What Is the Liturgy of the Hours and Is Praying it Biblical?

The Old Testament’s King David prayed seven times a day (Psalm 119:164). Jesus withdrew to pray at dawn and during the night, and his disciples practiced a sacred pause for prayer at specific hours of the day. They all came together to pray at the third hour of the day and before eating. The apostle Peter prayed in the upper rooms of the house at the sixth hour, and Peter and John prayed in the temple at the ninth hour. Further, we read in Acts that the apostles Paul and Silas prayed in the temple at midnight, praising God. Early church groups described in Acts 2:42  “...devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Mediator Dei, Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on the Sacred Liturgy).

The Liturgy of the Hours is also often referred to as the Divine Office, and the practice was further developed in Catholic monasteries in the sixth century. Saint Benedict, founder of the monastic movement in Europe, encouraged Benedictine monks to pray the 150 Psalms over the course of each week. The Psalms are still prayed in seven installments each day in a Benedictine monastery. For lay people, the practice of praying the Liturgy of the Hours is more concerned with the spirit rather than the text of the prayers.

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The names of the seven times designated for Liturgy of the Hours prayers and the focus of each prayer time are as follows, from Seven Sacred Pauses:

1. Matins or Vigils are prayed in the middle of the night or before daybreak. Macrina Wiederkehr calls this hour “the night watch.”
2. Lauds or morning prayers at sunrise have the theme of praise.
3. Terce prayers are prayed during the third hour of a traditional workday. Terce are the first of the three “little hours” prayers said during the workday. With these prayers, our gifts and work are blessed by the Holy Spirit.
4. Sext or the sixth hour prayers are prayed at noontime. These prayers illuminate the hope for peace and lend courage to our walk with God.
5. None prayers are prayed at the ninth hour of the day as the workday is winding down. It is a time to reflect on the transitory nature of life and death.
6. Vespers are prayed as daylight ends at dusk, when the veil between heaven and earth is thin. 
7. Compline or night prayers reflect on the lessons of the day.
   
   

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Each time we pray the Divine Office, we join a great choir that is praising God every hour of every day throughout the world. While some monks pray through the Psalms each week, there is variety in the practice of the liturgy of the hours.

Liturgy is accessible to all believers in a book called a breviary, which publishes prayers for use in the Liturgy of the Hours in a four-volume collection. Protestant, Reformed, and Evangelical versions of the breviary have been published. It is remarkable that a Liturgy of the Hours is practiced in faith communities that traditionally have avoided formal types of prayer since the 16^th century Reformation.

Faithful Christians seeking a private prayer structure are encouraged to pray Lauds in the morning and Vespers in the evening to begin the liturgy of the hours practice. As it’s written in the “General Instructions of the Liturgy of the Hours,” “Morning prayer and evening prayer are therefore to be accorded the highest importance as the prayer of the Christian community. … Indeed, the recitation of these hours should be recommended also to individual members of the faithful unable to take part in a celebration in common.”  

Whether you are very familiar with the Liturgy of the Hours, or this is the first time you have heard about it, you can start praying it today if you feel God calling you to incorporate this kind of structured prayer into your prayer life. 

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Prayers for Matins or Vigils, before dawn

By day, the Lord directs his love. At night, his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:8

The angel of night
Lights a candle in my soul
Inviting me to listen
To the wordless song
Of Divine Union.
Deep healing.
Deep listening.
Deep waiting.
Deep watching.
All of these become
A part of my night watch.
In the heart of the night
You prepare me to be
Your deep healing
For all who watch
Through the night
Of their fears. 

From Seven Sacred Pauses

Prayer for Lauds, praise at the beginning of the day

“ . . . weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5b

With joyful silence, I receive
Soft light of a new day,
Light born from earth’s turning.
A Medicine of Dawn,
Healing are your morning rays.
I lift my face toward
The ointment of your splendor
As I become a morning prayer.
As Morning Blossoms,
I go forth to meet the great shining,
With the fading night
I begin a sacred dance
In the arms of your shining.
Encourager of Morning,
Soft glory of the new day,
I am tasting the joy of being awake.
Let your face shine on me
That I, in turn, may shine on others

From Seven Sacred Pauses

Prayers for Terce, midmorning blessing while engaged in work

Let your loveliness shine on us, and bless the work we do, bless the work of our hands. Psalm 90:17

Young the day—awake, my heart.
Wide open and awake
To all the possibilities waiting,
In the hours of this day.
O Spirit of the Circling Hours,
Bless me that I may be a blessing.
Work through me, that I may be
Your love poured out upon the earth. 

From Seven Sacred Pauses

Prayers for Sext, noontime hope for peace and courage

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Psalm 37:5-6

I will believe the truth about myself no matter how beautiful it is:
I believe in my power
To transform indifference into love.
I believe I have an amazing gift
To keep hope alive in the face of despair.
I believe I have the remarkable skill
Of deleting bitterness from my life.
I believe in my budding potential
To live with a nonviolent heart.
I believe in my passion to speak the truth
Even when it isn’t popular.
I believe I have the strength of will
To be peace in a world of violence.
I believe in my miraculous capacity
For unconditional love.

From Seven Sacred Pauses

Prayers for None, putting our workday in order as we reflect on putting our life in order

Teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. Psalm 119:12

Give us the grace of tender seeing. Help us to recognize and honor the wise one who lives at the core of our being. May we always be open to being taught. May we be able to let go of our work at the end of the day. May we learn to bless and affirm each person who passes through the hours of our day. May we lose our fear of those things which are transient. May we learn the art of living well and dying well. Teach us to end the day slowly, thoughtfully, gracefully. Soften the driven part of us that we may learn to relax and offer all we are and all we do as a bouquet of life at the close of each day. In the name of the old one who lives in us, we pray.

From Seven Sacred Pauses

Prayers for Vespers, as daylight ends and the veil between heaven and earth is thin

You have searched me, Lord,
     and you know me.
 You know when I sit and when I rise;
     you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;
     you are familiar with all my ways. Psalm 139-1-3

Dear Heavenly Father,

As the day comes to a close and the night settles in, I come before you with a heart full of gratitude and reflection. Thank you for guiding me through another day, for the blessings You have bestowed upon me, and for the grace that has sustained me. As I prepare to rest, I seek your presence, comfort, and peace. Cover me with your wings and keep me safe from harm. Father, as I reflect on the events of this day, I acknowledge my need for Your forgiveness and mercy. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the moments of joy and the lessons learned from challenges faced today. As I prepare for bed, I seek Your peace that passeth understanding.

From “An Evening Prayer Before Bedtime” on Crosswalk.com

Prayers for Compline, reflecting at night on the lessons of the day

The Lord watches over you—
     the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
     nor the moon by night. Psalm 121:5-6

Let your comforting darkness embrace us this night. The beautiful prayers of this day are complete. This day’s pilgrimage is ending, and we hold dear the lessons of the hours. Night has fallen. Breathe us into this good night. Calm our hearts. Comfort our souls. Protect us from danger. Fill us with well-being. Anoint us with your loving protection. Receive our prayer. Amen. 

From Seven Sacred Pauses

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In the article “What is the Laud Prayer and Can All Christians Pray It?,” writer G. Connor Salter notes, “For many evangelical Christians then, praying Lauds offers a way to reconnect with the historic church and a concrete way to thank God each day. . . .  practices like praying Lauds can help them explore another idea of what church can look like. Exploring liturgy becomes a way to hold onto faith while letting go of bad experiences." Building off of this idea, Macrina Wiederkehr suggests that praying the liturgy of the hours “might be common ground for us.”

And Lori Stanley Roeleveld writes in a Christianity.com article on the liturgy of the hours that, “While originally praying 'the Divine Hours' or 'The Daily Office' was primarily an Anglican or Catholic practice, it is now embraced by Protestants seeking a deeper connection with Jesus. Modern-day Christians often explore monastic disciplines hoping to 'pray without ceasing' as Paul taught in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.” 

Practicing the Liturgy of the Hours—and church worship service liturgy—is a way modern Christian churches can seek to unify an intergenerational family of believers. These time-tested rhythms of prayer and Scripture reading offer believers a structured way to be formed by God’s Word throughout the day. In a world that prizes novelty, liturgy anchors the soul in the eternal and brings believers together around shared truth. 

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