Product Description

The Liturgy Hours or Divine Office has been commonly known as the breviary or priests' daily prayerbook. The liturgical reform of Vatican II has restored the Divine Office to its original purpose, the prayer of the entire Church.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94514 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 4
• Binding: Leather Bound

Customer Reviews

A book to live and grow with
I started with the one-volume "Christian Prayer" and moved to this four-volume "Liturgy of the Hours" after a couple of years at the advice of some beautiful, praying people I have met in the third order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and on the internet.

The four-volume set has many more readings for the day and more prayers than "Christian Prayer" (which I've thought of as the Reader's Digest version of the Liturgy of the Hours). [On the other hand, "Christian Prayer" does have the music as well as the words for the songs (the Liturgy of the Hours has only words), so you can sound out songs you may not have heard before].

I'm glad I invested in the leather binding for the 4-vol. Liturgy of the Hours. It is more expensive, but worth it. The book lies flat without you holding it down. This has been useful when I have prayed in the hospital, while nursing a baby, or had to leave my prayers for a moment before coming back to the page.

The day prayers are brief and have provided me with a healing respite when in the middle of a hectic work day, stopping in a church to pray a bit, settle my heart and fears, and refocus on the Lord.

The Office for the Dead has consoled me recently, with its tender focus on the mercy of the Lord.

The poetry section has introduced me to poets whose work I never knew was so deeply influenced by their faith. (I'm carrying John Donne on my Palm Pilot right now.)

"Keep in mind that Jesus Christ has died for us and is risen from the dead. He is our saving Lord, He is joy for all ages." This book can remind you of that joy throughout your days and even during a sleepless night.

Best meditational pray book.
This set of books, 4 in all follows the Catholic church's liturgical calendar. I started with the single volume, which only has morning and evening prayer. I was a bit disatisfied with that format so I sought this set. The single volume was a good start but I found myself desiring more. The books are broken down into the various seasons, at the time of this review we are currently in the largest volume, Lent. They are arranged to allow the reader some latitiude in how much prayer you wish to do for the day. I prefer to start with the Office of Reading (after the mandatory first prayer of the day, the Invitatory) and go directly to morning prayer. Most days, I don't have the opportunity to follow through with midmorning,midday and afternoon prayer although some people do. Next would be evening prayer (or more commonly known as vespers)followed just before bed with night prayer. While much of these prayers are from psalms, I prefer the office of readings as they are longer readings, currently from Exodus, which allows more material for meditation. The prayers are suitable for individual or group prayer, I've used them both ways. All in all a must have set of books, especially for anyone currently discerning a religious vocation.

The Divine Office - A Way to Holiness
I encourage any faithful Catholic to pick up a copy of these volumes and begin to pray the Divine Office (a.k.a. Liturgy of the Hours).

The bulk of the Office is the reading of the Psalms on a four week cycle. The remainder are scripture readings, hymns, prayers of intercession etc.

Be forewarned however, that if you are completely unfamiliar with the Office you will need a bit of a tutorial...

For those of you who don't have the money to buy all of the volumes at one time, make the effort to buy them invidually either here or elsewhere. Be persistent and you can the vinyl covered volumes in this way. I have yet to find the leather volumes sold individually. Although I would certainly recommend this leather set, the vinyl volumes are very nice as well.

However, the main point is that praying the Divine Office has steadily increased my faith in, and understanding of, Jesus Christ. Now I know why the Church has prayed the office for these long hundreds of years. The Divine Office is truly amazing and life changing.

I have no hesitation in recommending the Divine Office to all of my Catholic brothers and sisters. May your faith, hope, love and charity grow the "Prayer of the Church."