3 Reasons Why You Should Pray the Liturgy of the Hours

The first time I picked up a breviary was when I served as a missionary for a summer in North Carolina. I was informed that we would be praying morning prayer, evening prayer, and night prayer every day that summer. At the beginning I was optimistic…after all, I had a decent prayer life going, I should enjoy praying regularly three times a day, right? But as a large humility check, after only a day in, I found myself dreading these prayer times. It was just so dang elaborate. There were so many tabs, and so much flipping, and so much confusion on feast days and solemnities, and on top of it all, why in the world did they have to change the Glory Be?! I found myself either completely lost, messing up loudly in front of the whole group, or uncontrollably giggling because of my horrible tendency to get the giggles during solemn occasions (why does that happen?!). If you had told me I would be sitting here, two years later doing my best to convince you to start the habit of praying the Liturgy of the Hours, you’re right, I wouldn’t have giggled, I would’ve straight up laughed!

But something has changed over the past two years. It changed slowly, but the dread I used to feel for the Liturgy of the Hours has evolved into something else. By no means have I consistently kept up the practice. I have gone many, many seasons without even cracking open my breviary. But every time I do, I have found a new consolation and fruitfulness within its rhythm and pages. There is a deep beauty to be found within the Divine Office, another name for the Liturgy of the Hours. And while I do not think it is for everyone, nor do I believe it is a prerequisite for holiness, I do believe that it is something every Catholic should at least try. And I think this because of three reasons.

1) It unites you to the community of the Church.

The Liturgy of the Hours is the public prayer of the Church. When praying the Liturgy of the Hours, we are united to priests and religious across the entire world. But the Liturgy of the Hours is not a prayer solely for the consecrated, but for the laity as well. The Catechism of the Catholic Church encourages lay faithful to pray the Divine Office as much as possible. Through its structure, the Liturgy of the Hours is designed to be prayed in communion with others. I think we tend to view prayer as something we do all alone. And personal prayer is indispensable when it comes to forming our relationship with Christ. But the Liturgy of the Hours offers us a unique experience to join our voice with the voices of all the faithful by group prayer. Through call and response, sides bouncing back and forth, and the fact that all Catholics across the globe are praying the same words on the same day, it gathers individual people to one purpose: glorifying God. Whether it’s with your family, your friends, in your living room, across FaceTime, or even by yourself, the Liturgy of the Hours by its very nature draws you into communion.

2) It centers your day on the Lord.

The Liturgy of the Hours helps us pray constantly. The Catechism explains: “This celebration, faithful to the apostolic exhortations to ‘pray constantly,’ is ‘so devised that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praise of God.’”(CCC 1174). I have always been perplexed by the instruction to “pray constantly,” but if I have found a solution accomplishing constant prayer, it is the Liturgy of the Hours. By starting and ending my day in prayer, my entire day becomes structured around the Lord. By following this schedule of prayer, we guarantee that prayer is present throughout our day. Particularly when I pray morning prayer right after my alarm, it helps me offer every moment to the Lord. Whether it’s a good day or a bad day, I can bring the Lord into my day, and that always makes every day better.

3) It brings peace.

And this peace is slightly unexplainable. The summer I started praying the Divine Office, initially I did not understand why we were asked to pray this annoying prayer three times a day. To be honest, I thought it seemed excessive and used up even more of our preciously rare free time. But after the craziness of that summer hit, I can genuinely say I don’t know what I would’ve done without those prayers. My missionary summer was incredible, and life-changing, but also one of the hardest seasons of my life. I was challenged, I was way outside of my comfort zone, and there were many times when I felt lonely, inadequate, scared, and unsure of whether or not I could make it to the end. But no matter how crazy it got, I always had the Liturgy of the Hours when I woke up, and when I finally got to bed at night. It was one of the few things I could rely on. My heart started leaning more and more on this consistent and steady tie to the Church and to God. Praying the Divine Office helped me get through some of the toughest days of my life, and also gave me a greater understanding of the passage of time. To this day, nothing calms me down as much as going over those words, which shows me just how present the Holy Spirit is in them.

So let’s dust off our breviaries and try it out. It’s ok if we don’t get it right and if we mess it all up. Prayer has never been about doing it perfectly anyway. I invite you to join me in trying to focus our days on the Lord, through the prayer of His Church. Just don’t ask me where to flip to when it’s Advent, and a feast day, and also the common of pastors… I’ll be too busy giggling over how someone said the wrong Glory Be.