Liturgy of the Hours

What it is

The Liturgy of the Hours is the Divine OfficeGlossaryThe Church's daily liturgy of psalms, hymns, and readings sanctifying the hours—also called the Liturgy of the Hours. as reformed and presented after the Second Vatican Council—the same essential reality: the prayer of Christ in His Church marking the hours of the day. Modern editions (Christian Prayer, the four-volume set, digital breviaries) arrange the psalter, antiphonsGlossaryA short scriptural or liturgical text sung or said before and after a psalm, canticle, or as a refrain in the Mass and Office., and readings for the current calendar.

What it is not

It is not a different religion from the older Roman Breviary; it is a reformed form of the same Office. It is not required that a layman pray every hour. It is not inferior to "spontaneous" prayer—structured liturgy forms spontaneous prayer, not the reverse.

How a Catholic encounters it

Obtain an approved edition. Learn the ordinary of Morning and Evening PrayerGlossaryEvening Prayer of the Divine Office—psalms, a New Testament canticle, intercessions, and often a hymn at day's decline.. Follow the ordo for the day when feasts displace the ferialGlossaryA weekday in the liturgical calendar that is not a feast—kept with ferial (weekday) Mass texts rather than a saint's proper. psalter. If you pray only ComplineGlossaryNight Prayer—the final hour of the Divine Office before sleep, classically including the Nunc Dimittis and a Marian antiphon. before sleep, you have still joined the Church's night watch. For the older name and framing, see Divine Office.