In my latest
discussion on the Liturgy of the Hours I’ll take a look at Morning Prayer,
traditionally known as Lauds. While one may pray the Office Readings first, Lauds is specifically
designed to start us on our daily journey.
First, a few words
on the structure of this office. If
it’s the first office of the day start with the Invitatory; otherwise, as
in the other offices, we start with “Lord open my lips/and my mouth will
proclaim your praise” followed by a “Glory be . . . “. This
is followed by the psalmody where, unlike the Office of Readings, we find two
psalms with an Old Testament canticle of comparable length in between. All three are followed the “Glory Be”, and
are bracketed by antiphons. The
particular reading and antiphons follow a four-week cycle, and there may also
be other antiphons for particular times, such as Holy Week or Easter.
Next comes a
brief scripture reading, normally only a couple of verses. These vary more widely by the season (there
are different readings for Advent, Christmas Season, Lent, Easter) and, often
by particular Holy Days. This is
followed by a three-part responsory, which also varies according to the
liturgical calendar. Today, for example,
Friday of the Third Week of Lent, the responsory is:
God Himself
will set me free, from the hunter’s snare.
-
God Himself will set me free, from the hunter’s snare.
From those
who would trap me with lying words.
-And
from the hunter’s snare.
Glory be to
the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
-
God Himself will set me free, from the hunter’s snare.
The office ends
with a series of intercessions and a closing prayer which, yet again, accord with the season or Holy Day.
I have always
appreciated the way in which this office “orients” me at the beginning of the
day. Any morning prayer or offering can
be expected to direct our attention to our relationship with our creator, and
Lauds certainly does that. Moreover, the
canticles are passages that we might not ordinarily see: the Canticle of
Hannah, for instance,(1 Samuel 2:1-10),
a precursor to Mary’s Magnificat; a canticle from the prophet Habakkuk, chapter
3, that includes the evocative line “decay invades my bones”; or the triumphant
song chanted by the Hebrews after the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:1):
I will sing
to the Lord, for he is gloriously triumphant,
Horse and
chariot he has cast into the sea . . . .
This last is reputed to be one of the oldest (at least in
its present form) passages in the Bible.
But the office of
Morning Prayer does more than that. It
does not just orient us as individuals to God: It orients us to the whole scope of Salvation
history. For instance, every Friday the
penitential Psalm 51 opens the office:
Have mercy
on me God, in your kindness.
In your
compassion blot out my offense.
O wash me
more and more from my guilt
And cleanse
me from my sin.
This prayer and others in the Office remind us of the fact
that on Friday we focus in a special way on Christ’s suffering for our
salvation.
We also start our day with a specific celebration of the liturgical season, or a particular solemnity or saint’s day, which has a much greater impact than if we should happen to remember it (or not) at some point during the course of the day. The overall effect is that it brings us out of ourselves and unites us in prayer to the entire Church, which is saying the same prayer throughout the world, and which lives the same faith throughout time. What better way to greet the new day?
We also start our day with a specific celebration of the liturgical season, or a particular solemnity or saint’s day, which has a much greater impact than if we should happen to remember it (or not) at some point during the course of the day. The overall effect is that it brings us out of ourselves and unites us in prayer to the entire Church, which is saying the same prayer throughout the world, and which lives the same faith throughout time. What better way to greet the new day?
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