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.