The Liturgy of the Hours

Divine Office, breviary, prayer of the hours: a vocabulary

Several names denote the same reality, and it is useful to distinguish them. Divine Office (officium divinum, the "duty" or "service" rendered to God) is the classical expression, inherited from monastic Latin. Breviary first denotes the book that gathers, in "abbreviated" (breviarium) format, everything needed to recite the office: by extension it is the name of the prayer itself, especially in its pre-1970 form. Liturgy of the Hours (Liturgia Horarum) is the official title chosen by Paul VI's reform, because it stresses what makes this prayer specific: its distribution according to the hours of the day. Prayer of the hours underlines that it is the affair of the whole people of God, not only of clerics.

Whatever the name, it is a liturgy in the strict sense: not an optional piety, but a public worship offered in the name of the whole Church, according to texts approved by her. This official character radically distinguishes the Divine Office from a simple spiritual reading or a time of personal prayer, precious as those may be.

The prayer of Christ and of his Body

The theological foundation of the Liturgy of the Hours is Christological. Christ, "high priest of the new and eternal covenant", having taken human nature, introduced into earthly exile the hymn sung eternally in heaven. Risen and ascended to the Father, "he continues to exercise this priestly function through his Church itself, which, not only by celebrating the Eucharist, but also in other ways, especially by praying the Divine Office, unceasingly praises the Lord and intercedes for the salvation of the whole world"^[6].

The office is therefore not first of all the prayer that men address to God, but Christ's prayer made its own by the Church. From this the Council draws a decisive formula, taken up by the Catechism:

"The Liturgy of the Hours is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressing her Bridegroom; it is the very prayer which Christ Himself, together with His Body, addresses to the Father." — Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, § 84^[7]

This insight governs the whole spirituality of the office. When a priest alone in his room, a monk in choir or a mother on the underground opens the breviary, it is not an isolated act: they lend their voice to the universal Church, and through her to Christ praying in them. The General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours repeats it from its very first lines: this prayer is "the prayer of Christ with his Body to the Father"^[8].

Sanctifying time: consecrating day and night

What distinguishes the Divine Office from every other celebration is its relation to time. "In accordance with ancient Christian tradition, what properly characterizes the Liturgy of the Hours is that it consecrates to God the whole course of the day and night"^[9]. Mass is celebrated at a given moment; the office, by contrast, follows the rhythm of the hours, from rising to setting, even to the night watch.

The Mystery of Christ, celebrated in the Eucharist, "permeates and transfigures the time of each day through the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours"^[10]. Each moment of the day thus receives a spiritual colour: morning consecrates to God the first fruits of the day and celebrates the Resurrection; evening gives thanks for gifts received and recalls Christ's sacrifice at the hour when the light declines; night keeps watch awaiting the Lord. Far from a mechanical timetable, this consecration of time answers the purpose assigned to it by the reform: "to sanctify the day and all human activity"^[11].

The Liturgy of the Hours was not invented all at once. It is the fruit of a maturation over twenty centuries, rooted in the prayer of Israel and unfolded by monks, cathedrals and popes. (For the specific renewal of the 19th–20th centuries, see the dedicated article The Liturgical Movement.)

The scriptural foundation

The custom of praying at fixed hours comes from the Bible itself. The psalmist sings:

"Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous ordinances." — Psalm 119:164^[12]

and, for the night watch: "At midnight I rise to praise you"^[13]. The New Testament continues this practice: Peter and John "were going up to the temple for the hour of prayer, the ninth hour"^[14]; Peter prays "on the housetop, about the sixth hour"^[15]; Daniel, already, turned toward Jerusalem "three times a day" to worship^[16]. Above all, the apostolic call to "pray constantly"^[17] and to pray "at every opportunity in the Spirit"^[18] founds the ideal of a prayer that never ceases. The Liturgy of the Hours is precisely the way in which the Church, a people structured in time, realizes this "constantly": not through an impossible tension of every instant, but through regular appointments that irrigate the whole day.

From Jewish watches to the first Christians

The first Christian communities, still close to the synagogue, inherit the Jewish rhythm of prayer: morning and evening prayers, blessings over bread, psalmody. Very early, witnesses such as the Apostolic Tradition attributed to Hippolytus (early 3rd century) describe prayers at rising, at terce, sext and none, in the evening, before sleep and in the middle of the night. Two forms develop in parallel: the cathedral office, popular, centred on a few chosen psalms (morning and evening) and celebrated with the people in churches; and the monastic office, longer, aiming to cover the whole psalter. Today's Liturgy of the Hours inherits both currents, whose balance it seeks to recover.

The Desert Fathers and unceasing psalmody

In the 4th century, the monks of Egypt and Palestine make psalmody the heart of their life. For them, reciting the psalms one after another, day and night, is the privileged means of "praying constantly" and of keeping the heart turned toward God amid manual labour. John Cassian, who brings Eastern usages to the West, describes assemblies in which twelve psalms are recited in the evening and as many at night. From this primitive monasticism come the centrality of the psalter, the night watch and the ideal of a prayer that structures the whole of existence.

Saint Benedict and the Opus Dei

It is Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–547) who, in his Rule (c. 530–540), gives the monastic office of the West its classical and lasting form. He organizes prayer into seven daytime hours — Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline — and an office of the night (Vigils or Matins), explicitly building on the psalm:

"Seven times a day have I praised you: we shall fulfil this sacred number of seven if we perform the duties of our service at the hours of Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline." — Saint Benedict, Rule, ch. 16^[19]

Benedict calls the office the Opus Dei, "the Work of God" — the monk's highest occupation — and he lays down the principle that sums up all Benedictine spirituality:

"Let nothing be preferred to the Work of God." (Nihil operi Dei praeponatur.) — Saint Benedict, Rule, ch. 43^[20]

In his ordering, the entire psalter (the 150 psalms) is recited each week^[21]. For more than a thousand years, this Benedictine pattern shaped the prayer of the Christian West.

The Roman breviary: from the Curia to Saint Pius V

In the Middle Ages, the office grows more complex and diversified according to dioceses and orders. For the papal chapel, a breviary of the Curia is devised in the 13th century, more manageable, which the Franciscan friars spread throughout Europe. By the late Middle Ages, the multiplication of local usages and the accumulation of feasts make the office dense and uneven.

The Council of Trent entrusts the pope with reforming the liturgical books. On 9 July 1568, Saint Pius V promulgates by the bull Quod a nobis the Breviarium Romanum, which becomes the norm of the Latin Church for four centuries^[22]. This Tridentine Roman breviary, in four seasonal volumes, fixes the form of the office for a long time: psalter spread over the week, primacy of Matins and Lauds, hymns proper to the hours, calendar of saints.

The reform of Saint Pius X (1911)

At the beginning of the 20th century, the distribution of the psalms had become very unequal: some psalms came back every day, while many others were almost never recited because saints' feasts took precedence over the ferial office. By the apostolic constitution Divino Afflatu of 1 November 1911, Saint Pius X entirely reorganizes the psalter of the Roman breviary: a new distribution of the 150 psalms over the week, a lightening of Matins, and a restoration of the place of the Sunday and ferial office^[23]. This important reform does not yet touch the structure of the hours: Vatican II will be needed for that.

Sacrosanctum Concilium: restoring the "true time" of the hours

The constitution on the sacred liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, the first document promulgated by the Second Vatican Council on 4 December 1963, devotes its whole chapter IV to the Divine Office. The guiding principle of the reform is clearly stated there: since "the purpose of the office is to sanctify the day", the hours must recover their "true time" — that is, be celebrated at the moment of the day to which they truly correspond^[24].

On this foundation, the Council prescribes several concrete decisions (cf. Vatican II and the article Sacrosanctum Concilium):

• Lauds as morning prayer and Vespers as evening prayer are "the two poles of the daily office" and are to be held as the principal hours^[25];
• the hour of Matins, while keeping its character of nocturnal praise for those who wish, is arranged so that it can be recited at any time of day, as an "Office of Readings"^[26];
• the hour of Prime is suppressed^[27];
• the psalms will no longer be spread over a single week, "but over a longer period of time"^[28];
• pastors will see to it that the principal hours, especially Sunday Vespers, are celebrated in common in church^[29].

Laudis Canticum (1970) and the new Liturgia Horarum

The application of these principles leads, after several years of work, to the promulgation of the new office. By the apostolic constitution Laudis Canticum of 1 November 1970, Pope Paul VI promulgates the renewed Liturgia Horarum, which henceforth bears this official title of Liturgy of the Hours^[30]. The typical Latin edition appears in four volumes following the liturgical seasons; a second typical edition (editio typica altera) is published in 1985–1987. The conferences of bishops then provide its translation and adaptation into each language.

The founding text that governs its use and spirit is the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours (in Latin Institutio Generalis de Liturgia Horarum), published in 1971: a true little treatise on spirituality and practice, it sets out the nature of the office, the meaning of the hours, the way to pray the psalms and the concrete rules of celebration. It is the reference to consult on any question about today's Liturgy of the Hours.

What changed: Prime suppressed, psalter over four weeks

Three major changes distinguish the reformed office from the old breviary:

1. The structure of the hours is simplified. From eight hours (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline) we pass to five: Office of Readings, Lauds, daytime hour, Vespers, Night Prayer. Prime disappears; the three little hours (Terce, Sext, None) can be reduced, outside choir, to a single daytime hour.
2. The psalter is spread over four weeks instead of one. The aim is a more peaceful psalmody, leaving time to pray each psalm instead of rattling through it.
3. A few psalms and verses are set aside from the ordinary cycle because of their imprecatory tone (see below, The "difficult" psalms).

The following table sums up the passage from the old to the new office.

The reformed office unfolds Christian prayer across the whole day. Here are the five hours, in the order in which they mark the day.

The Office of Readings (old Matins)

Heir to the monastic Vigils and to the Matins of the old breviary, the Office of Readings can be celebrated at any moment of day or night. It is the most nourishing hour on the biblical and patristic level: after the hymn and three psalms, it offers a long biblical reading followed by a patristic or hagiographical reading (a text of a Father of the Church, a doctor, a saint or a document of the Magisterium), each with its responsory. On Sundays, solemnities and feasts, the Te Deum is sung. For many faithful, it is the gateway to lectio divina^[31] (cf. How to grow in lectio divina).

Lauds, the morning prayer

Lauds (from the Latin laudes, "praises") is the morning prayer of the Church. Celebrated at daybreak, it consecrates to God the first fruits of the day and celebrates the risen Christ, the "rising sun" come to visit his people. Its typical structure: hymn, a morning psalm, an Old Testament canticle, a psalm of praise, a short reading with its responsory, the canticle of Zechariah (Benedictus^[32]), intercessions to consecrate the day, the Our Father and the concluding prayer.

The daytime hour (Terce, Sext, None)

The daytime hour sanctifies the course of work with a pause for prayer amid occupations. It corresponds to the three traditional little hours: Terce (about 9 a.m.), Sext (about noon), None (about 3 p.m.) — moments made sacred by the Gospel, since it is "at the third hour" that the Spirit descends at Pentecost, "at the sixth" that Christ is lifted on the Cross, "at the ninth" that he expires. Brief (hymn, three psalms or portions of psalms, short reading, prayer), it can, outside choir, be reduced to just one of these hours.

Vespers, the evening prayer

Vespers (from the Latin vesper, "evening") is, with Lauds, the most solemn hour. As the day declines, the Church gives thanks for gifts received and offers her prayer as an evening sacrifice, after the psalm: "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice"^[33]. Its structure matches that of Lauds, but its summit is the canticle of Mary, the Magnificat^[34], sung every evening for centuries. The Council expressly asks that it be celebrated with the people, especially on Sundays and feasts^[35].

Night Prayer before rest

Night Prayer (from completorium, which "completes" the day) is the last prayer before sleep. Brief and peaceful, it includes an examination of conscience (cf. The examination of conscience), one or two psalms of trust, a short reading, the canticle of Simeon (Nunc dimittis^[36]) — "now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace" — and a Marian antiphon that closes the day by placing oneself in Mary's hands. In it we prepare to sleep "in the peace of Christ" and to keep watch awaiting the Lord.

Lauds and Vespers, the "two poles" of the office

Among these five hours, two have a particular dignity. Tradition and the reform agree in making Lauds and Vespers the foundation of the Christian day:

"According to the venerable tradition of the universal Church, Lauds in the morning and Vespers in the evening are the two poles around which the daily office turns; they are therefore to be considered the principal hours and celebrated as such." — General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, § 37^[37]

That is why a faithful who can pray only one or two hours a day is invited to choose first Lauds and Vespers: he thus joins the heart of the Church's prayer.

Each hour of the office follows a regular pattern, combining praise, listening to the Word and supplication. Knowing its elements helps enter into the prayer without getting lost in the pages of the breviary.

The invitatory and the hymn

The first hour celebrated in the day — Office of Readings or Lauds — opens with the invitatory: the versicle "Lord, open my lips" then Psalm 94 (95) "Come, let us sing to the Lord", which calls to praise and sets the tone of the day. Each hour then begins with a hymn, a sung poem expressing "the symbolism of the time of day, the liturgical season or the feast being celebrated"^[38]: dawn at Lauds, declining light at Vespers, rest at Night Prayer.

Psalmody and antiphons

Then comes the heart of the hour: psalmody. Psalms are recited or sung (and, at Lauds and Vespers, a biblical canticle), each framed by an antiphon — a short verse that illuminates its meaning and directs it, according to the liturgical season, toward Christ or the mystery of the day. A psalm-prayer or a time of silence may extend each psalm, letting it become personal prayer.

The Word of God, responsory and readings

After the psalms, the Church listens to the Word of God: a short reading at the lesser hours, a long biblical reading and a patristic reading at the Office of Readings. A responsory extends this listening in prayer. "The reading of the Word of God at each Hour (with the responsories or troparia that follow), and, at certain Hours, the readings of the Fathers and spiritual masters, reveal more deeply the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, help to understand the psalms and prepare for silent prayer"^[39].

The gospel canticles: Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis

At the two principal hours and at Night Prayer, the office reaches its summit with a canticle from the Gospel, sung standing, framed by an antiphon: the canticle of Zechariah (Benedictus, Luke 1:68–79) at Lauds; the canticle of the Virgin Mary (Magnificat, Luke 1:46–55) at Vespers; the canticle of Simeon (Nunc dimittis, Luke 2:29–32) at Night Prayer. Each day, the Church thus makes her own the inspired words of the Gospel of the infancy.

Intercessions, Our Father and concluding prayer

The hour ends with supplication. At Lauds and Vespers, intercessions (in the morning to consecrate the day, in the evening for the needs of the world and the departed) lead to the Our Father, the par excellence prayer of the people of God, then to the conclusive prayer — often that of the Mass of the day — and the blessing. The table below sums up the structure of the great hours.

A hundred and fifty poems of praise

The psalter — the 150 psalms — is the raw material of the Liturgy of the Hours. The General Instruction warns against a purely intellectual reading: "The psalms are not readings or prose prayers, but poems of praise"^[40], made to be sung. The Fathers of the Church never tired of praising them. Saint Ambrose celebrates the incomparable richness of the singing of the psalms:

"A psalm is the blessing of the people, the praise of God, the homage of the assembly, the acclamation of all, the universal language, the voice of the Church, the confession of faith set to song." — Saint Ambrose, Commentary on Psalm 1^[41]

Praying the psalms with Christ and the Church

How can a Christian make his own poems written a thousand years before Christ? The tradition's answer is that the psalms are fully understood only in Christ. "The psalms are only a foreshadowing of the fullness of time that came to pass in Christ the Lord"^[42]: they foretell his Passion, his Resurrection, his reign; they are the very prayer Jesus raised to the Father, taken up after him by the Church. To pray the psalms "with understanding" is therefore "to meditate on them verse by verse, with the heart always ready to respond"^[43], recognizing in them by turns the voice of Christ, that of the Church, and one's own.

Making the words of the psalm one's own

Saint Athanasius gave the most exact formula for this appropriation. Where the other books of the Bible speak to us, the psalter lends us words:

"He who recites them takes all the words upon his lips as though they were his own; and each one sings the psalms as though they had been written for him." — Saint Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus on the Psalms^[44]

That is the whole secret of the Liturgy of the Hours: not repeating ancient texts, but discovering that the movements of our soul — joy, distress, thanksgiving, repentance, trust — are already written in the psalter, where God's grace precedes us.

The "difficult" psalms: why three psalms are omitted

Some psalms contain violent imprecations against enemies — calls for vengeance, curses. How can they be prayed in the voice of the Bride of Christ? The reform chose a prudent solution: "Three psalms (58, 83 and 109) have been omitted from the psalter cycle because of their imprecations; in the same way, a few verses have been omitted from certain psalms"^[45] — including the harshest verses of the famous Psalm 137 (136), "By the rivers of Babylon". The General Instruction explains that the difficulty is "psychological" rather than doctrinal: read in the light of Christ who prayed for his executioners, these psalms express the battle against evil, not hatred of persons. The rest of the psalter is kept entire, including its cries of distress and supplication, because "the praying community can always find a reason for joy or sorrow"^[46] and carry in its voice the prayer of the whole Body.

The obligation of clerics and consecrated persons

The Liturgy of the Hours is not an optional prayer for the ministers of the Church. The Code of Canon Law establishes that "clerics are bound by the obligation of celebrating the Liturgy of the Hours"^[47] — an obligation spelled out by canon 276 § 2, 3°, which asks priests and deacons "preparing for the priesthood" to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours each day "according to their own approved liturgical books" — permanent deacons praying the part set by the conference of bishops^[48]. Members of institutes of consecrated life are bound to it "according to the law of their institute"^[49]. The General Instruction recalls that sacred ministers "must recite the whole sequence of the hours each day, observing as far as possible the true time of each hour"^[50]. Far from a burden, this obligation expresses that the priest is, by state of life, a "man of prayer" on behalf of all.

Lay people invited to the prayer of the Church

The great newness of the conciliar reform is to have given the office back to the whole people of God. "The Liturgy of the Hours is intended to become the prayer of the whole People of God"^[51]. The Council says it plainly:

"Lay people too are exhorted to recite the Divine Office, either with priests, or among themselves, or even individually." — Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, § 100^[52]

A lay person is not bound to recite "the whole sequence of the hours": he takes up the office according to his possibilities, often beginning with Lauds and Vespers, or even with Night Prayer alone in the evening with the family.

Celebrating in common: Sunday Vespers

The office is by nature a common prayer. The Council asks that "pastors see to it that the principal hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and solemn feasts"^[53]. Many cathedrals, monasteries and parishes have thus recovered the practice of sung Vespers, sometimes followed by eucharistic adoration (cf. How to grow in eucharistic adoration) — for the Liturgy of the Hours, "like a continuation of the eucharistic celebration", complementarily calls forth the various devotions of the people of God, "especially adoration and worship of the Blessed Sacrament"^[54].

Praying the office today

Never has the Divine Office been so accessible to the laity. It can be prayed from books (the four-volume breviary, or simpler editions such as Prière du temps présent / the abridged Liturgy of the Hours), monthly magazines (Magnificat, Prions en Église), or apps and websites offering each hour of the day, already composed, in English. The secret is not to pray everything, but to choose one or two hours and keep to them, so that the day is gradually woven with the prayer of the Church.

The Liturgy of the Hours realizes, day by day, the great commandment to "pray constantly". Not through an impossible tension, but through regular appointments that sanctify time and end up overflowing into the rest of life. The morning offered, work crossed by a pause of prayer, the evening rendered in thanksgiving, the night entrusted to God: thus takes shape an existence in which each hour becomes an offering.

This consecration of time deeply meets the ideal of living each instant "in the will of God" (cf. the Divine Will): making each hour of the day an act of love, extending Christ's eternal praise into the ordinary fabric of our days. The Liturgy of the Hours is not reserved for monks: it is a school of prayer offered to all the baptized, where the voice of the Bride, united to that of the Bridegroom, never ceases to rise to the Father from sunrise to sunset — and beyond, in the watch of the night, until the coming of the Day that will know no evening.

Related Ignispedia articles

• The Liturgical Movement (1832-1963)
• Sacrosanctum Concilium — the Constitution on the Liturgy
• The liturgical reform after Vatican II
• Catholic liturgical rites
• Eastern liturgy
• The liturgical year
• The Eucharist
• How to grow in lectio divina
• Eucharistic adoration
• The examination of conscience

Principal sources

• Second Vatican Council, constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, ch. IV "The Divine Office" (4 December 1963), full text on vatican.va
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1174–1178 "The Liturgy of the Hours"
• General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours (Institutio Generalis de Liturgia Horarum), 1971
• Paul VI, apostolic constitution Laudis Canticum (1 November 1970), promulgating the Liturgia Horarum
• Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 276 § 2, 3° and can. 1173–1175
• Rule of Saint Benedict, ch. 8–20 (the ordering of the office) and ch. 43 (Nihil operi Dei praeponatur)
• Saint Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms
• Saint Ambrose, Commentary on Psalm 1