The Office of Readings and the Morning Prayer is not switched back and forth. Morning & Evening Prayers as well as the other hours Midday and Compline (NP) are to be celebrated/prayed as close to their normal hour of the day. The Office of Readings however, may be prayed at any hour of the day, it may also precede or prayed right before a particular hour say Morning or Evening Prayer or even Night Prayer. (If I'm not too tiered from days work I may pray OR before NP before bed.) The Invitatory Prayer as an invite or call to worship starts the course of Liturgy of the Hours of the day it may precede either OR or MP depending which hour you start your daily prayer with. However, in case you over slept and started the day late, Invitatory does not start Midday or Vespers . It is only recited at Morning. The Office of Readings was prepared to replace "Matins" of the pre-Vatican II Divine Office a vigil prayer said at night (basically at the wee hour of night [4:00am]). Because the "modern" clergy are now more professional in functions they have difficulty praying Matins unlike the cloistered monks that are focused to scheduled prayer and work (ora et labora). Hence it can now be prayed at any hour of the day and its structure and content retains its night character. The Hymn, Te Deum is hymn of thanksgiving and praise it is equivalent to the Gloria sung at Mass during Sundays (except Advent, Lent), Solemnities, and Feasts. The Liturgy of the Hours as the official prayer of the church is a prayer like Mass prayed in community. I pray that more parishes offer this prayer as part of their daily liturgical services. God bless you and all those watching your channel. I admire you for encouraging the faithful to practice the Liturgy of the Hours.
Thank you Christopher for doing these videos. I have decided to do the Liturgy because of them. I started today Saturday, May 30 but I did not get too far. I am using the Divine Office website to check myself but I ran into a few snags. The starting Hymn in the Divine Office is Ave Maria (page 1910) where did that come from? I looked in the Ordinary under Hymn (p 1046) but none of that seems to pertain. Where does it talk about using this hymn? Or what hymn should be said? Also at the end of the Office of Readings they (Divine Office) have a concluding Prayer...starts ‘Grant we pray....’ I know this may or may not be needed depending on timing but where in the book is that prayer? Tomorrow will try again with the new day and hope to get at least past the Morning Prayer with probably more questions. Thanks again.
Thank you so much - that makes sense now. Yesterday I decided to continue with Morning Prayer just to see how far I got and I was able to complete it but once again (Divine Office)with a different hymn and that different closing prayer. Now at least I understand and can keep moving forward knowing I am doing this correctly. So far so good today (Pentecost Sunday). God Bless.
Thanks for this really helpful series. I’m really enjoying the Divine Office and am grateful for your tutorials. Sorry if I missed the answer to this one, but why are there no prayers on Sundays for the office of readings in the proper of seasons??
Great question! It's because Sunday is a Solemnity. You will see the same pattern in the Commons section that follows the Proper of Saints. But at least in the Commons, they have the courtesy of explicitly stating "Prayer, as in Morning Prayer". So as you've guessed by now, for Sundays and other solemnities (if not stated otherwise), use the prayer from Morning Prayer!
I have a question about the Ordinary in terms of doing the Office of Readings followed by Morning Prayer. The red text clearly states that the introductory verses can be omitted because it says "If the office begins with the invitatory, all the above is omitted", but when you get to Morning prayer, the red text for the introductory respons says "This verse and response are omitted when the hour begins with the invitatory. So when the red text on one page says "all" and red text on another page says "this", I'm assuming it is talking about the "Glory be to the father..." and not the "God come to my assistance...". Please let me know if this is right or not.
It's taking into account the possibilities of breaks.... the "Lord open my lips" at the invitatory does not then require the following "God comes to my assistance..". at any time during the unbroken prayer session. So if you perform Office of Readings followed by Morning Prayer, there is no need for "God come to my assistance" at any point. But if you had a break... (you did invitatory and office of readings in one sitting and then returned later for morning prayer,) then the opening is required. In the OOR/Morning combined, the Office of Reading hymn can be substituted with the MP hymn if you prefer it. It is NOT necessary to do both OOR hymn and MP hymn if in the same session.
Where is the verse at the end of the Monday Office of Readings. It says for weekdays it appears in the palmer after the psalms, but I don't see it. Thanks for the vids by the way. Very helpful.
It's tucked under the last antiphon in the psalter! For Monday week 1, you will see the two lines: "Give me insight, Lord, to know your will. - Then I will cherish it with all my heart."
Christopher, in the final red section of the OoR on page 618, there is this sentence: "If the Office of Readings is celebrated immediately before another hour, the hymn designated for the latter may replace the hymn at the beginning of the OoR." I'm going to follow your lead and do the OoR right before Morning Prayer. According to the note, I'll use the MP hymn as the hymn for the OoR. But when I start the MP, do I skip the hymn (moved to and used in the OoR) and go right to the Psalmody? Thanks in advance!
@@cmcnicholas Thanks much for the reply. I took your advice and am starting slowly. I do the Invitatory, Office of Readings, and Morning Prayer to start my day, say a Rosary and do a prayer from the Little Office of the Blessed Mary at Noon, and end my day with the Night Prayer. I plan to add the Evening Prayer soon. I spend about 30 minutes each evening prepping for the next day's LotH by making a note on my iPad telling me what ribbon, pages, or card to use for each segment I'll be doing the next day. But the real secret to my success has been your videos. They're a gift and I thank you for them. Cheers!
@@dubarnik That's great! Thanks again for the feedback, I'm glad the videos are still helping others... Also, another good resource to "check" yourself is a printable PDF file put out every month by the Saint Thomas More House of Prayer. The PDF gives you the proper page numbers for both CP and LOTH: www.liturgyofthehours.org/todays-pages
Good explanation, but when you pronounced "Te Deum" as what sounded like "To do 'em", I had to chuckled. As a kid, when I first saw the Latin phrase Te Deum, I first pronounced it as " tedium".
I only have a Christian prayer book published by Paulines with a limited selection of the Office of Readings…😢 And let me tell you, it’s literally everywhere like nobody’s business.😆
My group uses the ‘Shorter Christian Prayer’ book. I mainly use the app which has allowed me to not learn the book hardly at all. I only use the book during meetings. But I want to learn to use the Shorter book version and these bigger books.
Sounds like you are using the single book edition, not the 4 book. Check out my video on the difference between the two where I detail how the single book is geared for Morning and Evening prayer and anything after that is not as complete. Also get yourself a Saint Joseph's Guide for the single book... it *does* point you to some readings.
Very similar. Advent to Christmas is it's own volume: Volume I. As such, it's laid out for the specific season. In particular, the Proper of Seasons (Green Ribbon if you laid it out like mine) specifically gives you the antiphons and readings right up until December 16th. Pay attention though, because you will switch from the regular "Tuesday, Third Week of Advent" (page 277) for this year to the pages a little bit forward starting with December 17 (pg 318). READ THE RED TEXT AT THE TOP OF YOUR DAY IN THE PROPER OF SEASONS DURING ADVENT!! That is where you will find something like (this year: 2019) "If Tuesday occurs after December 16, everything is taken from the corresponding day, 318ff." So for example; today is Wednesday, December 18th, 2019. -You would start your invitatory. Red text says Antiphon is in the Ordinary where we find a specific antiphon on page 647 to be used for December 17 to the 23rd. -Begin Office of Readings (or Morning Prayer) from the psalter Wednesday, Week III (page 975). You will note that in morning prayer there is an antiphon 1,2,3 as usual but ALSO in red text "December 17-23".. THAT is the antiphon you use today and until the 23rd. -After the psalter readings, the red text instructs you that the rest is to be found in the Proper of Seasons. -If we flip back to the normal Third Week of Advent, Wednesday page in the Proper (page 285), we are reminded in RED TEXT on the first line that "If Wednesday occurs after December 16, everything is taken from the corresponding day, 318ff." -Page 318 we note is the beginning of this special December 17-23 period. The LOTH has no way of knowing what weekday falls on what date, so it leaves it to us to figure out what we need to do.. in this case, it is December 18th today, so we will flip a few pages and use December 18th found on page 326. Hopefully I explained it clearly enough... if you have Volume I already, locate those pages and see what I mean...
@@cmcnicholas thank you so much for doing these videos I ordered my 4 valume set should be here this mon I'm so excited I have been wacting your videos over and over I hope I can grasp it I sure appreciate your instructions god bless you
The Office of Readings and the Morning Prayer is not switched back and forth. Morning & Evening Prayers as well as the other hours Midday and Compline (NP) are to be celebrated/prayed as close to their normal hour of the day. The Office of Readings however, may be prayed at any hour of the day, it may also precede or prayed right before a particular hour say Morning or Evening Prayer or even Night Prayer.
(If I'm not too tiered from days work I may pray OR before NP before bed.)
The Invitatory Prayer as an invite or call to worship starts the course of Liturgy of the Hours of the day it may precede either OR or MP depending which hour you start your daily prayer with. However, in case you over slept and started the day late, Invitatory does not start Midday or Vespers . It is only recited at Morning.
The Office of Readings was prepared to replace "Matins" of the pre-Vatican II Divine Office a vigil prayer said at night (basically at the wee hour of night [4:00am]). Because the "modern" clergy are now more professional in functions they have difficulty praying Matins unlike the cloistered monks that are focused to scheduled prayer and work (ora et labora). Hence it can now be prayed at any hour of the day and its structure and content retains its night character.
The Hymn, Te Deum is hymn of thanksgiving and praise it is equivalent to the Gloria sung at Mass during Sundays (except Advent, Lent), Solemnities, and Feasts.
The Liturgy of the Hours as the official prayer of the church is a prayer like Mass prayed in community. I pray that more parishes offer this prayer as part of their daily liturgical services.
God bless you and all those watching your channel. I admire you for encouraging the faithful to practice the Liturgy of the Hours.
Watching this now to learn the LOTH. Thank you this is saving me a ton of time a frustration!
Thank you
Thank you Christopher for doing these videos. I have decided to do the Liturgy because of them. I started today Saturday, May 30 but I did not get too far. I am using the Divine Office website to check myself but I ran into a few snags. The starting Hymn in the Divine Office is Ave Maria (page 1910) where did that come from? I looked in the Ordinary under Hymn (p 1046) but none of that seems to pertain. Where does it talk about using this hymn? Or what hymn should be said?
Also at the end of the Office of Readings they (Divine Office) have a concluding Prayer...starts ‘Grant we pray....’ I know this may or may not be needed depending on timing but where in the book is that prayer? Tomorrow will try again with the new day and hope to get at least past the Morning Prayer with probably more questions. Thanks again.
I tried using websites and apps and even a podcast myself and got a bit confused! In addition to regional issues (not all of the apps and sites are U.S. geared), some sites even use different versions of bible translations! I'm not a copyright expert, but I believe the Divine Office website (which is actually an independent ministry, and NOT an official Catholic Church run resource) was actually having legal issues over publishing some parts of the Liturgy of the Hours which is actually copyrighted by the Catholic Book Publishing Corp. I did notice on the site that they specifically list: ©1974, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. This is NOT the same as your 4 volume set's ©1976, Catholic Book Publishing Corp., N.Y.. Perhaps that's where some variation occurs...
Now as for your specific questions...
Hymns are VERY fluid as far as choices... in your case (Saturday, May 30 2020), you could have used the hymn in the psalter (page 1472) or any of the hymns used for Easter Season (pgs 536-548); in particular, there are two choices under "Office of Readings" on pgs 542/543.
Now here's something you may recall from Saturday daily mass (at least in the U.S.)... Saturdays that are not dedicated as memorials can be used as celebrations of Our Lady's Saturday. Yesterday was one of those rare days that no other celebrations occurred, so that's probably where they pulled the Ave Maria..
As for the concluding prayer.. I'm not sure where that comes from either, but it is *not* the prayer listed for use in the Proper of Seasons. Since you are using the approved U.S. text, I would default to that. As it is the Office of Readings closing prayer, they refer you to the Morning Prayer closing which is found on page 1009.
Pentecost will be easier since it's all laid out in the Proper!!
Good Luck and God Bless!
Thank you so much - that makes sense now. Yesterday I decided to continue with Morning Prayer just to see how far I got and I was able to complete it but once again (Divine Office)with a different hymn and that different closing prayer. Now at least I understand and can keep moving forward knowing I am doing this correctly. So far so good today (Pentecost Sunday).
God Bless.
Thanks for this really helpful series. I’m really enjoying the Divine Office and am grateful for your tutorials.
Sorry if I missed the answer to this one, but why are there no prayers on Sundays for the office of readings in the proper of seasons??
Great question! It's because Sunday is a Solemnity. You will see the same pattern in the Commons section that follows the Proper of Saints. But at least in the Commons, they have the courtesy of explicitly stating "Prayer, as in Morning Prayer". So as you've guessed by now, for Sundays and other solemnities (if not stated otherwise), use the prayer from Morning Prayer!
Thanks!!
I have a question about the Ordinary in terms of doing the Office of Readings followed by Morning Prayer. The red text clearly states that the introductory verses can be omitted because it says "If the office begins with the invitatory, all the above is omitted", but when you get to Morning prayer, the red text for the introductory respons says "This verse and response are omitted when the hour begins with the invitatory. So when the red text on one page says "all" and red text on another page says "this", I'm assuming it is talking about the "Glory be to the father..." and not the "God come to my assistance...". Please let me know if this is right or not.
It's taking into account the possibilities of breaks.... the "Lord open my lips" at the invitatory does not then require the following "God comes to my assistance..". at any time during the unbroken prayer session. So if you perform Office of Readings followed by Morning Prayer, there is no need for "God come to my assistance" at any point. But if you had a break... (you did invitatory and office of readings in one sitting and then returned later for morning prayer,) then the opening is required.
In the OOR/Morning combined, the Office of Reading hymn can be substituted with the MP hymn if you prefer it. It is NOT necessary to do both OOR hymn and MP hymn if in the same session.
Where is the verse at the end of the Monday Office of Readings. It says for weekdays it appears in the palmer after the psalms, but I don't see it. Thanks for the vids by the way. Very helpful.
It's tucked under the last antiphon in the psalter! For Monday week 1, you will see the two lines: "Give me insight, Lord, to know your will. - Then I will cherish it with all my heart."
@@cmcnicholas thank you so much, brother and blessings to you.
@@richardhildreth4471 and you as well!
Exceptions make me crazy but I guess this is a daily devotion over a lifetime. There’s really no substitute for repetition and practice.
By exceptions I mean ‘if this then that’ 🤯
How can this be expanded to a vigil?
Christopher, in the final red section of the OoR on page 618, there is this sentence: "If the Office of Readings is celebrated immediately before another hour, the hymn designated for the latter may replace the hymn at the beginning of the OoR." I'm going to follow your lead and do the OoR right before Morning Prayer. According to the note, I'll use the MP hymn as the hymn for the OoR. But when I start the MP, do I skip the hymn (moved to and used in the OoR) and go right to the Psalmody? Thanks in advance!
Yes, that is the way I do it! Sounds like you are getting the hang of it!!
@@cmcnicholas Thanks much for the reply. I took your advice and am starting slowly. I do the Invitatory, Office of Readings, and Morning Prayer to start my day, say a Rosary and do a prayer from the Little Office of the Blessed Mary at Noon, and end my day with the Night Prayer. I plan to add the Evening Prayer soon. I spend about 30 minutes each evening prepping for the next day's LotH by making a note on my iPad telling me what ribbon, pages, or card to use for each segment I'll be doing the next day. But the real secret to my success has been your videos. They're a gift and I thank you for them. Cheers!
@@dubarnik That's great! Thanks again for the feedback, I'm glad the videos are still helping others...
Also, another good resource to "check" yourself is a printable PDF file put out every month by the Saint Thomas More House of Prayer. The PDF gives you the proper page numbers for both CP and LOTH:
www.liturgyofthehours.org/todays-pages
Good explanation, but when you pronounced "Te Deum" as what sounded like "To do 'em", I had to chuckled. As a kid, when I first saw the Latin phrase Te Deum, I first pronounced it as " tedium".
I only have a Christian prayer book published by Paulines with a limited selection of the Office of Readings…😢
And let me tell you, it’s literally everywhere like nobody’s business.😆
My group uses the ‘Shorter Christian Prayer’ book. I mainly use the app which has allowed me to not learn the book hardly at all. I only use the book during meetings. But I want to learn to use the Shorter book version and these bigger books.
My breviary doesnt have the ordinary for the Office. What the heck!?
Sounds like you are using the single book edition, not the 4 book. Check out my video on the difference between the two where I detail how the single book is geared for Morning and Evening prayer and anything after that is not as complete. Also get yourself a Saint Joseph's Guide for the single book... it *does* point you to some readings.
Does the advent and Christmas work the same way
Very similar. Advent to Christmas is it's own volume: Volume I. As such, it's laid out for the specific season. In particular, the Proper of Seasons (Green Ribbon if you laid it out like mine) specifically gives you the antiphons and readings right up until December 16th.
Pay attention though, because you will switch from the regular "Tuesday, Third Week of Advent" (page 277) for this year to the pages a little bit forward starting with December 17 (pg 318).
READ THE RED TEXT AT THE TOP OF YOUR DAY IN THE PROPER OF SEASONS DURING ADVENT!! That is where you will find something like (this year: 2019) "If Tuesday occurs after December 16, everything is taken from the corresponding day, 318ff."
So for example; today is Wednesday, December 18th, 2019.
-You would start your invitatory. Red text says Antiphon is in the Ordinary where we find a specific antiphon on page 647 to be used for December 17 to the 23rd.
-Begin Office of Readings (or Morning Prayer) from the psalter Wednesday, Week III (page 975). You will note that in morning prayer there is an antiphon 1,2,3 as usual but ALSO in red text "December 17-23".. THAT is the antiphon you use today and until the 23rd.
-After the psalter readings, the red text instructs you that the rest is to be found in the Proper of Seasons.
-If we flip back to the normal Third Week of Advent, Wednesday page in the Proper (page 285), we are reminded in RED TEXT on the first line that "If Wednesday occurs after December 16, everything is taken from the corresponding day, 318ff."
-Page 318 we note is the beginning of this special December 17-23 period. The LOTH has no way of knowing what weekday falls on what date, so it leaves it to us to figure out what we need to do.. in this case, it is December 18th today, so we will flip a few pages and use December 18th found on page 326.
Hopefully I explained it clearly enough... if you have Volume I already, locate those pages and see what I mean...
@@cmcnicholas thank you so much for doing these videos I ordered my 4 valume set should be here this mon I'm so excited I have been wacting your videos over and over I hope I can grasp it I sure appreciate your instructions god bless you
Is it ok to do mid morning and mid afternoon together because I work 8am to 430pm because I really want to do the whole liturgy everyday
@@bradquakenbush6220 That's great! Don't hesitate to ask if you have questions!
@@bradquakenbush6220 I've "doubled up" more than once just because I like completeness for my day. You can never pray too much :-)