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Daily Office--Praying the Hours

“We enter…into a conversation with God’s word. In this rhythm of worship [the daily office] we are opened to His gift of
prayer together and alone. The summit of our worship is the Eucharist offered with the Church on earth and in heaven, for the
sake of all creation.”

(from the

Community of the Resurrection

, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, undated pamphlet for visitors in 2004, as quoted in John

Allen's authorized autobiography of Desmond Tutu,

Rabble-Rouser for Peace

)

The daily office is the church's keeping time with Christ through the hours of the day. Just
as the calendar and lectionary enable the church to keep time with Christ through the year,
the daily office invites the church to pray without ceasing (1Thess.5:17) in the daily round. As
the communal prayer of the church the daily office is prayed continually in every time zone as
earth's moments of sunrise, zenith, sunset and night come and go successively.

The recovery of the Daily Office in our liturgical books is a major part of the liturgical
renewal. Clearly, the intent of churches providing these services of Morning Prayer, Noon
Prayer, Evening Prayer/Vespers, and Night Prayer/Compline is that ordinary people will
participate in and embrace the church's prayer. Monastic communities have kept this
tradition faithfully for centuries. Many cathedral churches and large urban churches practice
some form of daily prayer. Could this form of prayer become a means of grace for all
Christians to use in their settings--in homes, the work place, in neighborhood gatherings,
on retreats or other communal settings of a temporary or ongoing nature? Increasing
numbers of persons are discovering the formative and expressive power of this way of
praying.

The Daily Office is named by varied titles: Liturgy of the Hours, Daily Prayer, the Daily Office,
Opus Dei.

For further introduction to the Daily Office see your church's primary worship resources
(hymnal, book of worship, worship directory) and chapter three of Patterned by Grace: How
Liturgy Shapes Us . For other introductions and interpretive resources see the listing below.

Other recommended resources for discovery of this means of prayer include:
[this list will be added shortly.]

Books containing the basic orders /

ordo

of the Daily Office, including daily

scripture

readings

and

Psalms:

Book of Common Prayer
Evangelical Lutheran Worship
The Daily Office: A Book of Hours for Daily Prayer, There are six volumes in
the series.
Book of Common Worship
The Liturgy of the Hours: Christian Prayer

2. Books offering the pattern of daily prayer, though not as closely linked to the ecumenical Daily

Office tradition:

A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants

A Guide to Prayer for All God's People

A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God

The Divine Hours, by Phyllis Tickle

This Is What I Pray Today: The Divine Hours Prayers for Children by Phyllis Tickle,
illustrated by Elsa Warnick

The Prymer: The Prayer Book of the Medieval Era Adapted for Contemporary Use, by
Robert Webber

Books introducing and exploring the practice of the daily office:

Patterned by Grace: How Liturgy Shapes Us

Digital and o

nline resources that serve as aids and invitations to the praying the

Daily Office in

community.

Dally Prayer: A Simple Plan for Learning to Say the Daily Prayer of the Church.
This is a kit with DVD, CD, and booklet. It is a very accessible approach for
beginners and opens the door to other forms of daily prayer.
"Praying the Hours of the Day: Recovering Daily Prayer" by Daniel Benedict--
this is will orient you to the present-day recovery of the Daily Office and point
you to a number of resources suited to your needs, temperament and
circumstance as you explore and deepen your commitment to daily prayer
with the church.

The Taize Community's round of
daily prayer with its distinctive
song resonates with young
people from all over the world.
To learn more click here.