The Divine Office

The Divine Office (Officium Divinum or The Liturgy of the Hours) is the daily public prayers of the Church. The principle of the Divine Office is the ‘sanctification of time’: it enables the Christian to come into the presence of God, through the recitation of Psalms and the Scriptures.  It is recited at specific times of the day, which differentiates it from other Liturgical services, such as the Mass.

The Divine Office developed over the centuries, but has its roots in the Jewish faith, which had stated times of the day for saying prayers: this pattern was adopted by Christians as their non-Eucharistic daily services of prayer, even though the content would have differed considerably.

Although the Psalter can be seen as the basis of the Office from the earliest Christian times, the author of the Didache (an early Christian manual containing moral teaching and liturgical information) exhorts Christians to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day, though he doesn’t specify particular times.  By the 2nd and 3rd centuries Christians were praying in the morning and evening, and Tertullian believed that this way of praying was so commonplace, that it was obligatory.

The ‘Desert Fathers’ believed that they should pray constantly, and spent much time reciting large portions of the Psalter.  In the monasteries there were seven Offices of prayer each day: Matins, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline.  The recitation of the Office is an integral part of the life of a monk or a nun, and it forms the staple of their religious life.  Although in some monasteries the number of Offices has been cut down, the same basic pattern of recitation of the Office prevails to this day.

The basis of the Office is the recitation of the Psalter: in some schemes of reciting the Office, all 150 Psalms are recited every month.  In the Middle Ages, in some orders and monasteries, the whole Psalter was recited every week.  This meant that a large amount of time for the monk or nun was spent in chapel praying the Office. 

This was all very well, for those who lived the religious life, but for the parish clergy, this way of reciting the daily prayer of the Church was far too onerous a task, and hampered them from their pastoral duties.  Because of this, the Office was revised to make it more manageable.  This was done in the Church of England in the 16th century by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer: he created the offices of Mattins (combining Matins and Lauds) and Evensong (combining Vespers and Compline).  Each of these Offices contain two long readings from the Bible, one from the Old, and one from the New Testaments, as well as the Psalms and canticles.  These are still said or sung daily in cathedrals every day.

The Divine Office was revised by the Western Church in the 1970s by order of Pope Paul VI: it is this version of the Office that many priests and lay people pray today.  It contains the possibility of saying seven Offices, but only two are obligatory for bishops, priests and deacons – Morning and Evening Prayer. 

The pattern of Morning Prayer is as follows: an invocation for the Lord to open our lips in order that we might praise him; the Invitatory antiphon and Psalm (94 (95)); a hymn; two Psalms and an Old Testament Canticle with their antiphons; a short Scripture reading; a short responsory; the Benedictus (Song of Zachariah) with its antiphon; brief intercessions, Lord’s Prayer, concluding prayer; blessing and dismissal.

The pattern of Evening Prayer is as follows: an invocation for God to come to our aid, to help us to pray, followed by Glory be to the Father...; a hymn; two Psalms and a New Testament Canticle with their antiphons; a short Scripture reading; a short responsory; the Magnificat (Song of Mary) with its antiphon; brief intercessions, Lord’s Prayer, concluding prayer; blessing and dismissal.

Most priests also recite the Office of Readings, which precedes Morning Prayer.  This is inserted after the Invitatory Psalm at Morning Prayer; it is followed by Psalmody; next comes a long reading from Scripture with short responsory; this is followed by a non-Scriptural reading from the Church Fathers or one of the Councils of the Church or another theologian or theological work.

For lay people, who may have less time than the clergy, but who want to base their prayer life on the Divine Office, a small volume containing simply Morning and Evening Prayer can be bought.