and demands.
Take your time. Don't hurry through the prayers/readings of the divine hours. Read them slowly and meditatively, engaging God through them with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Some times it will help to read aloud and/or repetitiously.
Add your expressions. Feel free to add your own, personal expressions of prayer in the midst of your fixed-hour readings. This is how it should be. These written prayers are not intended to replace your own prayers but rather to evoke - even provoke! - greater, deeper, and longer expressions of praise, confession, affirmation, thanksgiving, petition, intercession, etc.
USING PRAYER BOOKS
Highlighted below are three of the most common prayer books in use today.
The first is The Divine Hours edited by Phyllis Tickle. This is an ecumenical Protestant prayer book.
The second is The Book of Common Prayer published by the Episcopal Church in America. This prayer book comes from the Anglican Protestant tradition.
The third is The Little Book of Hours published by the Community of Jesus, a monastic community in the United States. This prayer book belongs to the Roman Catholic tradition, being a condensed version of the much larger, Book of Hours.
The Divine Hours edited by Phyllis Tickle. The editor, Phyllis Tickle, has published this prayer book in many helpful forms, including the seasons of the Christian calendar, the Night Offices, and a convenient, compact edition:
- o Christmastide: Prayers for Advent Through Epiphany from The Divine Hours
- o Eastertide: Prayers for Lent Through Easter from The Divine Hours
- o The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime
- o The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime
- o The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime
- o The Night Offices: Prayers for the Hours from Sunset to Sunrise
- o The Divine Hours: Pocket Edition
Each edition of The Divine Hours is arranged in a very "user-friendly" format. Tickle also provides a helpful introduction and user symbols/notes in each book.
To use The Divine Hours, simply locate the appropriate day and time of each fixed-hour of prayer. The prayers/readings are clearly laid out in their proper, sequential form.
"The Gloria" and "The Lord's Prayer" are printed at the beginning of each prayer book. Be encouraged to memorize both.
Finally, the prayers/readings for "Compline" (those to be observed immediately before retiring to sleep) are located in the back of each edition.
The Book of Common Prayer (1979 edition) published by Oxford Press. [1] This prayer book originates from the Church of England during the English Protestant Reformation under the leadership of the Archbishop, Thomas Cranmer. The Book of Common Prayer has undergone many revisions in its 500 year history. The two versions most commonly used are the 1979 edition of the Episcopal Church of the United States and the 1928 edition of the Anglican Church.
The Book of Common Prayer begins with a helpful outline of the Christian Calendar year, noting the saints to be remembered and the church season.
The next section is the "Daily Office," featuring two versions of Morning Prayers and Evening Prayers, as well as one of "Compline." Following these are the Daily Devotions for Morning, Noon, and Evening. The last section is the Great Litany, which is a beautiful, guided series of prayers for thanksgiving and supplication. This "Daily Office" section will be of most help during the fixed-hours of prayer. Again, these sections are well layed-out, so just follow along, taking note of the user cues. (Obviously, if you're using this section for personal prayers, you will read both the Leader and People sections.)
The section which follows is "The Collects of the Church Year," which are corporate prayers the church communally prays together on specified days/occasions. These collects are offered in both traditional and contemporary language. Again, they are clearly marked, so just find the desired prayer for each day/occasion. (I recommend reading them in both the traditional and contemporary languages.)
The "Proper Liturgy for Special Days," "Holy Eucharist," and "Pastoral Offices" sections are more for use by the gathered church, but these liturgies can be useful in private devotions during the appropriate seasons/occasions of the Christian year. Particularly useful during private devotions are the Exhortation, Decalogue, Penitential Order, and Prayers for the People on pp. 316-321; 350-353; 383-395. The "Ministration to the Sick" (pp. 453-461) is helpful when praying and/or ministering to those who are sick and/or dying.
Next is the complete "Psalter." One may read a particular psalm or observe the historic "Daily Office" (beginning on p. 934), which entails reading five psalms each day, taking one through the entire "Psalter" every month.
Following this are elegant "Prayers and Thanksgivings," which are great for personal devotions and/or ministry to others.
Beneficial for spiritual formation are the "Outline of Faith" (a succinct catechism) and the "Historical Documents of the Church (theological treatises). These may be read, meditated upon, and studied with great profit.
Finally, The Book of Common Prayer ends with the "Lectionary," providing an opportunity to read through the entire Bible in three-year cycles. Clear instructions for the "Lectionary" on found on p. 888.
The Little Book of Hours published by the Community of Jesus. Although coming from the Roman Catholic tradition, this compact edition of the fuller Book of Hours excludes those aspects of Romanism, which are often repugnant to Protestants, such as the practice of Marian devotion and the Mass. Thus, The Little Book of Hours is an eminently helpful prayer book, featuring a useful introduction and clearly identified days/times of fixed-hour prayer.
In using The Little Book of Hours, simply find the appropriate day/time of prayer, following the four-week, monthly cycles.
The prayers/readings for "Compline" for all weeks are found in the back. Also in the back are beautiful prayers for various occasions. These are useful for personal devotions and opportunities to minister to others.
Annotated Bibliography
PRAYER BOOKS
The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle
The Book of Common Prayer (1979 edition) published by Oxford Press
The Little Book of Hours published by the Community of Jesus
THEOLOGY AND SPIRITUAL FORMATION
Praying with the Church by Scot McKnight
A much-needed, timely book by a respected Evangelical theologian, who endorses the reengagement of the Evangelical Church in the historic practice of praying the divine hours. McKnight traces the prayer traditions of the three, major expressions of Christianity: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant-Catholic. Helpfully, McKnight also explains the Christian's need to pray "in the Church," "for the Church," and "with the Church." McKnight also gives a helpful overview of the prayer books most commonly used in each of these three, great traditions of the Christian Faith.
LITERATURE AND POETRY
The Book of Hours: An Anthology edited by Kevin Jackson
A creative, editorial undertaking that makes explicit the implicit living in Western societies by the now commonly accepted and divided hours of the 24-hour day. Collecting "the greatest literary moments that define the twenty-four hours of our day," Jackson takes the reader on a literary journey through some of the most expressive authorial accounts of the Western tradition. In this way, Jackson brings afresh all the simplicities of life and all the complexities of living through an (extra)ordinary day, helping us to feel and understand again the daily rhythms of time-ordered humanity.
Prayers selected and edited by Peter Washington (Everyman's Library
Pocket Poets)
A beautiful anthology of poems structured around the divine hours of fixed-prayer: Matins (Lauds), Prime, Tierce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, Compline. Features some of the best poems from our most beloved poets. One word of caution: not all of these poems are penned by Christians, expressing the orthodox, historic, Christian Faith.
"Horae Canonicae" (Immolatus vicerit) by W. H. Auden in Selected Poems
(expanded edition) selected and edited by Edward Mendelson
Written between the Summer of 1949 and the Spring of 1954, the poet Auden patiently traces a 24-hour day, penetrating the internal and external spiritual, psychological, social, economic, and political realities that make up human life. Auden orders these poetic expressions according to the historic, accustomed hours of prayer: Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, Compline, and Lauds. A beautiful experience, yet realistic accounting, of daily living that reveals the urgent need of hourly prayer in a rushed, frenzied world that too often neglects such crucial humanities and important divinities.
The Book of Hours: Prayers to a Lowly God (European Poetry Classics)
by Rainer Maria Rilke and Annemarie S. Kidder
Having visited Russia during his twenties, the German poet Rilke was greatly affected by the spirituality he encountered there in the Russian Orthodox Church, especially the rhythmic ordering of life and prayer, according to the divine hours. Upon his return to Germany, Rilke (23) began to pen into poetry the prayers he received from his experiences in Russia, collecting them as "The Book of Hours" ("Das Stundenbuch") from 1899 until 1903. Rilke influentially brought to his generation - and now potentially to ours - a renewed and deepened spirituality of and for life, being ordered through praying the divine hours.
WEBSITES
http://www.explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/
This website gives helpful information and instruction for those seeking to understand and implement fixed-hour praying of the divine hours. Be sure to read these excellent essays by Phyllis Tickle:
"A Complete Guide to the Ancient Practice of Fixed-Hour Prayer"
"What Drew Me In and Kept Me Practicing Fixed-Hour Prayer"
"A Brief History of Fixed-Hour Prayer"
"The Divine Hours: An Introduction"
"Notes to Help You Use the Prayers"
"Symbols and Conventions Used"
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/143/story_14375_1.html
Offering a sampling of the prayers for the divine hours of Holy Week, Phyllis Tickle gives us a friendly exposure to her popular prayer book, "The Divine Hours."
http://www.chastitysf.com/loh.htm
This unusual website, peculiar to the Roman Catholic tradition, does provide an online version of the FULL "Liturgy of the Hours," as well as much-need instruction on using this more detailed, comprehensive - and thus complicated - book of prayer. Those coming from or wanting to explore Roman Catholicism will greatly benefit from this free, user-friendly version of the "Liturgy of the Hours."
http://www.calvin.edu/worship/stories/prayer.php
A Reformed perspective on the blessings of fixed-hour prayer, offering careful instruction, inspiring testimonials, links to prayer books of various traditions, and a FREE prayer book download.
Features a FREE online version of the Book of Common Prayer.
http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/liturgical_texts/daily_prayers.asp
Offers a FREE online prayer book in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, "Daily Prayers for Orthodox Christians." For the very daring, one can learn how to chant through this website, as well.
[1] The Book of Common Prayer is also available in editions, which include the complete NRSV version of the Bible. Very convenient for commuting, traveling, and ministering to others.