Is Raul Ready To Repent? (from Nisi Dominus)

The Devil Can Quote Scripture  

The Devil himself can quote Scripture for his own purposes (see Matthew 4:6 & Luke 4:10), but sometimes even the most hardened sinners really do come to repentance. We can't tell, of course, what's happening in another person's heart, so it's hard to know what to make of Cuban President Raul Castro's remarks at his recent visit with Pope Francis.  After his visit with the Pontiff, according to an account in the Wall Street Journal, Castro said:

When the Pope goes to Cuba in September, I promise to go to all his Masses, and with satisfaction.

He also assured us :

I read all the speeches of the Pope, his commentaries, and if the Pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the Church, and I'm not joking.

Pope Francis with a no-longer-secret admirer

You'll pardon me if I entertain a few doubts about Castro's sincerity.  For more than half a century now he and his brother Fidel have been busy murdering, torturing, and impoverishing their fellow Cubans, and he has shown little indication that he ready to change his ways . . .

(Please read the entire post HERE at Nisi Dominus)

"Doing" the Truth in Love

The episcopal motto of a new bishop casts fresh light on a familiar passage from scripture; an earlier version of this Worth Revisiting post was first published February 19th, 2014. Please visit the linkup for Worth Revisiting Wednesday, hosted by Elizabeth Reardon at theologyisaverb.com, and Allison Gingras at reconciledtoyou.com)

To Speak The Truth . . . 

Last year [14 February 2014] the Diocese of Portland, Maine, saw the consecration of a new Bishop, Robert Deeley.  His episcopal motto: "To Speak The Truth In Love."

Episcopal arms of Robert Deeley, Bishop of Portland, Maine

     That’s not a bad motto for any of us.  I remember many years ago hearing Mary Cunningham Agee explaining how this same verse (it comes from Ephesians 4:15) served as a sort of mission statement for The Nurturing Network [link], her ministry to women at risk for abortion.  In our family we have tried to make it a guiding principle as well; it has come to be called the “Prime Directive” (yes, that’s a Star Trek joke).  Sometimes, in our human frailty, we honor it more in the breach than in the observance.  Saint Paul tells us in another place that:  

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (1 Cor 13:1-2) 

Some of the reasons why this should be so aren't hard to grasp, once we see them.  Even those who disagree with us, no matter how angry, abusive, or blasphemous, still carry with them the image and likeness of God, which we must honor.  Also, we will not be very convincing evangelists for the God who is Love (1 John 4:8) if we seem to be lacking in that quality ourselves. 
     But there’s more to it than that.  The old saying that “something is always lost in the translation” seems to be particularly true about Holy Scripture.  So it became clear in this case when I first saw our new Bishop’s episcopal arms, where his motto appears in Latin: Veritatem Facere in Caritate. I was struck by the fact that the word translated as “speak” in English wasn’t the Latin equivalent, dicere, as I would have expected, but facere, which more properly means “make” or “do.” A more literal translation would be “Doing The Truth In Love.” It seemed a curious (if not unpleasing) choice of word, and I suspected that the answer lay, at least in part, in the scriptural source.

To Do The Truth . . . 

     That proved to be the case.  In the Vulgate Latin translation of Ephesians 4:15 St. Paul says: Veritatem autem faciens in caritate, crescamus in Illo per omnia Qui est Caput, Christus, “But speaking” (literally “doing”) the truth in love, let us grow through all things into him who is our Head, Christ.”  Veritatem faciens is itself a translation of St. Paul’s original Greek word aletheuontes, which can mean “speaking the truth”, but also “being true.”  St. Jerome could have chosen the narrower, more obvious meaning and used dicens, but he seems to have thought a broader meaning was called for. His choice is instructive, especially when we look at it in the context of the whole verse.  Truth should be more than just what we say, but what we do.  St. Paul is talking about not just evangelization, but about becoming more like Christ (“growing into Him”) so we can take our place in His Mystical Body.  Evangelization is inseparable from our own growth in holiness.  It’s even clearer when we look at the larger context: 

And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.   (Eph 4:11-16)  

"If I Speak In The Tongues Of Men And Of Angels . . ."

     It all comes down to love; it is love that binds together the body of Christ.  Without love we can say true things, but we can’t embody The Truth (as in 1 Cor 13:1 , above).  It’s that understanding of embodiment that is one of the great insights, and one of the great strengths, of the Catholic tradition.  It has often occurred to me that one of Martin Luther’s great mistakes was misunderstanding fides as simply “faith”, a largely internal and subjective experience.  Fides is, in fact, much wider than that: it is “fidelity”, or “faithfulness”, a whole way of acting and living.  Think of what we mean by faithfulness or fidelity in marriage: it’s more than feelings or intentions, it involves doing certain definite things, and specifically not doing others.  So it is with veritatem facere.  It does not only mean speaking the truth lovingly (although that’s certainly a part of it), it means doing the truth, living it out in love, in order to make up a worthy body for our Divine Head.

The Invitatory Psalm: We Are Called To Relationship With God (LOH 4)

     In this and my next few posts in my series on the Liturgy of the Hours I will reflect on particular prayers and Hours and my experiences with them.  This is not intended as a systematic exploration and explication so much providing a basic explanation, and sharing my personal experiences.

      I’m starting, appropriately enough, with the Invitatory Psalm.  This is not a separate Hour, but an introductory prayer that is usually said before Matins (Office of Readings) or Lauds (Morning Prayer), whichever of the two you say first (if you start later in the day, the Invitatory is not said). This prayer is intended as the start of the entire cycle of prayer for a given day. The General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours says: “This invitatory verse and psalm daily invite the faithful to sing the praises of God, hear his voice and look forward to the ‘Rest of the Lord’”.  The Psalm we usually say for the Invitatory is Psalm 95 (Psalms 100, 67 or 23 may be used in its place), sung or said as a responsorial. The optional Psalms are all interesting in their own right, but today I’ll focus on Psalm 95, which is the “default” prayer, if I may use that term.  It is said with an introductory verse and antiphon as follows: 

Introductory Verse: while tracing the Sign of the Cross on your lips, say: Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim your praise. 

Psalm 95

Recite and repeat Antiphon 

Come, let us sing to the Lord

and shout with joy to the Rock who saves us.

Let us approach Him with praise and thanksgiving

and sing joyful songs to the Lord.

Antiphon

The Lord is God, the mighty God,

 the great King over all the gods.

He holds in His hands the depths of the earth

and the highest mountains as well

He made the sea; it belongs to Him,

the dry land, too, for it was formed by His hands.

Antiphon

Come, then, let us bow down and worship,

bending the knee before the Lord, our Maker,

For He is our God and we are His people,

the flock He shepherds.

Antiphon

Today, listen to the voice of the Lord:

Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did in the wilderness,

when at Meribah and Massah

they challenged Me and provoked Me,

Although they had seen all of My works.

Antiphon

Forty years I endured that generation.

I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray

and they do not know My ways. So I swore in my anger,

“They shall not enter into My rest.”

Antiphon

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning,

 is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Antiphon 

The introductory verse is always the same (“Lord open my lips . . .”); the antiphon changes according to the day and liturgical season.  In the season of Lent, for instance, the antiphon would be either: “Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, Who for our sake endured temptation and suffering”, or “If today you hear the Voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.”  Since today, May 12, is in the Season of Easter, we use antiphon: “The Lord is risen, alleluia.”

   What I find really interesting about this prayer is the way it draws us into the daily liturgy by mirroring the way we are drawn in to a love relationship, both with another person, and with God.  The first strophe starts out joyfully, like our excitement at the beginning of a relationship: “sing to the Lord and shout with joy,” etc.  But there’s also a little bit of foreshadowing in “the Rock who saves us”.  We see God described as a defensive rock, a fortress, in Samuel 22:3 and Psalm 62:2.  But there is also a rock in Exodus 17:7  and  Numbers 20:7 that St. Paul tells us (1 Corinthians 10:4) is Christ, and, yes, that rock provides water to the Hebrews in the desert, but at the same time their grumbling and lack of faith (these places are called Massah, “testing” and Meribah, “quarreling”, in the scriptural texts) anger God.

     In the second strophe we learn more about who God is: He is “great King over all the gods”, creator of all, an “it belongs to Him”.  Again, as in a relationship, true love starts to grow as our initial infatuation is informed by a real knowledge of who the other person is and what they are like.

      We bring the action of the first two strophes to a conclusion in the third: we “bow down and worship”, acknowledge Him as “the Lord, our Maker”, and that pledge that “he is our God and we are his people.”  Here we commit ourselves to a covenant relationship with God, to which the wedding in a human relationship is (roughly) analogous.  But those of us who are married know that the wedding is just the beginning . . .

      We see things take a perhaps unexpected turn in the fourth strophe.  “Listen to the voice of the Lord”: unlike a human relationship, this is not a union of equals.  But look at what the Lord has to say: “Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did in the wilderness,/when at Meribah and Massah they challenged Me and provoked Me . . .” So, it seems that we are talking about both the Rock that protects us, and the Rock to whom we were faithless.  Relationships, especially love relationships, carry responsibilities, and here the Lord is reminding us of where our weakness lies.

      Finally, God reminds us in the fifth strophe that we have the freedom to reject His love, and that abuse of that freedom has consequences. The generation that He endured “for forty years” is, of, course, Moses’ and Aaron’s generation.  Nobody in the Old Testament enjoyed a closer relationship with God than Moses, and yet he was barred entry into the Promised Land because of his faithlessness at Meribah.

      At this point, we close the Invitatory with the Doxology and a final repetition of the antiphon.  The prayer closes, not at the end, but in the middle of the relationship; we continue to live out, or better yet, to work out that relationship throughout the day in the Divine Office.  It is a liturgical prayer, after all, and the word “liturgy” comes from the Greek leitourgia, “work of the people.”  It is not simply prayed, but done.

       We may be surprised at first by the tone of the final two strophes of the Invitatory.  The General Instruction tells us that it invites us to “look forward to the ‘Rest of the Lord’”, but that’s not quite right: it’s really warning us not to lose it.  It reminds me of this exchange from John’s Gospel: 

After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.  Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?"  Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life . . .”  John 6:66-68 

The message here comes from a negative, rather than a positive direction, but it serves a purpose.  It is what we call in educational jargon an “open-ended question”, one that requires some initiative on the part of the recipient; as we begin our daily work of prayer, God is asking us, as Jesus does the Apostles: “What choice will you make?  What are you going to do?” 

To read the whole series go here.

Below are some resources for anyone interested in exploring the Liturgy of the Hours -

Websites:

Universalis.com – This was the first website I encountered with the text of the LOH.  It does have the full text of all the daily prayers, although, at least in the free version available online, many of the translations are not the approved ones.  They do say that the translations in the App version are the standard ones.

Ebreviary.com – Full texts of all the prayers, which are designed so that they can be printed as booklets for group prayer – but you need to buy a subscription to gain access to most of the site.

Divineoffice.org – My favorite LOH website.  It contains the full approved translations of most of the canonical hours (although there is only one hour for Daytime Prayer).  There are also audio versions of each hour which include recorded hymns and recitation of the prayers, either spoken or chanted.

Books:

There are various one-volume books entitled Christian Prayer that contain most of the Liturgy of the Hours.  The best choice available is this one [here], although it is not complete (particularly the Office of  Readings), and hasn’t been updated since 1976.  I prefer this one [here] from the Daughters of St. Paul, which contains everything except the long readings from the Office of Readings (which are available from the websites above).  It also dates from 1976, however, and, even worse, seems to be out of print.

The Gold Standard is the four-volume Liturgy of the Hours [here].  It’s all there, but it involves a sizable financial investment (well over $100 for the whole set)

"Stimmt an die Saiten" from Joseph Haydn's The Creation (Die Schöpfung) & Weekly Roundup

     Today is the Sixth Sunday of Easter: He is truly Risen, alleluiah, alleluiah!
     Joseph Haydn is rightly considered one of the great composers.  He made a large contribution to the development of music in the late 18th century, not just through his own music, but through the other composers he taught and mentored.  Among his students wee two of the greatest: Mozart and Beethoven.
     Haydn also was eager to learn from other composers.  On a trip to England he became intrigued by Handel's oratorios, and wanted to try something similar in the musical vocabulary of his own day.  The result was his oratorio The Creation, finished in 1798.  The brief clip below is a chorus celebrating the 3rd day of creation.

Added Bonus: Weekly Round-up from 

Principium et Finis & Nisi Dominus

Tuesday – “The Liturgy of the Hour and You (LOH 3)” A practical discussion of how even insanely busy lay men and women can make the Liturgy of the Hours a part of their life.

Wednesday – “Spirit, Matter, and the Word of God” It's worth a little extra effort to come to know the words of Scripture, because words matter, especially those inspired by the Eternal Word Who Became Flesh.

and – “Abortion Myth #12” Apparently, it's o.k. to kill anyone, human or not, who isn't a "person"; but who gets to decide which of us are "persons" and which aren't? 

Thursday – “When ‘Progress’ Isn’t Progress”  Substituting the Wisdom of This World for what has been handed on from the beginning isn't progress.

Friday – “Archbishop Cordileone, Catholic Teachers, and the ‘TorreTest’”  The Archbishop of San Francisco seems to think that he shouldn't have to pay people to subvert the Church.  The Nerve! Now if he were the owner of a sports franchise, that might be different . . . 

When "Progress" Isn't Progress

Progress? I think not . . . 

A thoughtful friend recently lent us a book called DisOrientation: The 13 “isms” That Will Send You To Intellectual  “La-La Land”.  It is a collection of essays edited by John Zmirak with contributions by such luminaries as Jimmy Akin, Robert Spencer, and Fr. John Zuhlsdorf (a.k.a. “Fr. Z”), among others.  Its purpose is to prepare prospective college students for the various intellectual traps that await them, such as Relativism, Hedonism, Utilitarianism, etc.  One of my favorite essays in the collection is Peter Kreeft’s contribution on Progressivism.  He starts out by clearly delineating what it is to be a “progressive”:

The opposite of Progressivism is conservatism or traditionalism. A conservative, by definition, is a happy person, one who is happy with what is.  It is only for that reason he wants to conserve it.  A progressivist, on the other hand, is by definition an unhappy person, one who is unhappy with what is.  It is only for that reason he wants to change it . . . Adam and Eve were conservatives until the Devil made them into progressives.  For the Devil himself was the first progressivist.  The other angels were happy with God and His will, but the Devil wanted to progress to something better.

Now, Kreeft may be having a bit of mischievious fun with his argumentum ad Satanam, but his point is nonetheless valid.  Satan’s chief sin was Pride, a belief that he knew better, and isn’t the belief that one’s self knows better than the unenlightened rubes of the past and the ignorant and/or evil-minded boobs of the present the driving force of progressivism?

(Please read the entire post HERE at Nisi Dominus)

Archbishop Cordileone, Catholic Teachers, and the ‘Torre Test’ (from Nisi Dominus)

Many of you are familiar with the name George Steinbrenner, the long-time owner of the New York Yankees, arguably the most famous sports team in the world.  Steinbrenner was reputed to be an erratic and difficult man who could be very unpleasant to work for.  Nonetheless, Joe Torre successfully managed his baseball team for many years.  When asked how he was able to put up with his prickly and demanding employer, Torre replied (as best as I can recall), “You take the man’s money, you put up with his _____" (I have excised the scatological term used by Mr. Torre, but you get the idea).  It seems like a pretty straightforward proposition: you do what you’re hired to do, and if you can’t or won’t do the job, go somewhere else.

Former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre

     Simple, and yet there are those who just don’t get it, at least as it applies to Catholic schools.  For instance, there has been a lot of fire directed at San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone because of his insistence that teachers in the Catholic schools in his diocese agree to refrain from publicly opposing the teaching of the Catholic Church.  There was even a petition sent to the Pope signed by purported “prominent Catholics” asking that Archbishop Cordileone be removed . . . 

(Please read the entire post HERE at Nisi Dominus)

Spirit, Matter, and the Word of God

The Word Made Flesh     

My family doesn’t attend the Extraordinary Form of the Mass on a regular basis, but we go whenever we can.  One of the things that stands out for me is the fact that every Mass closes with a reading of the “Last Gospel”, which is opening of John’s Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

     There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him.  He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light.   That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.  He was in the world, and the world was made by him,  and the world knew him not.

     He came unto his own, and his own received him not.  But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name.  Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,  (and we saw his  glory, the  glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:1-14)

St. Jerome Visited by Angels by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi

     On those occasions when I have been granted the privilege of teaching a religion course in the High

School where I work I always start the school year with this passage because it is the best introduction to the Catholic understanding of what we might call the Sacramental Principle, our understanding that God teaches us spiritual truths through material things. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us"!  Catholic and Orthodox Christians have always understood the Embodiment in the Man Jesus Christ of the Eternal Word who existed before the creation of the universe to be a pattern that is repeated in countless lesser embodiments: the men and women whom God chooses to carry out his will, such as prophets, evangelists, and saints, not to mention his ordained clergy; his Church and its sacraments; the events of Salvation History and everyday life.  “The Heavens proclaim the Glory of God!”, says the Psalmist in Psalm 19:1.  Accordingly, things, details and events are important.  That’s why the early Church was always careful to emphasize that Jesus was a actual man who lived in specific places under certain verifiable Roman officials such as Pontius Pilate.  The details matter.

Loosening Up the Meaning

     I couldn’t help but reflect on these things as I read the Anthony Esolen article that was the subject of yesterday’s post (7 april 2014). He starts out saying:

I recently read Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae the way it was principally meant to be read: in Latin.  There’s something illuminating, I find, about reading in the original a work that is familiar to you in translation.  It becomes unfamiliar.  You can’t catch the gist of a clause unless you pay unusually close attention to the words.  You can’t dismiss something before you have quite determined what that something is.

     I had been thinking of writing about just this idea myself, because I apply the same principle in many of my posts dealing with Holy Scripture (see here and here), where looking at a word or words in the original Greek, and maybe the way it was translated into Latin just a few centuries later, is not so much a matter of “linguistic analysis” as it is simply a way of loosening up the meaning for me after the English translations have become so familiar that they have calcified, and no longer sink in.

     It’s also true that having to work through a language like Latin or Greek, where the syntax follows different principles, forces you to examine the language much more closely than if you were simply reading it in English.  Some of my students know this first hand. A few years ago I was searching through the encyclicals of John Paul II looking for some “modern Latin” for a third year Latin class.  One day I heard some of the students in the class teasing one of their classmates because he had visited a store called “Condom Sense” (yes, it is what it sounds like).  “Of course!” I thought, “Humanae Vitae!”  Which we did, in the original language.  Those students knew Pope Paul’s teaching inside and out (which is not to say that they were pleased to know it).

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'

     Another problem with translations is that invariably many of the connotations and possible meanings of the original language will be lost.  This is always the case, but even more so in the latter half of the twentieth century, when an approach called “dynamic equivalence” was popular among translators, in which the translator would render what he thought the text meant, as opposed to what it actually said.  The result was “translations” that were really interpretations, with much of the concrete and vivid imagery flattened or erased, and thus the distinctness, and sense of embodiment.  Think of the recently replaced translation of the Mass: “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you . . .” as opposed to “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof . . .” The so-called “dynamic” version is abstract and remote, the new more literal translation is something you can visualize, besides retaining a clear connection to the Biblical source (the Roman centurion with a sick servant in Matthew 8:8).
     So, you might be saying, "I don’t know Latin or Greek: where does that leave me?"  Well, it’s never too late to start learning, but in any case there are things you can do in reading Scripture, for instance, that can help you achieve some of the same result.  You can read the Bible with a good Catholic commentary, for instance.  It can also be helpful to compare different translations. I would advise sticking to approved Catholic translations. I would also make a point of including the Douay-Rheims version, which for a long time was the Catholic Bible in English; it is from the same era as the King James ( a few decades earlier, in fact), and makes a point of sticking much closer to the original text than has been the fashion in recent years (the passage from John's Gospel at the beginning of the post is from this translation). Working with the language in this way can help to free it from the choices of a particular translator.

They Are There For A Reason

     Here’s my final point: God speaks to us through his creation, including the words of Holy Scripture written by men under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  The words of those Scriptures are themselves filled with all manner of vivid concrete images and events.  They are there for a reason: who are we to say that we know better than the inspired authors?  And the more tangible we can make them, the better we will understand. For instance, I have heard some people say, in praying the Our Father, "give us this day our daily strength", instead of the more literal "give us this day our daily bread."  "Strength" is certainly one of the things that the image includes, but there's so much more: all the various other ways in which God fulfills our daily needs, and specific connections such as the Manna from Heaven (which was good only for one day) and, most important, Christ the Bread of Life, present in the Eucharist. 
     We are neither soulless animals, nor disembodied angels: God has created human beings as a unique combination of matter and spirit. It is for that reason the Word Became Flesh and dwelt among us.  And for the same reason, when we see spiritual realities through the material lenses with which our creator has provided us, we see most clearly.
     

(An earlier version of this "Revisited" post was originally April 8th, 2014 under the title, "Scripture: Why Language is Important".  Please visit the linkup for Worth Revisiting Wednesday, hosted by Elizabeth Reardon at theologyisaverb.com, and Allison Gingras at reconciledtoyou.com)

      

The Liturgy of the Hours and You (LOH 3)

  In my previous posts I discussed how I came to start praying the Liturgy of the Hours (LOH), and what the LOH looks like. Today I intend to discuss how to incorporate the LOH into your daily prayer life, particularly if you are a busy layperson.  Today's discussion, in fact, is primarily intended for people who are not under obligation to pray the LOH; those who are under obligation will need to consult their superiors as to what guidelines to follow in praying the Office. For the rest of us, however, there are a wide variety of approaches that we can use.

How to Begin

     Before we begin, let’s consider some of the main ways in which the Liturgy can enhance your prayer life: by structuring your day around a schedule of times set aside for prayer, you “consecrate time”, and can remain more conscious of being close to God throughout the day;  you also unite yourself more closely to the Universal Church by participating in the same liturgical celebration that is being prayed around the world; you will also become more familiar with Holy Scripture, especially if you include the Office of Readings (which also, as an added benefit, includes extensive readings from the works and lives of the saints).

     It’s a good idea to keep those ends in mind as you begin.  Also, as is the case when beginning a physical exercise program, it’s best not to attempt to do too much too soon: once you have established the routine of regular prayer, it won’t be too hard to expand it, but if it seems impossible at the outset, you are likely to abandon it before too long.  For this reason I suggest concentrating first on the practice of simply praying at set times, even if it’s just a brief prayer.  For instance, you might decide to commit yourself to praying every day in the morning, at noon, and between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m.  You may only say an Our Father, or a Hail Mary (or, if you’re really ambitious, both, followed by a “Glory Be”), but you will have already begun the sanctification of your day. 

Expanding Your Repertoire

     Once you have become used to praying at regular times, you can expand your repertoire.  You may wish to add favorite prayers; when I first started, I used to pray “The Breastplate of St. Patrick” every morning.  You may wish to try an easier variation of the Divine Office, such as Magnificat, a publication modeled on the LOH (not to be confused with the Canticle of Mary from Luke's Gospel, which is always said during Morning Prayer).  This "mini" LOH only includes modified versions of Morning and Evening Prayer, and some spiritual readings to take the place of the Office of Readings.  The prayer hours look very much like the LOH but are shorter, and since there are fewer of them, the psalms are most often not the same as the ones in that day’s LOH.  Nonetheless, when you use a substitute like Magnificat you are still praying the Divine Office along with the Church; I have even been told (although I have not verified it) that in some religious communities it can be used in the place of the regular Liturgy.  This would not be unprecedented: the Church has often made similar allowances in the past, most notably in the case of the Little Office of the Virgin Mary (which also became a popular devotion among the laity).

     You may eventually decide that you wish  to participate as directly as possible in the daily prayer of the Universal Church by praying  the official Liturgy of the Hours itself.  There are a lot of options here, as well.  Those of us who are not bound by obligation can use as little or as much of the Liturgy as we like. Morning and Evening Prayers, the “hinges” of the LOH, are the most important, and I recommend starting there.  If you can’t pray them in their entirety, you may wish to say only the Gospel Canticle from each hour (the Benedictus in the morning, the Magnificat in the evening) or the Canticle and one of the Psalms.  The Office of Readings also has a lot to offer: if you pray this office, over time you’ll discover that you can find your way around large parts of the Bible, and you’ll be much better acquainted with St. Augustine and many other great Christian Saints; since the current plan of the LOH was adopted, it can be prayed at any time of day.  There is also Night Prayer, which is fairly short, and which I have found a beautiful way to end the day.  I read somewhere years ago that you can also combine some elements of the LOH with other prayer routines, particularly family prayer.  In my family we include the Nunc Dimittis and the closing prayers from Night Prayer in our family devotions before retiring.

Finding the Prayers

     Fortunately, it is easy to find the prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours and other resources today.  Using books (none of which are really complete, except the four-volume set) can be complicated, since some parts of the Liturgy follow a four week cycle, others are tied to the liturgical season, others to particular feast days, and so on.  A website like divineoffice.org figures all that out for you. 

     In future posts I will offer my reflections on some of the particular hours and my experiences with them.  In the meanwhile, I encourage you to explore the spiritual treasures contained in the Liturgy of the Hours.

   Below are some resources for anyone interested in exploring the Liturgy of the Hours -

Websites:

Universalis.com – This was the first website I encountered with the text of the LOH.  It does have the full text of all the daily prayers, although, at least in the free version available online, many of the translations are not the approved ones.  They do say that the translations in the App version are the standard ones.

Ebreviary.com – Full texts of all the prayers, which are designed so that they can be printed as booklets for group prayer – but you need to buy a subscription to gain access to most of the site.

Divineoffice.org – My favorite LOH website.  It contains the full approved translations of most of the canonical hours (although there is only one hour for Daytime Prayer).  There are also audio versions of each hour which include recorded hymns and recitation of the prayers, either spoken or chanted.

Books:

There are various one-volume books entitled Christian Prayer that contain most of the Liturgy of the Hours.  The best choice available is this one [here], although it is not complete (particularly the Office of  Readings), and hasn’t been updated since 1976.  I prefer this one [here] from the Daughters of St. Paul, which contains everything except the long readings from the Office of Readings (which are available from the websites above).  It also dates from 1976, however, and, even worse, seems to be out of print.

The Gold Standard is the four-volume Liturgy of the Hours [here].  It’s all there, but it involves a sizable financial investment (well over $100 for the whole set)

Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring (Celtic Woman) & Weekly Roundup

I love this piece - as perfect an expression of Joy as we can hope to find in this world, and of course focused on our one true source of Joy, Jesus Christ.  He is Risen, Alleluiah, Alleluiah!

As an added bonus (no purchase necessary), below please see the Weekly Roundup of the past week's posts from Principium et Finis and Nisi Dominus.

“What Is The Liturgy Of The Hours?” The second installment of my series on the Divine Office as a devotion for busy lay people.

“Are We Collaborators In The Culture Of Death?” Hillary Clinton says religious believers need to change their beliefs in order to facilitate more abortions.  But that's not as surprising as the fact that millions of Catholics will vote for her anyway.

 “A Church Is Much, Much More Than A Building” Instead of closing Churches that have been at the center of people's lives for generations, maybe we should try to re-fill them . . . 

“Peace, Baby!” A Vatican congregation decides, after nine years of study, to leave the Sign of Peace where it is, but they do agree that something should be done.

“St. Joseph The Worker Invites Us All To Work For God’s Kingdom” It may have been instituted to counter the communists' May Day, but the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker has a lesson for everyone.

St. Joseph the Worker Invites Us All to Work For God's Kingdom

     They say that necessity is the mother of invention but, as today's feast of St. Joseph the Worker shows us, sometimes measures taken for practical purposes can point to deeper truths.
     St. Joseph the Worker is a very recent addition to the liturgical calendar. Pope Pius XII, who wanted to present a Catholic alternative to the Communist celebration of May Day, instituted it in 1955.  Who better to counter the self-proclaimed "vanguard of the workers" than a great Saint who was also a laborer, a man known for his patience and perseverance, but also his piety?  As such, St. Joseph is also the ideal embodiment of the Dignity of Work.  He shows us that work is not simply something we do to survive, or that connects us to a certain economic class, but is an essential part of our humanity, a way in which we act, at least in a small way, as co-creators with God (see St. John Paul II's Laborem Exercens).
     At the same time, we can see that while a worker may be honored for his work, he is not defined by it.  Here the Catholic view stands in sharp contrast to the outlook of Marxism, where a working person's primary identification is with his class, and he finds meaning by working toward the "workers' paradise" of a fully communist society; since the realization of the workers' aspirations is the Greatest Good in this worldview, those who are seen as obstacles (such as members of the Capitalist Class) deserve to be extirpated.  Western market-driven societies have their own false anthropology in the phenomenon of the workaholic, whose whole life centers on his career, and who sees no meaning beyond it.  
     Christians, however, see our primary identification as adopted sons an daughters of God: equal in dignity (regardless of externals such as class, sex, race, etc.), called to love, and all of us part of the One Body of Christ.
     Now look at St. Joseph.  There have probably been carpenters more skillful than Joseph, or more productive, but none of them have feast days. We honor him today in his role of worker, but that's not why he is a Saint.  He's a Saint, and a great Saint, because he cooperated in God's great work of salvation.  Today's feast reminds us that we can all aspire to sanctity, even humble laborers, and that whoever we are, and whatever we do in this world, what we do for the Kingdom of God and who we are in the eyes of the Father is what matters in the end.