Prayer

A beautiful and ancient tradition in the Catholic Church that is not reserved for priests and religious but can be prayed by the lay faithful. As far back as The Acts of the Apostles the Christian community followed the Jewish tradition of gathering for prayer at appointed times. St Paul reminded early Christians in his letters to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1Thess. 5:17) as well as Jesus telling his disciples about the ‘necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary’ (Luke 18:1) Christians took these commands very seriously and by the 200s they were gathering for morning and evening prayer; daily prayer at regular intervals was something available to all Christians. As the early Church moved into the Middle Ages, however, the practice fragmented into the ‘monastic office’, the preserve of monasteries, and the ‘cathedral office’, celebrated in parish churches. Over time it came to be seen as something belonging to the clergy and therefore remote from lay people. It was not until 1963 that the Second Vatican Council took steps to put the Hours back into the hands of the whole church. The Second Vatican Council highly encouraged the laity to ‘recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually’ (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 100), as … ‘The purpose of the Office is to sanctify the day.’ As we implement the Bishop’s diocesan plan and the reality of no parish priest sinks in across the diocese, praying Morning and Evening prayer together in our places of worship becomes even more important as coming together in prayer helps us to grow as a prayerful community.