The Divine Office

Written By Nina Leone



Liturgy 

The Liturgy is the Catholic Church’s official, public worship (thus distinguished from private devotion) and is a complete system of prayers, acts, and services.   

In terms of theology, the Liturgy is the exercise of Christ’s priestly office on earth. Christ acts in His priestly office as Head of His Mystical Body, the Church, so that the Head and the members are offering the Sacred Liturgy together.  

In his 1947 papal encyclical, Mediator Dei, Pope Pius XII defined the Sacred Liturgy as:

“The public worship given to the Father by our Redeemer as Head of the Church.”

Thus, liturgical prayer has a special excellence because it is the prayer of the whole Church addressed to God in union with Christ, her Head.  

A Christian is not isolated. As one baptized, a Christian becomes grafted onto Christ and a member of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church. The spiritual life of a baptized Catholic has not only a personal, intimate contact with God, but also a social, liturgical character that shares in the life of the Church. Therefore, the spiritual life of every baptized Christian is associated to all that the Church does in union with Christ, her Head.

The Divine Office is not a private prayer. It is a liturgical prayer, and so part of the official public worship of the Mystical Body of Christ, whose members do not pray alone, but with Christ, their Head. Since the Divine Office constitutes the objective, public prayer of Holy Mother Church, its effectiveness functions ex opere operantis ecclesiae, and is thus essentially superior to other private prayers.

Acts of Liturgy

As the public prayer of the Church, liturgical prayer gives a large place to exterior worship performed with great care: ceremonies, chants, and collective prayers. The essential acts of the liturgy are 1) the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; 2) the Sacraments; and 3) the Divine Office. 

Holy Mass is the chief act of Catholic worship, and as the central act of the Liturgy, it is at the heart of all Liturgical worship.  It is the supreme Sacrifice. 

Sacraments are the channels of grace by which we live a supernatural life. 

The Divine Office is the public prayer of the Church.

Recitation of the Divine Office is an obligation for priests, and for some religious according to their Rule. All priests, and many religious as well, are obliged to recite the Divine Office daily, in private or chanted in choir.  A priest offering the Divine Office does so in the name of the Church, not for his own individual self. Remember, it is a public prayer. Priests are always mediators between God and man – just like by his hands we offer the Sacrifice of the Mass, so also by his mediation we offer the Divine Office. 

“The Divine Office is the prayer of the Mystical Body of Christ, addressed to God in the name of all Christians for their benefit, by priests, other ministers of the Church, and religious, who are assigned this task.”

- Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei 

The history of the Divine Office goes back to apostolic times, when it consisted almost entirely of psalms and readings from the Scriptures. Today, the Divine Office contains prayers, psalms, hymns, canticles, extracts from Holy Scripture, lives of the saints, and passages from the writings of the Church Fathers. The substance of the Divine Office is the 150 Psalms of the Bible, which are usually recited within a week.

The Breviary is the priest’s prayer book that contains the Divine Office. 
 

Canonical Hours 

The Divine Office is divided into eight parts called canonical hours. The canonical hours are are fixed times of prayer at regular intervals, arranged so as to sanctify the hours of the natural day. For this reason, it is recommended to recite them as closely as possible to their own hour. 

  • Matins – originally recited before dawn, but can now be anticipated the evening before. Matins is the longest hour, usually containing 9 psalms and 3 lessons.

  • Lauds, the morning prayer. 

  • Prime, the “first hour,” said at sunrise, 6:00A.M. 

  • Terce, the “third hour,” at 9:00A.M. 

  • Sext, the “sixth hour,” at Noon 

  • None, the “ninth hour,” at 3:00P.M. 

  • Vespers, evening prayer. 

  • Compline, “completion,” at bedtime. 
     

The History of the Divine Office

In the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis (4:26) states that at the time of Enos (the grandson of Adam) people “began to call on the Name of the Lord.” This is the first indication of public worship. In the book of Exodus (29:38-39), God commanded the Israelite priests to offer sacrifice in the morning and in the evening. Eventually, these sacrifices moved to Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. During the Babylonian captivity, when the Temple was no longer in use, synagogues carried on the practice, and the services (at fixed hours of the day) of Torah readings, psalms, and hymns began to evolve.

By the time of Our Lord, the Jews had a well-established prayer routine for worshipping God. This worship consisted of prayers taken from Scripture, mainly from the Pentateuch and Psalter. They could be recited publicly in synagogues, or privately in a specially designated place of a house or the highest place of the house. Christian practice of daily prayers grew from the Jewish practice of reciting prayers at set times of the day. We can see this in several examples from the Acts of the Apostles. In 3:1, Peter and John went to the Temple for the three o’clock hour of prayer. In Acts 10:9, Peter went up to the higher parts of the house to pray, about the sixth hour. In Acts 16:25, we are told that at midnight, Paul and Silas praying, praised God.

Early Christians prayed the Psalms and the Psalms have remained the principal part of the canonical hours. The Didache recommends praying the Lord's Prayer three times a day, which is another practice that also found its way into the canonical hours. By the second and third centuries, Church Fathers such as Clement, Origen, and Tertullian wrote of a practice of Morning and Evening Prayer, and they make mention of the prayers at the third, sixth and ninth hours. In Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus instructed Christians to pray seven times a day, "on rising, at the lighting of the evening lamp, at bedtime, at midnight" and "the third, sixth and ninth hours of the day, being hours associated with Christ's Passion." Clearly, the early Christians had retained the practice of praying at set times of the day.

In 525, St. Benedict of Nursia set out one of the earliest schemes for the recitation of the Psalter at the Office. He said in the Rule that he wrote for his religious order: “At these times, therefore, let us offer praise to our Creator "for the judgments of His justice;" namely, at Lauds, Prime, Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Complin; and let us rise at night to praise Him.” This basic cycle of prayer provided the structure of daily life in the monasteries. St. Benedict associated the practice of praying seven daytime hours and one at night with Psalm 118 which says, "Seven times a day I praise you", and "At midnight I rise to praise you." The fixed-hour prayers came to be known as the Divine Office, the word “office” coming from officium which means duty.

Over time, the rituals of the Divine Office became more elaborate and praying the Office required various books, such as a Psalter for the psalms, a lectionary for daily Scripture reading, a Bible to proclaim the reading, a hymnal for singing, etc. Thus, the Breviary was developed to fill this need. By the 14th century, the Breviary contained the entire text of the canonical hours.

Throughout the years, various editions have been promulgated and many attempts have been made to reform the Breviary. The latest edition of the Divine Office was promulgated by Pope Paul VI by the apostolic constitution Laudis Canticum in 1970. It represents a complete revision of the text and arrangement of the Hours of the Liturgy according to the directives of the Second Vatican Council (Constitution on the Liturgy, IV, 83-101)

Laity Can Unite Themselves to the Prayer of the Church 

Although only an obligation for priests and certain religious, the Divine Office is addressed to God in the name of the whole Christian people and for their benefit. Thus, it is highly praiseworthy for the laity to participate in some way. To quote Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, OCD: “Even in the midst of daily occupations, every person can unite himself with pious aspirations to the perpetual praise which the Church is sending up to God in the name of all Christians.” 

An individual’s personal prayer can be generously nourished by liturgical prayer. For example, many lay Christians follow the liturgical prayers by means of a Daily Missal and thus attune themselves to the prayer-life of the Church. Through the liturgical seasons, the Church presents to us the mysteries of Christ’s life: during Advent, the mystery of the Incarnation; during Lent, the mysteries of His passion and death. By uniting our personal prayer to the liturgical calendar, the liturgy provides substantial nourishment to our private prayer lives. 
 

Incorporating the Divine Office

Incorporating the Divine Office into my daily prayers has proved to be a tremendously fruitful practice for my own prayer life.

When I was blessed to stumble on an old copy of The Little Breviary, I began to start every morning with Lauds and end each day with Compline. Unfortunately, I don’t think The Little Breviary is in print anymore, and so it is not easy to find.  I will just say briefly that it was put together by a Dutch priest named Father Stallaert. In 1943, he began to compile a Breviary in Dutch called the Klein Breviary. The English edition is called The Little Breviary and was prepared by the Benedictine Nuns of Stanbrook Abbey in England. The English Bishops gave permission to the publisher to use the Ronald Knox translations of the Biblical texts. (If you don’t know, Msgr. Ronald Knox’s translation of Scripture is considered one of the most beautiful vernacular versions of the Holy Bible. It was hailed as the finest translation of the 20th Century, approved for liturgical use, and was endorsed by Pope Pius XII and Archbishop Fulton Sheen). Overall, I have found the whole Little Breviary to be a very pleasant addition to my daily prayer routine.

When my feet hit the floor, I soon drop to my knees and begin the day by sending up these praises to God.  Praying Lauds every morning sets the right tone for my day by glorifying God right from the very start, and there’s an element of beauty knowing that I do so in union with the whole Church.

Lauds

Each morning, with this Little Breviary, I begin my day with Lauds, which means “to give praise” and “to glorify.”  Many people start with Prime, the first hour, but I love the prayers of Lauds so much that I prefer to start my day with it.

The introductory prayers of Lauds immediately invoke God to listen to our pleas, but also glorify the Trinity with praise through the Glory Be:  

“Incline unto my aid, O God. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost...”  

This is followed by a series of Psalms, broken up by antiphons in between. The Psalms differ each day of the week. For example, I have noticed that the Psalms on Sunday have a more exultant tone while those on Friday have a more somber one.

After the Psalms, there is always a “song” from Scripture — such as the Song of David, the Song of Tobias, the Song of Judith, etc.  This is always a song of praise.  

There is another antiphon/psalm/antiphon sandwich, followed by the “Little Chapter.” The Little Chapter changes at each hour, but the one recited at Lauds is taken from Romans 13:

“The night is far on its course; day draws near. Let us abandon the ways of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us pass our time honorably, by the light day.”  

Following the Little Chapter is the Benedictus, which is a hymn of thanksgiving for the Redemption. After the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, his father Zachary recovered his speech and broke out into this hymn of praise and thanksgiving. It is known as the Benedictus, or as the Song of Zachary. 

After the Benedictus is the concluding prayers that end Lauds. 

Following the concluding prayers, I then read the “Office of the Day,” which are most often three lessons taken from Scripture but sometimes there will be a lesson from a Church Father, such as Augustine, Ambrose, or Jerome. Over the course of the year, through the Office, I have read through the books of Wisdom, Job, Tobit, Ester, Ezekiel, Daniel, Judith, Proverbs, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, all the Kings, 1st Peter, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and more. These lessons are broken up by antiphons that correspond to the liturgical theme of the day.  

After that, I flip to the back of the book for the day’s saint biography. This is immediately followed by the Te Deum, a hymn that begins “We praise Thee, O God.” The Te Deum is normally recited at Matins, but in my Little Breviary it tells me to say it after I read the saint of the day, so I do. 

Compline

Compline completes my day and settles me for bed. Also called Night Prayer, it is the last canonical hour recited just before retiring. 

Compline begins with asking God for a blessing before sleep:

“Pray, Lord, a blessing. The Lord Almighty grant us a quiet night and a perfect end. Amen.”  

The short lesson is taken from 1 Peter 5, a reminder to be on our guard always:

“Brethren: be sober, and watch well; the devil, who is your enemy, goes about roaring like a lion, to find his prey, but you, grounded in the faith, must face and boldly.”  

Next, the Our Father is recited, and then the Confiteor. Before going to bed, it is so wise to make a short examine of the day, to identify the places where we fell into sin. Then, with a humble and contrite heart, we ask God to forgive us: “May the Almighty and merciful Lord give us pardon, absolution, and remission of our sins. Amen.” 
 

After this are the Psalms, such as Psalm 15, which begins “Keep me safe, Lord, I put my trust in Thee.” Or Psalm 33, which conveys feelings of gratitude: “At all times I will bless the Lord; his praise shall be on my lips continually.” Or Psalm 90, a reminder that the Almighty is our Protector in every danger. 

The Little Chapter of Compline is taken from Jeremiah 14: “Lord, Thy dwelling-place is among us; Thy holy name we bear; wilt Thou abandon us, O Lord our God?” 

This is followed by a short responsory and versicle in which we commend our souls to God and ask for His protection.

After this, the Song of Simeon is recited from Luke 2. Simeon, taking the infant Jesus into his arms, broke out into this canticle of thanksgiving. It begins: “Ruler of all, now dost thou let my servant go in peace, according to Thy word...” 

Compline ends with a Concluding Prayer: “May the Almighty and merciful Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, bless and preserve us, amen.” 

I love having the Divine Office to guide the hours of the day as they roll by, to brighten the morning and to soothe the night, and to give glory to God in every hour of the day. 


And the Psalms are really just so striking, so beautiful, and so comforting. Praying them in a consistent rhythm, upon waking and before sleeping, feels so fitting. It is the perfect way to lift my heart, mind, and soul up to God at the very beginning and the very end of each day.  

 Recommendations

If you would like to start adding the Divine Office to your day, I can recommend a few options. 

  • For the traditional Divine Office before the reforms of Vatican II, go to DivinumOfficium.org, which is convenient for either desktop or mobile use. Just click the “hour” you want to pray and all the readings are on one page for you, which makes it very easy.

However, if you’re like me and prefer having a book in your hand as opposed to staring at a screen, then: 

Nina Leone
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