Daily Prayer - Learning from each other!

There are times this past semester where I really re-connected with my Catholic roots. I know that my mom is laughing up in Heaven at the irony! There have been times, however, that I have also felt very close to my Baptist heritage as well. The topic of daily prayers is one of those times. Baptists, and other Protestant groups, have been stressing daily quiet time for as long as I can remember. I did not always embrace daily Bible study and prayer time, however. In the mid 1980s, there was a huge push in Protestant circles to have a daily quiet time, but it had to be in the morning to be effective. I had a baby at home and was trying to hold down a full time job as well. I was lucky to pull myself out of bed each morning – adding a quiet time was out of the question. I felt guilty and angry that this was taught as the only or best way. Years later, I was relieved to be given ‘permission’ by a great friend to have my quiet time at any time of the day. I have read the Bible through a couple of times, and really cherish this time alone with God. Sadly, this time tends to get relegated to the sidelines during school when I am having to read for homework instead of for the relationship. This is my problem, and it is helpful for our professors to keep reminding us to set aside time for the relationship.

I appreciate the Liturgy of the Hours, though. Taking a few minutes in the midst of our daily routines or the chaos of life and to worship and connect with God is a great blessing. Too many times we get busy and forget to even think about God unless we need his help for something. How nice it is to just stop and wait in his presence several times a day. I believe the Liturgy of the Hours would also be a great help during those times that are set aside for special prayer or fasting. Looks like both faith groups could learn something from one another – as usual!

A Newfound Inspiration in Liturgy of the Hours

I had heard of Liturgy of the Hours through learning about how the monks prayed several times of day using this method of prayer. However, it was not until this semester that I truly began using this style of prayer; I had not seriously considered it until I read Sockey’s book. This book inspired me over time to open my heart to this prayer and I began early on to start a routine on praying the Liturgy of the Hours. This rhythm of prayer is unique because of the number of Canticles, Hymns, and Psalms that we say that help us reflect on our day as well as the movement of the season. Currently, in Easter season, I notice how we are constantly praising how the Lord has risen, and then we say “Alleluia.” We praise the Lord because we know that He rose in order that He may fulfill His promise to us that we would be reborn in the Holy Spirit and be a part of His new covenant. Right now this affirmation of praising God has given me a chance to reflect and appreciate the gifts God has given me - even if times have been tough.

I notice that during this prayer I am much calmer than I would have been had I not started the Liturgy of the Hours. The more I pray, the more at peace I feel. There are days that I am really stressed out when praying the Liturgy of the Hours; on these days, I am more affected by the world around me, and as a result I am merely reciting the words and not really focused on God speaking with me. Other days I am exhausted and find myself trying not to fall asleep. However, this same rhythm of prayer still gives me a chance to stay focused even on the worst of days, because of a routine I have established with God and Jesus when I pray to them. I once heard a homily on Ash Wednesday in which God actually likes it when we fall asleep during prayer - this means that He was our last thought. It made me think of Liturgy of the Hours - the last thing I should do before bed is to pray. Reflecting on the words of God and our Savior, as well as intercessions to continue to remain strong in faith, truly help put me to peace. This is how God is speaking to me - He wants me to feel at peace, to feel rejuvenated. Liturgy of the Hours is a few ten minute devotions to God. He wants us to take the time to be with Him. I know that when I take the time to reflect, I feel stronger. I feel God’s presence with me. Now is the time to truly thank Him for not only dying for us, but saving us by rising from the dead.

Experience of Celebrating the Liturgical Hours during Spring Semester 2015

When I entered the convent in 1960, we celebrated Office in choir. We were perhaps 150 novices and religious in two long rows on each side of the chapel, facing the middle. We chanted the Little Office of Our Lady (our Constitutions do not require us to pray the Divine Office) on a single note in Latin, alternating verses from one side to the other. We were given lessons on how to pronounce the words, the proper rhythm to be kept, when to sit, stand, and bow, and even how to hold the book! In the morning before Mass we had Lauds; I think we had Terce, Sext and None around noon, Vespers before supper, and Compline after evening recreation. It was, to me, a sign of my consecration, and I tried to make it as pure a prayer as I could. It was also a sign of community, an expression of our unity in singing God’s praises, each of us part of a larger whole. During Vatican II, we began chanting the Office in English. I was then teaching in our school, and getting there on time could be a struggle. It was important to me to enter into the prayer, but I do not think I spent much time thinking of its larger significance. Jumping to present-day New Orleans, my community prays Vespers together before dinner, using the People’s Companion to the Breviary. Our other prayer is individual. Since the missalette we use (Give Us This Day) contains morning and evening prayer for each day, I would sometimes use them during the day, but not at any particular time. Arriving in the class “Church, Liturgy, and Sacraments,” and asked to incorporate the Liturgy of the Hours into my life at particular times during the day, I have to confess that I was not very successful keeping to a schedule. I am still pretty much asleep when I get up, and I often forget. When I remember, I do not take in what I am reading, so it feels useless. I feel none of the lovely sentiments mentioned in Sockey’s book; in fact, they seemed forced and exaggerated. What I did like to do when I had time during the day was to take it slowly. I would read the psalm, and if I realized I had not registered what it was saying, I would go back and try to read it more carefully. I would do the same with the scripture reading, and then try to put the themes together and hear God’s voice through them speaking to my life. Then I would be more alert to the intentions, which were always appropriate and wonderful. This really helped. I have a long way to go before anything besides Vespers is a regular stopping point in my life, but I want to keep trying. I think it will be worth it! Thanks for putting us on that track. Give Us This Day: Daily Prayer for Today’s Catholic. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press. People’s Companion to the Breviary with Seasonal Supplement: The Liturgy of the Hours with Inclusive Language. Carmelites of Indianapolis: 1997. Sockey, Daria. The Everyday Catholic’s Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours. Cincinnati, OH: Servant Books, 2013.

Before taking this course, I was already familiar with the Liturgy of the Hours. While I was in the Jesuit Novitiate, we prayed morning and evening prayer together daily as a community in choir. In addition to the hours, we were required to have an hour of private meditative prayer, two daily 15 minute examine prayers, and daily Mass. Since leaving the novitiate four years ago, my prayer had significantly decreased. It is good to get back into a rhythm.

By working through Sockey’s book, I become more aware of the significance of the hours. Before this course, I had never known the history of the hours, which makes me feel more connected to the saints who prayed them before me. One of the great graces of novitiate life was how slowly time passed. I could spend hours a day in prayer. Life as a high school teacher does not come with that blessing! The hours are a way, however, for me to slow down to spend some time in a rhythm of prayer. The repetitive nature of the prayer allows my mind to wander about the graces for which I am praying. What a great blessing!

My Spiritual Formation During Spring Semester 2015

            I had an odd resistance to praying part of the Liturgy of the Hours was recommended as part of spiritual formation for this course. I had chosen and benefited from praying it regularly a few years back.  Since then I had filled my time with other kinds of reflection and prayer, and was reluctant to change gears. Again, though I found it calmed and grounded me, and the discipline of doing it, brought a touch of God into my day. My favorite part of the Office of readings has always been the excerpt from one of the Church fathers, or the saint of the day, or even church documents. This class extended this though the collection of excerpts in Maxwell Johnson’s book. I love when ancient words or the writings of Christian notables are thought provoking or bring some inspiration to my 21^st century life.

            As I reflect on this, I am not sure I have really learned to pray the Divine Office. When I read it, I try to reflect, listen, and learn. Yet I am not sure I have learned to pray it instead of reading it. On a trip to Gainesville, FL I found the Divine Office being done throughout the day   in the Catholic chapel at University of Florida. I wish I could find a place to walk into like that here where it was as well prayed and well sung. Since I am a person that draws much from people I think that regularly praying it in a group setting would teach, and then enrich what I do on my own.  

            There are also things I have taken from this class. It’s hard not to see more about Church, liturgy and sacraments, and not have it enrich my own reflection and prayer. This is also true of having everyone put their own special touch and lead the class prayer, but then my classmates are a great source of inspiration to me.

Johnson, Maxwell E, ed.  Sacraments and Worship. Louisville. Westminster John Knox. 2012.

            Print.

Mind-Blowing

Reflection on Church, Sacraments, and Liturgy

When I began this course I thought to myself, “What can I learn from a class in sacraments and liturgy when I come from a faith tradition that has so little of both?”  All I can say is that it was mind-blowing.  From the resources, from the discussions, to the exposure of meeting the Archbishop and having a deeper sense of the history of the church universal has profoundly changed me. 

From the Liturgy of the Hours to Johnson’s book and all the readings in between, I was exposed to a world of the sacred that I had not known before.  Class wasn’t just a place where ideas were exchanged; it was a place where the sacred was exposed to me in new and relevant ways.  I often left class thinking, “How am I going to incorporate this into my church’s worship experience, how am I going to invite them into the sacred as this class did?” 

I received from all of my classmates a deeper sense of what it means to be big “C” catholic and little “c” catholic.  Your differing views on the Catholic Church reminded me that all Catholics do not think alike, that you all have varying views on the church you so love, and that many of you challenge some of the beliefs of the Church.  As a protestant it was refreshing and revealing.

I think the most profound thing I learned is that the sacred is embedded in so many things, from the rich liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church, to the Eucharist, and to the water of our baptisms.  This course has altered my trajectory and has helped me to not only define my own faith, but embrace the faith of others.  It was an experience that will keep on giving as I continue in my ministry.  God bless you all!

“Spiritual Formation Reflections”

            I had often wondered when the prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours found in the opening to the Gathering songbook we used during the Sunday liturgy were used. When is the Liturgy of the Hours? How come I never see it offered at church?

            This course has answered those questions. It is up to me as a mature adult Christian to exercise the discipline to find and learn the format of the Liturgy of the Hours and take the time to pray that liturgy.  I still question why churches, parish or small faith communities, don’t introduce this beautiful public prayer, the “rest of the Mass” in many ways to its parishioners. Maybe now it is up to me to do so?

            It is wonderful that “there is an App for that.” Sockey’s book is an excellent introduction to the Liturgy of the Hours. While I have not maintained a daily practice of the Liturgy of the Hours, I am inspired to read the Psalms and reflect on their meaning for me. As I have grown older, I have developed a love for poetry. The words, their rhythm and symbolism wash over me and provide a source of connection, intimacy at times, with the poet and all others who have captured the history, emotion, and community of the events presented. As a poetic devise (Sockey, 111), the Psalms are a primary source of humanity’s relatedness and expression of all events in a life. I very much appreciated coming to learn of the value of their daily practice in my Judeo-Christian family. It is very comforting to know that every hour around the world, God is being exalted with the morning, daytime, evening, and night prayers; because of the time zones, I imagine the prayers sung as rounds around the world.

            I believe that the Liturgy of the Hours echoes Sabbath; a gift from God of rest from the ordinary in a day. Even if we are not totally relaxed and focused, the act of intention and attention to God, particularly praising Him, pleases God. I appreciated Sockey’s sensible approach to incorporating the Hours into our lives; “to begin with one liturgical Hour at a time” (108) and her passage on “Finding the Minutes for the Hours” (108-110). It is a welcoming way to say, “the time to start is now; the place to start is where you are.”