The Continuous Prayer of the Church, The Divine Office

 Have you ever gone to a Catholic store and seen so many prayers books and couldn’t decide which one you wanted? Why not try and pick up the official prayer book of the Catholic Church? Yes such a thing does exist, it is real and it’s called the Divine Office.

The Divine Office is a set of prayers the all Religious are required to say. It is based on the psalms of the Old Testament.  You will actually say all 150 psalms if you say the office regularly. The Divine Office is split into different “hours” which you will say throughout the day. The Divine Office also corresponds with the mass of that day. So the same prayers you say during the divine office are the same or very similar to the prayers the priests says at mass. And a reading you hear during mass you might read during the Divine Office.

If you pray the Divine Office, then you are praying with the whole Church. This is because all priests, Bishops, consecrated men and woman, deacons, most seminarians (some of which are obligated to say the office) and some lay people are praying the same prayers. You are even praying along with the Pope himself! I personally think that is very cool and goes only with the sense of a universal Catholic Church where all its members can prayer the same prayers. Also the prayers that you say are the prayers that your favorite saints have prayed all those years ago! The divine office or liturgy of the hours is the continuous prayer of the Church. The reason for the obligation is to insure that the Church is constantly praying. The idea is that someone, somewhere in the world, is always praying for the Church and for the surrounding world.”

Also the Divine Office will become part of your life when you start praying it. I’ve found that the day doesn’t feel like it’s started unless I begin with the Divine Office. You can just try and start out slow. You can get the Christian Prayer breviary which is only some of the daily hours and a good place to start out. Once you start it will be hard to stop.

God Is Love,

AMDG

Peter Martin