What is the Liturgy of the Hours?

The official daily prayer of the Catholic Church

The Liturgy of the Hours is, alongside the Mass, the official prayer of the Catholic Church. While the Mass is the central act of worship, the Liturgy of the Hours extends the spirit of that worship across every part of the day, by the rhythm of psalms and prayers prayed at fixed times. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the Liturgy of the Hours, "by the apostolic tradition, has been so structured as to consecrate the whole course of day and night by the praise of God."¹

The structural foundation of the Catholic Office traces to the sixth-century Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia, which prescribed the daily monastic distribution of all 150 psalms across the eight monastic hours. The Benedictine pattern shaped Catholic monastic and clerical prayer for fifteen centuries, and the current Roman Liturgy of the Hours is a reformed direct descendant.

The seven canonical hours

The current form of the Liturgy of the Hours, governed by the Liturgia Horarum of Pope Saint Paul VI (1971), distributes the prayer across seven hours:

• Office of Readings (formerly called Matins): a longer office of psalms and two readings (one scriptural, one patristic or hagiographical). May be prayed at any time of day; traditionally during the night or early morning.
• Lauds (Morning Prayer): the principal morning hour, with morning psalms, the Old Testament canticle, and the Gospel canticle of the Benedictus (the Canticle of Zechariah).
• Daytime Prayer: three minor hours that may be prayed at midmorning (Terce), midday (Sext), and midafternoon (None). For those not in religious life, ordinarily one of the three is prayed.
• Vespers (Evening Prayer): the principal evening hour, parallel to Lauds. The Gospel canticle is the Magnificat (the Canticle of the Visitation).
• Compline (Night Prayer): the brief office prayed before sleep. Includes the Nunc Dimittis (the Canticle of Simeon at the Presentation) and concludes with a Marian antiphon (Salve Regina, Alma Redemptoris Mater, Ave Regina Caelorum, or Regina Caeli, depending on the season).

Who prays the Liturgy of the Hours

The Liturgy of the Hours is obligatory for:

• Bishops, priests, and deacons of the Latin Rite (canon 276 of the Code of Canon Law).
• Religious in solemn vows, according to the proper law of their institute.

It is strongly commended to all the lay faithful. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium of the Second Vatican Council (1963) explicitly invited the laity to participate, particularly in Lauds and Vespers, either in common or privately.²

For the lay person, the most accessible entry points are:

• Lauds (Morning Prayer) and Vespers (Evening Prayer) as the two principal hours.
• Compline (Night Prayer), which is brief, beautiful, and easy to pray before sleep.
• Mobile applications and the Universalis and iBreviary apps make the daily texts available without a printed Breviary.

Structure of an hour

Each hour follows a basic structure:

1. Opening verse (Psalm 70:2: "O God, come to my assistance").
2. Hymn (proper to the hour and the season).
3. Psalmody (typically three psalms, with antiphons).
4. Scripture reading (brief at Lauds and Vespers, longer at the Office of Readings).
5. Responsory.
6. Gospel canticle (at Lauds, Vespers, and Compline).
7. Intercessions and the Our Father.
8. Concluding prayer.

The cycle of psalms is distributed across a four-week pattern, so that all 150 psalms are prayed every four weeks (with adjustments for solemnities and feasts that have proper texts).

Sources

Footnotes

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1174. ↩

2. Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium (December 4, 1963), nn. 83 to 101, on the Liturgy of the Hours. See also the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours (1971). ↩