The Liturgy of the Hours Thread

At Compline Friday night.  I have a bit of a project to try to memorize all of Compline to be able to say it in the dark.  So far, I know the Confiteor by heart in both Latin and French, I know the hymn by heart in Latin, in several melodies; I know the responsory by heart, as well as the Nunc Dimittis and its antiphon, and I know all the Marian antiphons by heart on at least the simple melodies, and the Salve Regina and Alma Redemptoris also on the solemn melodies.  Now I have to work on the psalmody.  The readings and collects I will have to use a light.

Also below is an excerpt of my antiphonary for Compline, noted for chant.  As you can see it is well worn already (I received it in November 2008).

Compline was the first office of the LOTH that I ever prayed, and it retains a special place in my heart. One of the loveliest things I've ever heard is a certain version of the Nunc Dimittis chanted in French. Check it out.

youtu.be/Hnc7LXwLghA

Since I stopped praying the LOTH in French, the only time I get to hear this is at a priest's funeral. Sadly, there's been lots of those recently...

Yes, very beautiful and moving film.  The actors actually learned to chant in a monastery, from the monks.

Okay, reviving this thread!

One of the criticisms levelled (by the usual suspects) at the Liturgy of the Hours is that they've omitted three Psalms (58, 83, 109) from the Office of Readings.

The Usual Suspects say that this is "modernism", but then they use that word so loosely that it's meaningless.

The General Instruction says that they were left out because of their imprecatory nature and the psychological difficulty associated with this.

Thoughts on this, anyone?

Me neither, but I read threads like this and quickly get overwhelmed!

I do the morning, evening, and night prayer through Magnificat, but I know it's not actually LOTH (though there's a passing similarity in structure.) And there's very little flipping of pages.

They are still said in the monastic schemas.  I'm not happy about them being left out of the Roman Office, but it is what it is.  There is much to like about the Roman Office; all schemas have their plusses and minuses.  

Keep in mind that the pre-Vatican II schemas were *never* intended for the laity, only for clergy and religious; oblates like myself would usually have "little offices" or abridged breviaries to use that often weren't "liturgical" in the true sense.  

That the LOTH was made accessible to the laity, and in fact the laity are *encouraged* to pray it, and that it is true liturgy, is a great gift to the Church.  It allows the laity to participate fully in the liturgical life of the Church, as part of the "priesthood of all believers"; and this goes hand-in-hand with a more participative formula for the new Mass.  Leaving out three (rather ugly!) psalms seems a small price to pay for including all the laity in the Church's liturgy.

Incidentally when the LOTH was designed, there was much discussion about this very point but it was the Holy Father, Paul VI who insisted these psalms (and the other imprecatory verses) be left out.

Sometimes, I take one of the rubrics of the monastic LOTH and apply it to the Roman Office. That rubric states that for monastics who use the 4-week LOTH, it is preferable to spread the Office of Readings (Vigils in monastic parlance), over 2 weeks. The way I do that is to say the psalms of weeks I and III in weeks I and III, and the psalms of week II and IV in weeks II and IV. That presents a problem for Thursdays of weeks II and IV, as both days use psalm 43. It makes little sense to pray the same psalm at both nocturnes. So what I do is in week II, I pray psalm 43 at the first nocturne, and then I pray psalms 57 and 81 (58 and 82 in the Hebrew numbering) at the second nocturne. Then on week IV, I again pray psalm 43 at the first nocturne, then psalm 108 at the second. Since 57 and 81 are short psalms and 108 is a longer one, the Office takes about the same time each day. Yes, it's liturgical as it follows the General Instructions for the monastic Liturgy of the Hours. Alas that rubric does not say *how* to distribute the psalms over 2 weeks, so that's how I chose to do it. Normally in a monastery doing this, the abbot (or prior if it's a priory, with the approval of the abbot of the mother monastery) would establish how it is done. Of course when I pray my abbey's monastic schema (Schema "B"), it isn't an issue as those psalms are included in the psalter but marked out; they can be said, or not said, ad libitum, but my abbey includes *all* the imprecatory psalms and verses.

As for me, they don't clash with my beliefs. They are a prayer sent up to God, not a command. God reads our hearts in any case and would the person here who has never asked God to smite a bad boss, coworker or relative, either vocally or subconsciously, please raise their hand? Far better than to pray to God our frustrations than to act out on them.

The other "trick" I have (but doesn't account for the imprecatory psalms) is to combine the Office of Readings and Lauds into one office of Matins. This too is liturgical, the GILH says how to attach the OOR with another Office (in my experience the two most common is to attach it to either Lauds or Compline). I've seen it done at a monastery in the UK.

Quick last note, I do a lot of experimentation with the LOTH.  Right now it just happens that I'm fiddling with Vigils (Office of Readings), testing recitation by anticipation the night before vs very early (5:30) in the morning, matins vs separate OOR and Lauds, Latin vs French, 4-weeks vs 2-weeks, 1 year cycle of readings vs 2 year cycle of readings with shortened summer readings as per the Rule of St. Benedict, etc.

I'll let you all know if I ever get around to settling on a schema before I croak (which I hope isn't too soon, I still have a couple of formularies to try out!)