How prayer can fill all the hours of the day

I recently bought a chiming clock. It reminds me of its presence every 15 minutes, ringing its song, hour after hour.

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The Liturgy of the Hours reminds us, hour after hour, of God's presence in daily life.

The Hours -- also called the divine, or daily, office -- is the official daily prayer of the church. Pope John Paul, in a series of audiences on the psalms, called the Liturgy of the Hours "the prayer of the people of God."

We are called to join in this great prayer, sanctifying every hour. The Second Vatican Council said that, through the Hours, we are "ceaselessly engaged in praising the Lord and interceding for the salvation of the entire world" (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 83).

The Eucharist is the center of our worship and the Liturgy of the Hours continues that worship throughout the day. When Pope Paul VI approved the revised Liturgy of the Hours in 1970, he called it "a kind of necessary complement by which the fullness of divine worship contained in the Eucharistic sacrifice would overflow to reach all the hours of daily life."

The Hours have deep roots in our Christian history. In fact, it evolved out of Jewish worship. Ancient Jews prayed at specific hours of the day, often in the Temple. Jesus, being a good Jew, followed this tradition. His disciples did the same after his resurrection (Acts 10:9; 26: 25). Also, Paul exhorted the Ephesians to "pray at all times" (6:18).

By the third century, Christians regularly gathered for morning and evening prayer, supplementing this communal prayer with prayer (private or communal) at specific hours, such as 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, a third century theologian, noted how these hours -- long a part of Jewish prayer tradition -- reflected the hours of Christ's Paschal Mystery.

From earliest times, the church has recognized that all hours are made holy by Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, citing Vatican II, reminds us that the Liturgy of the Hours 'is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressed to her Bridegroom. It is the very prayer which Christ himself, together with his Body, addresses to the Father (n. 1174).

Over the centuries, the Hours became more and more formalized and -- as Latin became less and less the language of the average person -- more localized to monasteries and religious houses.

There, prayer was offered at morning (matins), dawn (lauds), 6 a.m. (prime), 9 a.m. (terce), noon (sext), 3 p.m. (none), evening (vespers) and midnight (compline). This daily cycle included the entire book of Psalms (150), and the hours of prayer sometimes had little relevance to the actual time of day. For example, matins (which was often combined with lauds) was sometimes celebrated as early as 3 a.m.

Even before Vatican II met, the Liturgy of the Hours was being revised to make it more relevant and accessible. For example, Pope Pius X, in 1911, decreed that the Psalms could be read over the span of a week, instead of all in one day.

Vatican II further streamlined the Hours -- calling it "that hymn which is sung throughout all ages in the halls of heaven" (CSL 83) -- and placed emphasis upon morning and evening prayer. The council called these "the two hinges on which the daily office turns. They must be considered as the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such" (CSL 88). The council also asked that each hour of the office be celebrated close to times to which they actually related, such as morning prayer sometime after dawn had arrived.

But primarily, Vatican II emphasized how the Hours allow us to see God's grace at work in every minute. "The divine office ... is so devised that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praise of God" (CSL 84).

The Liturgy of the Hours is best prayed as the early Christians did -- in community. Vatican II asked parishes to make communal prayer a priority, at least on Sundays and major feasts (CSL 100). However, praying the Hours individually or in small groups also prepares us to see God's saving grace in all hours of daily life.

The point of this great, unending prayer of the church is to praise God and recognize the saving work of Christ's passion, death and resurrection all around us. It also calls us to recognize how we share in Christ's work of renewing creation, because Christ "continues his priestly work through his church" (CSL 83). The Liturgy of the Hours -- chiming in unison with Christ's prayer -- calls us to share in His work, hour after hour.

As Fr. Richard McBrien said, "The Liturgy of the Hours offers the praying Church opportunities to 'sanctify time,' to become more sensitive to the needs of the whole church and to the demands of nature and of the whole world, and to 'pray without ceasing...' Thus, those who pray the Hours are encouraged to see all moments of a day as sacramental expressions of (the Paschal Mystery)."