Aidan Rooney points to this video as a practical introduction to the Liturgy of the Hours. It recaptures a 1600 year old tradition and presents the necessity, urgency, and utility of praying the hours, with a demonstration of the Morning Prayer from Shane Claireborne’s “Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals.”
Some related resources:
Brother David Steindl-Rast – The Angel of the Hours
Tags: Aidan Rooney, liturgy, prayer, Steindl-Rast, Youth
the insight comes from Susan Stabile, long-time lay Vincentian friend and author of the blog < Creo en Dios!
The Common Prayer book is a wonderful resource, by the way. As Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove mentions in the video, it has a nice mix of prayers from various traditions. I’ve used it at times for my own morning prayer, although it is even better for group prayer.
I was really happy to see this post because I know what the divine office has meant to me in my life and now my niece and nephews lives.
When I was 18 I was first introduce to the Divine Office at a vocation retreat. As soon as I got home, I went to the local Catholic bookstore and purchase my first Christian Prayer Book. I had never heard of this prayer or knew anything about it. 26 years later, I am still saying it everyday, I just love this ancient form of prayer. Many churches in the area say the divine office before mass and there is even a church that says it every evening too. Since 2005, I have also download it to my PDA each week because it is a lot lighter and easier to use.
My nephew who is 12 saw my prayer book about 2 years ago and asked me about it. I gave him my book and he has been saying it for almost 2 years now. Even though he has a guide I have to email or text him every week the pages for each day because he gets confused. He got an IPOD for Christmas and also downloads it to his device. In my spare time I would love to write a children’s version of the divine office.
My niece who is 8 wants my second copy of the divine office. Whenever they spend the night and on vacation we say it together and she reads very well.
They came to me because they have been going through a very difficult time with their family situation and asked me what would I do. So I told them their best friend in the world is God and Mary. I pray to both in good and bad times. And I also go to daily mass and the days I don’t get to go, I notice a big difference in my day. I also told them that their great grandmother and grandfather said a ton of prayers everyday and when both died even through they both had cancer their death was peaceful and I believe it was because of their prayer life. In this discussion, I mention praying the rosary and neither had heard of it. I can’t remember a time we didn’t say the rosary going up. Everytime we had a car ride my grandmother would say 10 hail marys for a safe trip. When we went on vacation, we say the entire rosary. And if it was raining, sometimes we say all three mysteries. It was just part of our life.
This past year has been really rough on my nephew, so he calls me everyday at 6 a.m. to see if he can go to daily mass with me. He says that daily prayer and going to mass has made a big difference and he sees what I meant by not having this as part of your day.
We normally have my nieces and nephews on the weekends so they go to mass with us a lot. Even on weekends when they are not with us, they, including the 5 year will call and ask if they can go to church with grandmom and me.
I think the world we live in today along with blended families is very rough on kids. And kids need something or someone to help them and who better then God and Mary. Now, the 5 year old always tells me you forgot someone, Jesus, he doesn’t get the trinity concept yet:)