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Daily Office--Praying the Hours

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.]

    1. Books containing the basic orders / ordo of the Daily Office, including
    daily scripture readings and Psalms:
    This is a fresh and approachable resource with refreshing
    and substantive musical resources.
    This volume is rich and useful for Roman Catholics and
    others who seek a full and more monastic approach to daily
    prayer.
    2. Books offering the pattern of daily prayer, though not as closely linked
    to the ecumenical Daily Office tradition:






    3.  Books introducing and exploring the practice of the daily office:

    4. Digital and online resources that serve as aids and invitations to  the
    praying the Daily Office in community.


Copyright ©2007, 2009 Daniel T. Benedict, Jr. You may reprint any or all of this
page as long as the following copyright notice appears: "Copyright © 2007
Daniel T. Benedict, Jr. Used with permission."
Copyright ©2007 Daniel T. Benedict, Jr.
All Rights Reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
daily prayer with its distinctive
song resonates with young
people from all over the world.
To learn more click here.
The RCL Daily Lectionary is used
for daily readings in relationship to
the Sunday readings in the
Revised Common Lectionary
(RCL).

You can purchase the book that
contains the listing of these
readings for all three years or you
can download the lists from the
Consultation on Common Texts
website for personal use. Go to the
publications page, scroll down to
Revised Common Lectionary Daily
Readings, and beside you'll see
download links for PDF or RTF
files. For publication of these lists
in any commercial contexts,
contact Michael Moore (not the film
maker) at Augsburg Fortress
Press.