Dear St. Rita Parishioners,
Beginning on Sunday, June 28, St. Rita will celebrate sung Vespers (Evening Prayer) every Sunday at 4:30 PM in the Church, in lieu of our current Friday evening Vespers. Our first two Sundays, June 28 and July 5, will also serve as an opportunity to meet and greet our new priests, Fr. Will Nyce and Fr. Noah Morey (Vocations Director), and so we’ll have a small social in the school hall and playground afterwards. The main reason for the shift from Friday to Sunday, however, is an attempt to speed up our Confession lines. Moving Vespers to Sunday allows me to add a second priest in the Confessional on Fridays (beginning June 26), with the goal of finishing Confessions by 7:30 PM when Mass begins. Beginning Monday, June 29, we’ll also add a second priest in the Confessional on Mondays, with the same goal.
The Liturgy of the Hours (also called the Divine Office) is the official prayer of the Church and is an expression of St. Paul’s admonition to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). The Church from Her inception has engaged in communal prayer (cf. Acts 2:42), and the use of the Psalms in particular is a natural carryover from Jewish practice – a major difference, of course, being that the Jews were looking ahead to the coming of the Messiah while Christians were considering in their prayer the content of the Psalms in relation to Jesus.
Very early in the history of the Church, then, use of the Psalms as a regular pattern of prayer became deeply rooted and ultimately widespread. Between Roman timekeeping (note the various references to the 3rd, 6th, or the 9th hour of the day in the New Testament) and regular Jewish prayer, it would have been quite natural to establish a structure of prayer around these various hours. And so we find Church Fathers (e.g. St. Clement of Alexandria) and Ecclesiastical Writers (e.g. Tertullian) in the 3rd century encouraging regular prayer, including around those particular hours mentioned in the New Testament. The Apostolic Tradition(partially attributed to St. Hippolytus, 2nd and 3rd century) instructs the faithful to pray 7 times daily.
As with much in the liturgy of the Church, development of Her official prayer over the centuries was varied and sporadic, and different clergy became required to pray it in different ways in various places and times. The basic format, however, of the Divine Office was to divide the Psalter (150 Psalms) among the 7 hours of prayer during the day and the 7 days of the week, ensuring that all 150 Psalms were prayed weekly. The Office included readings, hymns, and other prayers as well, along with the heart of the Office, the Psalter. The modern version has reduced the frequency of the Psalms, such that the full Psalter is prayed over the course of 4 weeks rather than 1 week.
This very simplified history of the Liturgy of the Hours hopefully serves for us as an impetus to seek it out and pray it! When the Psalm is sung or recited at Mass, some people immediately zone out, because it doesn’t feel as substantive as the other readings. And yet, the Psalms have, from the time of their composition (many by King David himself), expressed the longing in man’s heart for God, our praise of Him, our need for Him, as well as our difficulties understanding and knowing His ways. Every way that man can legitimately relate to God can be found somewhere in the Psalms. Indeed, because the Psalms are Scripture inspired by God, they are God’s way of showing us how to relate to Him. They are utterly profound teachers and guides of how to enter into relationship with God. Therefore, they teach us who God is and who we are in relation to Him. There is a Psalm for every human experience, from the best to the worst.
It is important, then, that we do not neglect this part of the Christian life that the Church has held so dear from the beginning. If you are looking for a way to begin your day, perhaps consider Lauds or Morning Prayer. If you need a helpful way to pause in the middle of the day, try one of the Daytime Hours (Terce, Sext, or None – literally, 3rd, 6th, or 9th [hour]). Vespers is Evening Prayer, Compline is Night Prayer, and Matins is the Office of Readings, which in monastic life was often prayed in the very early morning hours (2 or 3 AM). There is a prayer not only for every situation, but for every moment of the day. The Liturgy of the Hours reflects the fact that our whole life should revolve around our worship of God and our relationship with Him. In fact, our prayer is the main thing we do – everything else flows from it. This is true not just for clerics, but for all Christians.
Therefore, I encourage you to pick up the Liturgy of the Hours, and at the very least to join us on Sunday afternoons! Sunday is a day given over to the Lord, and while Mass fulfills the obligation, strictly speaking, it is good that we strive to reclaim Sunday for God as much as possible! It is my hope some of our families will commit to weekly Sunday Vespers with us in the Church, and so form a core group in the parish who are anchoring Sunday in prayer and starting the week off with as much grace as possible. Sunday Vespers is an opportunity for families and individuals to refocus on prayer again after Mass, to begin the evening together in worship of God, and to gather again in worship prior to spending time together in the evening. Vespers will last less than 30 minutes, and 4:30 PM hopefully is early enough not to interfere with dinner or other family plans for Sunday evening.
Lastly, the Liturgy of the Hours is precisely that – liturgy. You’ll notice that while certain prayers can be prayed publicly (the rosary, etc.), certain prayers are by their nature public prayer, and the Liturgy of the Hours is one of them. We light the candles on the altar for the Liturgy of the Hours (but not for the rosary); likewise, the priest wears specific vestments (with the correct liturgical color) for the Liturgy of the Hours (but not for the rosary), because it is on some level an extension of the Mass. The Church is always praying and worshipping God, and we join together in a corporate way – as a body, the Body of Christ – in the Liturgy of the Hours. There is an efficacy in it that relates directly to the Cross of Christ, and it is eminently worthy of our engagement. May it be a source of grace for each of you and for the parish!
In Christ,
Fr. Christensen
P.S. As a caveat, the books we use for the Liturgy of the Hours (the Breviary) are unwieldy and confusing at first, and there is a new translation being prepared for release for Lent 2027, next year. Therefore, I do not recommend you buy any books as of yet. We will have pamphlets for use on Sundays, but if you want to pray more Hours than that, for the time being, you can use the various smartphone apps, such as iBreviary, Laudate, Universalis, or Introibo (Pre-Vatican II Office). There are many others, I am sure!