Officium Divinum - The Divine Office

Domine, in unione illius divinae intentionis, qua ipse in terris laudes Deo persolvisti, has tibi horas (hanc tibi horam) persolvo.
O Lord, in union with that divine intention with which Thou didst praise God on earth, I offer to Thee these hours (or this hour).

This prayer can be said before any or all of the "Hours," calling upon God to witness our prayers.

I know that I've mentioned the Divine Office before. I thought I would expand on it somewhat. The Breviary is the official prayerbook of the Catholic Church. It contains the Divine Office, the formal prayers which priests and religious say. In the introduction to an abridged form of the Office which I have it explains that in private prayer I pray, mostly for myself and my own affairs.....in liturgical prayer (the breviary) it is not primarily I who am praying, but the Church. "The Church prays through my mouth."

The introduction goes on to tell us that "the worship of God is the first and most important duty of the human race." St. Augustine has said that in this official prayer of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, with Christ as the Head, "He Himself praises Himself."

Our Lord said that "wheresoever two or three are united in My name, there am I in the midst of them."  And St. Ambrose adds, "If many souls unite they become powerful, and God cannot despise the prayers of a multitude."

The Office is comprised mainly of the 150 Psalms of the Old Testament.  The "Hours" are made up of seven; Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. Matins was traditionally said as a nighttime prayer, and the other seven during daylight. The Church made these division to imitate David, who sang God's praises seven times a day. Lauds is said at dawn, Prime as a second morning prayer at full sunrise. Sext is said at  noon, Vespers in late afternoon and Compline at nightfall.

Each hour has a theme. Lauds is jubilant. A new day and Resurrection is the theme. At the end of the prayers is the Benedictus, praising man's redemption with the prayer of Zachary. At Prime the prayer is subjective, a preparation for the day's problems and labors. We want all our efforts to be in the service of God and to arm ourselves against dangers. After the psalms there is a short prayer to "the King of ages..." and the supplication, "Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on us." Part of Prime lists saints to use as models. We ask a blessing at the end: "May the all-powerful Lord order our days and doings in His peace, Amen." That prayer is said also at the end of the day at Compline.

Sext or the noon prayer, addresses the day's conflict at its climax, at its strongest, as the noonday sun. The theme is salvation, Our Lord on the Cross from noon to 3 p.m. We beg to be freed from sin. "Lead us not into temptation."  Vespers looks back on the day and thanks God. The Magnificat is the climax, the prayer of Our Lady and the Church. "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior."  At Compline we once again ask that our soul be reconciled with God, and we examine our consciences. We are contrite and ask for protection, with confidence in Almighty God.

As I read in the introduction about the psalms, the main body of the Divine Office, I recall mentioning some of this at one point. "In the first centuries of the Church the psalms were actually the only expression of the Christian's personal prayer life. From these times stems the practice of praying all 150 psalms every week......we hear that at the time of St. Jerome (d. 420 A.D.) farmers used to pray the psalms from memory while they plowed their fields, workmen sang them in their shops, and women prayed them while engaged in their home duties."  After the 5th century or so, praying and understanding the psalms seemed to have dropped off; but the Church continued to keep them as the official prayer.

The Old Testament does not contradict the New Testament. We can see the parallels in the psalms and pre-figuring or prophesying what will happen in the life of Christ and the Church.  There are psalms of petition, sorrow, suffering and even "curse" psalms. The latter are so-called because some petitions and lamentations are couched in the form of a curse, to despise evil. They could be called, perhaps, "protest" prayers.

For the next few days (computer and time willing), one at a time,  I will take the explanations and thoughts on each of the psalms for Sunday's Lauds, Prime, Sext, Vespers and Compline, to better give an understanding of the themes and beauty of the psalms themselves.  Since chanting Sext each Sunday after Mass with a small group, "in choir," or chanting back and forth, I've come to appreciate more the worth of the Divine Office, the "Psalter," as a heritage.