What week and day in the psalter I should be on?

Another vintage post that gives anyone with slight mathematical ability, and a church calendar, the power to figure out what week in the psalter you should be using.


A reader pointed out that there is a yearly booklet to go with your Christian Prayer book, that tells you what page(s) you should be on every day of the year. True. I used to use one of these. Then the new year came and I'd forgotten to order the new booklet, and since I'd been lax in praying the office over the Christmas holidays, I'd lost track of what week it was. And even when I still had the current booklet, I had the habit of misplacing/losing it. Homeschooling mothers do a lot of that.

But I learned that if you keep your parish calendar at hand, you can figure everything out yourself. All you need to know is your 4x  table. Look at the most recent Sunday on your calendar. It will say what Sunday in ordinary time it is. If by chance it's a multiple of four (4,8,12,16, etc.) then your should use week IV of the Psalter. If it's a multiple of 4, minus 1, (3,7,11,15...) then you want week III of the psalter. If it's a multiple of 4 minus 2, use week II. 4 minus 3?  Week I.

The four weeks of advent correspond with weeks I thru IV of the psalter. The six weeks of lent correspond to weeks I thru IV, then I and II again.  Same deal with the weeks of the Easter season.

Of course,  you can also find this on the computer, thanks to divineoffice.org, universalis.org, and probably others. But I like being able to manage without a computer.

Combining Mass with the Liturgy of the Hours

A couple mornings per week, our pastor passes out some  breviaries and  leads us in Morning Prayer after the 8 AM mass.But once in  while--perhaps on the feast of a parish patron--he passes out printed sheets and leads us in saying Morning Prayer and mass in a combined liturgy. This makes for a beautiful, psalm-drenched mass.

You might witness this option regularly if you attend mass at a monastery.  As explained in the General Instructions on the Liturgy of the Hours, the mass will begin with the either the opening verse and hymn of Morning Prayer, OR the entrance antiphon and celebrants greeting from the mass. Next, the psalmody of the day is recited. The mass then continues with the Gloria (on a feast or solemnity) or straight to the opening prayer on a weekday.

Next, comes the liturgy of the word from the mass of the day --the reading from Morning Prayer is not used. The intercessions that follow might be either those from the mass OR those from Morning Prayer. The rest of the mass continues as usual through the end except that the Canticle of Zechariah is sung or recited after communion.

There are slight variations to the above procedure  for combining mass with Daytime or Evening prayer.

So...if you ever witness a Divine Office/mass hybrid, be assured that this is not an unapproved liturgical shortcut. It's a legitimate option. One can see that it is a great convenience for monastic clerics  who gather in community multiple times per day. For the rest of us, it's an easy way

Hitting a Roadblock...

...on your way to praying the Liturgy of the Hours? Maybe you're interested in starting, but don't know where to begin: which book (or online breviary) to use? How do I find time to do this?

Or maybe you've just cracked open that shiny new breviary...and have no idea how to find your place. Or you're not sure about what to do on a saint's memorial.

Or maybe you're pretty good at this, but have noticed on a visit to a monastery that the monks do things quite differently from the way you have been doing it, and want to know if your way is a valid option or whether you've been doing it wrong.

Or maybe....there's something else you want to know. Ask here, and I'll ransack the relevant Church documents to find the answer. Or if it's not a Church Documents sort of question, I'll tell you based on long experience and obsessive liturgical information gathering. 

Rubrics, Anyone?

"Stand up, sit down, stand up, kneel down. It was like a game of Simon Says. Not my thing for worship."

The nice protestant lady who said this after attending a Catholic mass had not been told that Catholics praise God  not just with their minds and vocal chords, but also with our bodies and the postures we put them in. I wish I'd had the quick wits to tell her this, but at the time I was a shy fifteen-year-old who hadn't ever articulated this idea even  to myself.

But now I'm happy to tell anyone who will listen--we Catholics pray with our arms, legs, knees, spines, and hands. Since Christ became flesh, all flesh can praise him. Furthermore, since Christ entered this world, all of creation--and all that man creates--can help our prayers as well. Hence, candles, statutes, incense, etc.

In the liturgy (mass and the hours) there are instructions for how to use our bodies and our stuff to assist our prayer. These are called rubrics, because they are printed in red and rubrum is Latin for red.

There are rubrics for our bodily actions when we pray the Liturgy of the Hours. But you may not find them in your breviary. Now, keep in mind, these are not required or expected when you are praying by yourself. (Although the sign of the cross at the beginning, end, and gospel canticle are easy enough to do.)  If you pray the hours with a group of people, and especially when you do this in a church, it's a good idea to use the rubrics insofar as it is practical.   Furthermore, you might find that even when praying privately, following the rubrics once in a while  can help you pay attention to what you are doing.   So here they are:

1. Opening.Stand Up.  Make the sign of the cross while saying "O God come to my assistance..." (you already knew this one, right?)
2. Bow, either from the waist or just your head, whenever you say the first half of the "glory Be"
3.Sit down for the psalms, the reading, and the responsory.
4. Stand up for the Gospel canticle and its antiphon.Make the sign of the cross while saying the opening words of the canticle.   Remain standing for the intercessions, the Our Father, and the concluding prayer.
5. Make the sign of the cross while saying the concluding verse: "May the Lord bless us, protect us from every evil, and bring us to everlasting life."

Remember, you don't have to do this when you pray. Especially if you feel silly doing it  in front of the rest of your family. On the other hand, using the rubrics can give you a better sense of what you are doing--praying liturgically. and if you are lucky enough to have a spouse or child joining you, the rubrics might well make the Divine Office more interesting for all concerned. 

Finding Minutes for the Hours- Input Wanted!

Starting, or rather maintaining a Divine Office habit is not easy. Whether you say one hour of the liturgy or five, or seven, finding time is just plain hard. We don't have monastery bells calling us to prayer every couple of hours. And if we did, we'd often be unable to heed them, what with deadlines at work, crying kids, home repairs, car repairs, emergency trips to the store for whatever has been run out of, you name it. The time is there, somewhere, but one, it's hard to find, and two, once found it's hard to remember to consistently use it. Everything else clamors for our attention more forcefully than that quiet little prayerbook or prayer app. 

This is true of any kind of prayer or any kind of regular thing you want to do--read the bible, teach yourself piano, plan weekly menus, work out. 

I don't have any surefire advice to offer. Every new Remember-to-Pray gimmick works for a while, and then fades. One just has to try and try again until, after months or years of more or less succeeding, one starts to feel like something is missing if the prayer is left out. A few things that help include:

1. Your personal monastery bells: kitchen timer, cell phone alarm, a repeating  pop-up reminder on an email calendar. This assumes you will usually be in the locale of your bells.

2. Tie-in to another activity: Link your Office to some activity. For example, when the kids have left for school, sit down  and read morning prayer. Or at work: mid-morning prayer is what you do with your coffee break. Evening prayer might be done once dinner has been put in the oven, or directly after dinner while the kids clear the table. 

3. Leave the breviary (if you use one) lying around where you will see it. 

4. Start a blog about the Divine Office. You will feel pretty foolish writing about it if you aren't actually remembering to say it most of the time. 

Okay, now I want some better, more concrete ideas from the rest of you. How do you 1. find the time and 2. remind yourself? Which hours of the liturgy are easiest for you to get around to? Which are the hardest?

How About Them Intercessions?

The home user of the Divine Office might  find the Intercession sections of Morning and Evening prayer kind of awkward. The are so clearly designed for a group divided into two "choirs", that it feels funny doing them on one's own. And funnier still  reading the two parts to each petition and then having to jump back to the repeated response (e.g.,"Lord, show us your mercy").  Furthermore, the two-part petitions are often so verbose that the tired woman reading them can lose the train of what exactly it is she is praying for.

At least, this is what I have sometimes felt. Here is some help for Intercession Discomfort Syndrome, gleaned from the General Instructions on the Liturgy of the Hours.

If you are praying by yourself, you  need not read the introductory/invitation statement (e.g. "Christ is our Savior, in joy let us cry out to him:") nor do you use the repeated response (e.g. "Lord, show us your mercy"). This is meant for public occasions when a priest or other minister is leading the congregation. Instead you just dive in to the actual petitions. Read each one.The second part of each is the "response". 

And if, like me, you would like to sometimes see some shorter, more to-the-point petitions: the Church, thoughtful Mother that she is to her ADHD children, has some  optional petitions  that are made to order. You can only find these in each volume of  the four-volume breviary.  They are only to be used at Evening Prayer. When we are too tired to follow the more flowery petitions, I guess.

Another nice suggestion from the General Instructions: "it is permissible to include particular intentions at both morning and evening prayer." So after you read what's in the book, you may pray for the particular needs of your family and friends.

All of the above make me a lot more comfortable with the Intercessions than I used to be.

The Hours of Ash Wednesday

If you have taken up the Divine Office for lent,God bless you!  It's a little bit harder to figure out the breviary during one of the Church's liturgical seasons  than during ordinary time.

Ash Wednesday is unusual in that there are two choices. The default is Wednesday of Week IV, but a suggested alternate is Friday of Week III. The alternate makes sense, since this is a great day to recite  the penitential  psalm 51 ("a clean heart create for me O God, put a steadfast spirit within me") I am going to stick with Wednesday week IV this year, because of its opening psalm which begins, "My heart is ready, O God." This will be my thought for the day.  I figure if I keep telling myself my heart is ready to fast on food and (worst of all) shopping, then maybe the flesh will follow the spirit.

So--do the psalmody of Wednesday Week IV, but STOP before the reading. Turn to the front part of the book, the Proper of Seasons. My edition of the one-volume breviary puts Ash Wednesday at p.255. Continue to the end of Morning Prayer. When Evening Prayer comes around, it's the same thing. Wednesday Evening of the Psalter, then turn back to the proper for the reading thru the conclusion.

Potential problems: trying to find the Canticl of Zachariah and the Magnificat. They're in the ordinary between pages 691and 696. The best thing to do is make copies of these and paste them inside the front and back covers. Much easier to find that way.

If you are not sure you've found the right places, you can always go to http://www.divineoffice.org/ . And feel free to ask me any questions at all.

Words and Books

Just so everyone is clear: Liturgy of the Hours = The Divine Office. Two names for the same thing. I tend to use "Divine Office" because it's fewer keystrokes. Liturgy of the Hours is a somewhat more official title, I gather, since that is the title on most breviaries.

Next: types of printed breviaries. The most widely used breviary in the United States is put out by the Catholic Book Publishing company. The 4-volume version (around $125 on Amazon) has all the liturgical hours for every day of the year. If you are committed to praying more than just Morning , Evening and Night Prayer, than you want to get the 4-volume. If this is too big a chunk of change, you may buy one volume at a time for $32.44 a piece. The one to send for now  is volume II- Lent thru Easter.

The more economical thing to do,  is to purchase the one-volume version. (Also from CBC) It include the complete Morning, Evening, and Night Prayer for the entire year.It also has selection from Daytime  Prayer. This is enough for most people, an d probably enough for anyone who is just beginning.

The Daughters of St. Paul used to have a one volume book which I liked better than CBC since instead of wasting pages on a section of hymns, their breviary included the complete Daytime Prayer as well. If you find this breviary, it is for now the best one-volume version. Currently it is out of print. The Daughters are planning on a new edition, but it won't be out until 2012 at the earliest.

CBC also has a slimmer volume titled Shorter Christian Prayer. This is the basic 4-week Psalter for Morning and Evening Prayer. It does not include the variations needed for the Church seasons or feast days.  But a beginner who has this book lying around should use  it for a few months, since it is very easy to learn to use. You can always buy the real thing later.

Full fledged members of the digital generation might prefer to not bother with books and simply use http://www.divineoffice.org/   All the how-to's on this blog are for old and young fogeys who just like to hold a book and turn the pages, and who want to be able to read the Office when there is a power outage.

Boot Camp II: Morning Prayer/Invitatory

This will be  a really boring post for anyone who is not actually trying to learn the Divine Office. But if you are trying to learn it,why, you'll be edified, instructed, and even entertained. So give it a try.

In a previous post I suggested that Divine Office beginners would do well to start with a week or two of Night Prayer, in order to get a feel for praying the Office without the worry of flipping around in the breviary.  After a few weeks of Night Prayer, you should be ready to add Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer to your  repertoire. Maybe both. But for starters, choose the one that best fits your available time.

Let's take a look at Morning Prayer.(MP for short) We are currently at week IV in the   psalter.
Technically, if MP is the first hour of the day that you pray, you aren't supposed to begin with "O God, Come to my assistance, etc" Instead,you should  begin with the Invitatory. The psalter gives you the invitatory antiphon for the day. Use this with Psalm 95, which you will find on page 688 in the one-volume Christian Prayer breviary. If you have a dfferent edition, hunt for the "Ordinary", which is a bunch of instructional pages inconveniently buried between the Proper of Solemnities and the  Psalter. You will notice instructions to repeat the antiphon several times throughout the psalm, reminiscent of the responsorial psalm at mass. Do not feel obligated to do this if you don't want to. This is a practice more suited to public recitation (like monasteries) where the group is divided into two "choirs" that take turns with responses. Those who pray privately just say the antiphon before and after.

In fact, I'll tell you a secret. I don't always pray the Invitatory  psalm before Morning prayer. Since I know it by heart I often say it as I'm getting out of bed in the morning. Later, when I do morning prayer, I open with "O God come to my assistance..."  This custom of mine is not in the rubrics. It's just my way of getting into the day's office well before I go downstairs and figure out where I left my breviary. Luckily we lay folk are not bound to do everything according to regulation. In fact we are encouraged to adapt the Divine Office to our situation.

Now, back to Morning Prayer. It's just like Night Prayer, just a bit longer and with intercessions added. First the psalmody, which usually consists of two psalms and a canticle. (canticle: a psalm-like passage that is from some other  part of the Bible)  Anitiphon, psalm, glory be, antiphon.  I know they stick the psalm prayer in there such that you's think it comes before the repeated antiphon, but the general instructions  imply that this is not the case. So you may recite the psalm prayer after you have finished with the antiphon. And realize, too, that the psalm prayers themselves are optional.

After  psalmody comes a reading, and a few seconds or more of  reflection. Then the responsory. Then the canticle of Zechariah (antiphon, canticle, antiphon.) Save yourself endless annoyance by making a photocopy of this canticle from the Ordinary and pasting inside the front cover of your book so it is easy to find each day until you know it by heart. Now for the intercessions. There are several ways to do this.  You'll notice that each petition is divided into two parts. (again, for group recitation). You may read each one, then repeat the  "Lord-hear-our-prayer"-type response given in the beginning. OR you may simply read each petition WITHOUT using the response/refrain. Both options are in the general instruction. I usually skip the repeated response, being a person lacking in devoutness who wants my liturgical hours to be short and sweet.

Next, recite the Our Father. Then the final prayer. Conclude with, (while making the sign of the cross),May the Lord bless us, protect us from every evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.

This is all pretty straightforward during Ordinary time. It gets  little more complex during lent, or when you celebrate a saint's feast. I recommend not worrying about the saints or the seasons for the first weeks that you use the psalter. There's enough to do just getting familiar with the feel and flow of things without adding more complications.

You will notice that the psalms of Morning prayer have, well, a nice morning feel to them. They often refer to the morning, to daybreak or dawn,  to the rising of the sun and the beauty of creation. This isn't just the Church trying to be cute and give us some Hallmark moments to rouse us from our AM stupor until the coffee kicks in. It's because the Divine Office is meant to sanctify each part of the day. We are asking God to bless and consecrate our morning, our midday, our evening, and all the activities that go with each of these. It all fits together. Like the movements of a symphony.

If you have any questions, just ask.

Divine Office Boot Camp

All right. You want to start praying the liturgy of the hours. Unless you are  are super-zealous,  it is probably not a good idea to attempt all 5 liturgical hours (or seven since you have the option of doing daytime prayer 3 times instead of just once). The Church recommends that the laity use Morning and Evening   Prayer, calling these two hours the "hinges" of the liturgical day. So that is a worthy goal.

But for  those in the  just -starting- and -not-so-sure-I can-handle-this category, I'm going to recommend beginning with the hour of Night Prayer. There are several reasons for this:

1. It is shorter than Morning or Evening prayer, ever an advantage to those of us who are piety-challenged.
2. Night Prayer is on a simple 7-day repeating cycle. It does not change during Advent, Lent, or for feast days.  It's in the no-flip zone of your breviary.
3. For those who already  pray around bedtime, there is no huge change in habits to form.
4. The psalms of Night Prayer are just about the best ones there are in terms of beatiful imagery and inspiring one-liners that will soon become part of your spontaneous prayer language. For example, Psalm 130 (the De Profundis for you Latin geeks), and Psalm 91, the "Warrior's Psalm".

Okay, here we go. Note that in the CBC breviary, there is no night prayer for Saturday. Saturday night is called Sunday I (as in the vigil of Sunday) and Sunday is called Sunday II. In the Pauline Media breviary, Saturday is called Saturday.

1.Begin with the sign of the cross while reciting O God come to my assistance. O Lord make haste to help me. say the Glory Be. And unless it's lent, you may add Alleluia
2. Do a brief examination of conscience and make an act of contrition.
3. Skip the hymn or poem unless you really like these. These elements are optional suggestions.
4. Recite the antiphon. Recite the psalm and the Glory Be. Repeat the Antiphon. (note: the subtitle and the scripture citation directly under the psalm number is not meant to be recited out loud as part of the Office. It is there for private meditation. Of course, if you are doing this by yourself, the whole thing is private, but I just want you to distinguish the essentials of the prayers from the little extras that are thrown in.)
5. Do this with the second psalm if there is one.
6. Read the reading. Pause a moment for reflection.
7. Recite the responsory.(Into your hands,Lord, I commend my spirit, etc.)
8. Canticle of Simeon (the ultimate bedtime prayer) Aniphon, canticle, Glory Be, Antiphon.
9. Recite the final prayer, and then the concluding verse: May the all powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peacful death. Amen. Then recite one of the traditional Marian Prayers listed. (Hail Holy Queen, Hail Mary, or Ave Maris Stella)
10. Enjoy the peaceful restful mood Night Prayer will give you as you drift off to sleep.

That's it. The whole thing takes 5 minutes. Longer depending on whether you linger, lectio divina style, over the psalms.