THE CHURCH lives in time and with time. This truth is brought out beautifully in the canonical hours. They provide a perfect way to consecrate the whole day to God and make it holy. The admonition of our Lord, that we are to pray and not grow weary, is thus perfectly fulfilled. For every part of the day the Church has drawn up a special prayer-form, an hour, as it is called, that corresponds to the particular need of that time of the day. The day is like a journey through an arid desert, but every three hours we come upon an oasis that offers us the waters of grace and the cool refreshing shade of heavenly assistance. Spiritually we may revive ourselves at the canonical hours of prayer.

In order to understand what these divisions of the day are supposed to mean, it would be well to take a brief but thorough look into the history of their development. In the early centuries of the Church, in addition to the celebration of Mass, it was customary to hold a so-called vigil, which was a prayer service in three parts, on the night before a feast day. From this vigil service developed three of our canonical hours: Vespers, Matins, Lauds, inasmuch as the first was prayed the preceding evening, and the last was held in the early hours of the morning. This was the arrangement already in the days of Hippolytus (†236) and these were the first “hours.” In the Roman office the threefold division of Matins was re-introduced even after the vigil service had split into Vespers, Matins, and Lauds, and the divisions came to be known as nightwatches or nocturns.

Corresponding to the three nocturns of Matins there are three daytime hours, Terce, Sext, and None. This makes three nocturns or nightwatches, three day hours, morning prayer (Lauds) and evening prayer (Vespers). The whole day is thereby sanctified in its principal divisions. There are and always have been Christians who actually pray these “hours” at their corresponding times.

The two remaining hours were added later, under the influence of monasticism. The monks prayed Matins during the night and said Lauds (morning prayer) in the early dawn, then went back to bed. When they rose later to begin the day’s work, they felt the need for some common service to consecrate their labours to the Lord. Thus they developed Prime, a sort of second morning prayer. Vespers (evening prayer) were said in late afternoon, and then at bedtime there were devotions in the sleeping quarters (lessons, chapter of faults, abbot’s blessing), which developed into Compline, a sort of second night prayer. With the addition of Compline, the development of the canonical hours came to an end.

Today, then, we have three night hours, three day hours, two morning prayers, and two evening prayers—ten hours. Eight of them sanctify successive three-hour intervals of the day, and in the Roman breviary each of the hours has something of a threefold division, so that actually there is a special prayer aligned to each individual hour of the day. Vespers and Lauds are based upon fivefold divisions; as morning and evening prayers, they are to introduce and conclude and be a crown upon the day’s activity in the pursuit of holiness.

The next point is how to make these canonical hours practical for personal, spiritual progress. The breviary ought to be a principal guide for my spiritual outlook and a means to sanctify my entire day’s activity. This calls for the fullest possible application of the scheme of the hours of Divine Office. The hours can best be appreciated by exploring them one by one, in an effort to determine what is the characteristic sentiment and theme of each, and as far as possible, how certain ones of them reflect various mysteries of the story of salvation.

The theme of a canonical hour is that special thought or motivation to prayer that arises from the needs of that time of day: it is the hour’s prayer intention. The background from the story of salvation is the mystery or event which bears upon the hour and should enter into the prayer intention while the hour is being prayed; it should be an illustration for the text of the prayer, to channel and intensify the spirit of devotion (eg., Terce—descent of the Holy Ghost).

Many a busy soul will complain that this division and approach to the hours is difficult to carry out. I grant that a person certainly need not hold to it slavishly. But one should make the effort to say at least the morning hours in the morning and the evening hours at night. Above all, we will want to be on guard against the attitude of considering the breviary as non-essential, a duty imposed or a pious frill to fill in the gaps of a working day, something that can be slithered in during the extra minutes here and there.

The Divine Office must regain its place of honour and importance in the Church. There is a great deal of benefit already in a proper outlook on the matter. Regard the breviary as the prayer framework into which fit all the efforts of a day’s prayer and work.

Apart from legislation, then, it is evident that an entire day’s Office must not be said in one sitting. The benefit of the prayers increases to the degree that we separate them as we pray. The ideal is and remains: whenever possible, pray each hour separately. The breviary is supposed to make the day holy, be our companion along the day’s journey, and be a source of strength and healing for us at every station along the way. This goal can be realized only if we pray the hours separately and at their proper time.

MATINS

It is night. The turmoil of day has died away and everything is still. The Church is at prayer. She remembers the night-time prayer of the Bridegroom; she thinks of the night vigils of the early Christians in the catacombs. Times have changed, but the Church continues to insist that night is not just for sleep; night is a time for prayer. From earliest ages Matins was the Church’s prayer for the Second Coming; she prayed and waited for the return of Christ as Judge of all the world. Night is also a symbol of life on earth. We are like the virgins in the parable, waiting for the Bridegroom with our lamps in hand. Here is how the Christians of 200 A.D. felt about their Matins (text from Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition, c. 32, 19-27):

“About midnight, get out of your bed and wash and pray. Wash with clean water. If you have a wife, pray the psalms, alternating verses with her. If you have a wife but she is not yet a believer, go apart by yourself and pray alone, and come back to your place with her. Even if you are bound by the bond of marital obligation, do not omit the prayer: for you are not sullied…

“It is very important that we pray at least once every hour; for the ancients have handed this practice down to us and taught us that this is how we are to keep watch. For at that hour all creation is at rest, praising God. Stars, trees, and waters are as if standing still. The whole host of angels keep their service together with the souls of the just. They praise almighty God in that hour; and that is why the faithful on earth must pray at this same time.

“Our Lord in his parable put it this way: About midnight, he said, there came a call: Look! here comes the bridegroom! Go out to meet him! And he said more. Keep watch, then he told them , for ye know not either the day or the hour in which the Son of man cometh.”

LAUDS

Lauds is a jubilant hour, fresh as the morning dew, perhaps the most beautiful of all the hours. Its symbolism deserves attention. It is night; nature and men are asleep. In the far east the grey of dawn appears; then the ruddy hue of morning, the harbinger of a new day, spreads across the horizon, and the world of nature begins to stir. But all this natural beauty is only a symbol and reminder of a most wonderful event in the story of salvation. It was at this beautiful hour that our Saviour burst the bonds of death. Resurrection—that is the background theme of Lauds. And the two pictures together, dawn and resurrection, remind us of a third arising from slumber, the spiritual awakening of the human soul.

There is, then, a threefold resurrection: nature awakens, the Saviour rises from the dead, the human soul celebrates its spiritual resurrection. Such is the background to our prayer of Lauds. It is an explicit song of praise; praise is the hour’s central theme. If we can get a feeling for these three pictures intermingling in our Lauds prayer, if we can enter into the spirit of this threefold resurrection, if we can enlist the forces of nature to pray and praise and exult along with us while reciting this hour reasonably early in the morning, perhaps even in the open air, then we are certain to be struck by the full impact of its meaning.

Lauds is, actually, one of the most striking examples of what a proper observance of the characteristic thought of an hour and the background theme from the story of salvation can do for personal devotion. The psalms at Lauds are all specially chosen hymns of praise.

PRIME

Prime is the Church’s second morning prayer, quite different in tone from Lauds. Lauds is the ideal morning prayer, a “resurrection song” of all creation and of the Church. Prime is the morning prayer of a sinful human, a subjective prayer. The basic theme of Prime is dedication of and preparation for the day’s labours and conflicts. This theme runs through the whole hour.

TERCE

9 o’clock. The Church wants us to pause briefly during our day’s activity and raise our hearts to God; that is the purpose underlying the little hours. They are a chance to catch our breath, an oasis in our desert wanderings. It is important that we do not pray them all at once, but whenever possible we should pray them at the corresponding hour of the day as a renewed consecration of the day’s work. The little hours are short, because the day is for work.

The story of salvation has a role to play in Terce: it was the third hour (9:00) when the Holy Ghost came down upon the young Christian community on Pentecost Sunday (Pentecost Terce begins with the hymn Veni Creator). Quite appropriately , the Church recalls this mystery in the hour of Terce: Terce is thus the “first Confirmation”, a strengthening for the conflicts of the day. Is is a “Come, Holy Ghost” upon the day’s work. The hour’s theme is invocation of the Holy Ghost.

SEXT

12:00 noon. Theme of the hour: The day’s conflict is at its climax, the heat of passion is at its strongest, the powers of hell have greater influence over man, our lower nature seems to have gained mastery. Theme from the story of salvation: the Saviour is hanging on the Cross (12:00 to 3:00); hell is bringing all its forces to bear against him. This scene from Good Friday is the background for Sext; foreground is the battle against sin in us and in the Church. “Lead us not into temptation” is the message of this hour.

NONE

3:00 to 6:00. This day of salvation is slowly beginning its decline. Our thoughts are taken up with the end of life. Looking to my future I ask: will I persevere? Perseverance is the hour’s theme.

VESPERS

Vespers, or Evensong, is the Church’s evening prayer. It is very similar to Lauds, both in construction and in basic theme. The Church looks back on the day of salvation just passed with all its redeeming graces—and is fervently grateful. Vespers is a thanksgiving prayer. Thanksgiving is the principal theme: the Magnificat is the climax, the great thanksgiving song of the Church. The canonical-hour theme is this: thanks be to God for the day just passed, both in the soul and in the Church, thanks for all his saving graces.

COMPLINE

Compline is the Church’s second evening prayer, and as opposed to Vespers, it is a subjective and individual prayer for the sinful soul who wants to make her peace with God.