Friday, August 12, 2011

Dog Days, RIP and Cheating at Daytime Prayer


Here in the northeast, the hot and humid spell has broken.
(Praise and exalt Him above all forever.)
I spent the day wallowing in 70 dry degrees of pleasantness, gazing at that perfect cerulean sky that only appears when the nasty humidity goes away.

My son and I strolled all over our village, from the venerable Methodist cemetery down at the corner (civil war vets and even one from the American Revolution), down country lanes, 




through a pine grove where I photographed some poisonous fungus.



and finally, home.
that little red&white farmhouse is my castle.
 An altogether satisfactory day. The heat may return, but surely  with less ferocity. Fall is on its way.
(Praise and exalt Him above all forever.)
I hope the rest of you are experiencing similar blessed relief wherever you live.

Now, back to the Divine Office. In particular, Daytime Prayer. (also known as cojoined triplets, terce, sext, and none.) Daytime Prayer may be said at Mid-morning, Midday, or Midafternoon.

 The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours suggests that clergy and lay people choose one of the three daytime hours day day, rather than trying to fit in all three. This is good, since I for one, am hard pressed at times to say Daytime Prayer at all. My most likely choice is midafternoon, since I tend to put it off until close to 4PM and I am torn between saying it or just plowing ahead with vespers. But whenever I say Daytime Prayer, I always want to peak at the other two readings. Usually the three daytime hour readings fit together very nicely. They are often consecutive verses of the same passage, OR they are from a different passage but all address a related topic. It makes me wish I had set aside time to do all of the daytime hours. But my wishes are not ardent  enough to make me actually do so.

So instead I cheat. I just do the daytime prayer psalter, but (if I have time) I read the readings from the other two daytime hours along with the reading that goes with the time of day I'm actually using. Daytime readings are very short, and reading all three of them takes no longer than reading one reading from morning or evening prayer.

The General Instruction urges the laity to adapt the Divine Office to their situation, so I guess this is  a prime example. So, right! I don't cheat. I adapt.

Do any of you "adapt" your Divine Office to better serve your schedule or time constraints? Let me know.
I might put your handy  hints in my book.