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Excerpts from the English translation of The Liturgy of the Hours (Four Volumes) ©1974, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.
July 27th, 2010 at 19:29
Welcome to all CFP members, and the many who come to pray together the the Divine Office. Pax et Bonum
Paul
July 27th, 2010 at 16:05
I am unable to download Morning Prayer for July 29th, although I have successfully downloaded other files for July 29th and 28th and 30th. Is there something wrong with that file?
Thanks.
Dane Reply:
July 27th, 2010 at 16:14
Nothing wrong with the file, we were just updating it. It is now in place. Thanks for letting us know in case it was a problem.
July 27th, 2010 at 14:05
Thank you Carlos, that helped a lot. Rhea 5:05 pm
Dane Reply:
July 27th, 2010 at 15:19
Rhea, it is fixed now. Sorry about that, but we found errors and we were in the process of replacing it, but forgot to publish it. Thanks for letting us know!
July 27th, 2010 at 08:42
Help: Looking for July 27 Evening prayer?
Carlos Reply:
July 27th, 2010 at 10:42
That is odd. I can’t see it either. Just in case Dane does not seer your post in time, here is a link to the audio from the RSS Feed:
http://c1.libsyn.com/media/18602/divine-ord-w01-tue-ep.mp3?nvb=20100727172819&nva=20100728173819&sid=f9fcbcbc789bb46978e9285db0d9b49e&t=0154bf19ffe7cf4f3f356
I hope it’s the latest version.
Also, if you have the books, here are the ribbon locations:
Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: Page 668
All from the Psalter: Tuesday, Week I, Page 738
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. IV:
Ordinary: Page 632
All from the Psalter: Tuesday, Week I, Page 702
Christian Prayer (single volume)
Ordinary: Page 694
Psalter: Tuesday, Week I, Page 734
The text is too long to post, but hopefully this will due if it doesn’t get fixed in time.
Carlos Reply:
July 27th, 2010 at 10:47
Ouch! Two typos in one message.
I need to slow down. Sorry.
Dane Reply:
July 27th, 2010 at 15:18
Thank you for trying to help, but I am back to work and have now fixed it. Thanks again for your service to others!!!
July 26th, 2010 at 23:56
Again THANK YOU all for your efforts on this site It’s just wonderful to come here and know your not praying alone!!!!! I would have one small request ; is it possible for you to turn up the volume on the music ? The past few days it has been difficult to hear them,even with my volume turned up. No matter what,I will continue to use this site,and know,there are many here. May GOD bless you all richly!!!
July 26th, 2010 at 16:21
Welcome to the Confraternity of Penitents. May you find this website a blessing as it has been for many. Pax et Bonum
Paul
July 26th, 2010 at 07:15
Just a quick note to say that I really enjoy the new readers. Not that Denise, Kriss , Grag and you aren’t wonderful. You often said you were looking for some variation. This is a great way to do it. Plus, we don’t know who we will be praying with.
July 25th, 2010 at 20:36
I am having problems with night prayer. I download the podcast for itunes but nightprayer for the 24 and the 25 of july both have the same probably. Other ways are also probably like this. After the Prayer, and before the Antiphon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the audio the Responsory is read again, instead of the Conclusion (“Mat the all-powerful Lord…”).
Please Help
July 25th, 2010 at 06:53
My husband and I truly love the Divine Office on Sunday when the psalms are sung. We also like Erica’s singing of the Te Deum (the best of all!) because she has such a clear and beautiful voice.
Dane Reply:
July 25th, 2010 at 09:08
Thank you for letting us know. I will try to use Erica’s Te Deum a little more. Something I like about Erica’s version is that it has a bit of a Jewish feel to it.
July 25th, 2010 at 06:35
Today’s Morning Prayer (7/25), the Reading audio is not the same as the text (text is correct per Christian Prayer).
Dane Reply:
July 25th, 2010 at 11:21
I guess I am caught
, I tried to go on vacation this week and trying to get ahead last week has created a few errors, like this one. I apologize. I will be off vacation tomorrow and should be able to avoid these mistakes. It is very hard to do this work remotely, but it is possible and I have corrected the reading.
July 24th, 2010 at 21:25
I believe this is a problem every Saturday. The Night prayer for 7/24/2010, after the Prayer, and before the Antiphon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the audio the Responsory is read again, instead of the Conclusion (“Mat the all-powerful Lord…”).
Dane Reply:
July 25th, 2010 at 10:58
I have noted the problem and I will check into it. Thank you!
July 24th, 2010 at 16:28
Thanks again, Dane.
Now my “blind” problem is trying to post my comment on Facebook. I clicked the link and got there, but then—what? I was lost in a jungle. I found loads of comments, but nowhere to upload mine. This is no doubt due to my ignorance of how Facebook works. Linda started an account there because all our adult children are there, but the last time she went there was several months ago. She has loads of emails generated by Facebook, and when I get them, I move them to her own folder , tell her, and then we both forget about them. In contrast, snail mail gets piled up on the table and eventually, if you want to sit down and have dinner, you have to at last plow through it all, but this digital stuff can so conveniently be forgotten in some digital folder, and it is.
So we don’t know how to use her account, let alone yours. Just today we both spent about two hours trying to figure out just what a “blog” is and how it works. Does the Facebook icon after a post mean one can dupe it over at one’s own Facebook file, account, or whatever you call one’s “section”?
Maybe once sighted folks get to your Facebook section they see some icon flashing something like “Add your comment here!” but I can’t “see” it. What I do with my JAWS for Windows screenreader (info at
http://www.freedomscientific.com/) is search the page for some term like “comments” and that’s how I find it. In the sample blog on GoDaddy this AM I searched that way for “Twitter” and even found what was not visible on the screen for her. It took us about a half hour to figure out that she had to move her (it is useless to me)mouse over a blank area after the visible word “Share:” and presto! she saw Twitter pop up, Facebook and some things we never heard of before like “DIG.”
I am afraid I might end up having better luck teaching my 1 year old mutt, Goldylox, not to poop on the carpet, than you will have teaching me how to post a comment at your Facebook section.
Kids are never taught this stuff. They just “osmose” it—unfortunately, along with a lot of negative stuff from their sibling society. At least I am not quite as bad as our youngest’s godmother, who is a great organist, but when I asked her to record on audio cassette the music to some hymns we wanted to learn, she found some tape recorder in her attic, but didn’t know what to push to get it to record. That beautiful lady was once pres. of VT Right to Life. Hmm, I wonder if Nellie Gray (foundress of March for Life in DC) is on Facebook yet. I suppose if the pope is…
I was in Nassau when the Beatles filmed “Help.” To quote from their lyrics:
“Won’t you please, please help me?”
Jim C. Cunningham
Jay Peak, Vermont
(just south of the North Pole)
Dane Reply:
July 25th, 2010 at 10:57
Hi Jim,
I am not sure if I can help with Facebook, but I will try.
Follow the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Divine-Office/75941565913
If you are not logged in then at the upper right you will have fields to enter your email address and password with a button labeled “login”. If you have an account you would enter the information here. If you don’t have an account then you click on the login button and it will take you to a screen to try your email and password again or to sign up for a facebook account.
I also noticed that their was a sign up for a facebook account on the top left of the screen that is our Divine Office facebook page. You could use that to create an account also.
If you are already logged in then you will see the center column has six tabs, the first one of which is labeled “Wall”. This is where comments are posted. When logged in there will be a field right under the “Wall” tab and above all other comments. The field has text already in it to prompt you. It reads “What’s on your mind?”. You can paste text into that field and the prompting text will vanish. When your text has been entered you will click on the button near the bottom right of the text box labeled “Share”.
I think that will get you going. If not, let me know.
July 24th, 2010 at 06:34
Dear Dane,
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my concerns so quickly.
1. My concern about maybe no longer being able to download the offices as MP3’s because I no longer “see” the “icon for pod press” thingy is not a concern after all. This AM I downloaded MP just fine, simply clicking when my screenreader said, “Link Download: Standard Podcast.” So now I know I no longer have to wait to hear that “icon” note to click.
I am trying so hard to keep up (at least somewhat) with all this technology, but it is really overwhelming. The learning curve is hard enough if one has vision, let alone for us blind folks. I know some blind folks who don’t even try. They hardly even listen to audio books on the old audio cassettes. How Helen Keller did it without even being able to hear or speak right is a total marvel. I think if I lost my hearing also I would just resign myself to the contemplative life altogether, which after all, wouldn’t be so bad. And my neuropathy is such that I have poor feeling. I can hardly feel that standard little bump manufacturers routinely put on the #5 key in number pads. Instead, Linda (my wife) glues squares of rough emery cloth on certain keys so I can navigate keyboards better. And I think I manage to type better than most folks.
But hey, I have fingers, and they still do a lot. Can’t imagine weeding our gardens with stumps or some mechanical prosthetic device. But even if all our limbs were amputated, and none of our senses worked right, if we had a beating heart and a soul imbued with the faith of Christ, we would be better off than healthy billionaires. We could still sing that jubilant invitatory prayer each morning, and even if we didn’t have the mental health for that, we could still do what Ps. 119:36 bids we do: incline our hearts unto him. Maybe Terri Schiavo did this better than anyone else on earth with all our high tech psalters and meticulous fastidiousness to rubrics (my tendency). For all we know, Terry could be higher than St. Thomas Aquinas in the heavenly places. “He lifts up the lowly” (cf. Luke 1:52). I once knew a nurse who had a patient (client) at a State hospital who was barely a torso and head with just enough organs to function. In a very real sense, we who look down on him with pity are self-righteous and blind, because it is we who deserve to be pitied so much more. Think of all the “stuff” (i.e. “the world) that inhibits and all but prevents us from living in Christ, and imagine all of it suddenly being rendered absolutely ineffective in our battle against the principalities and powers. That guy was not only on the lintel of heaven, but he was even already leaning over into it.
I once assisted a priest in celebrating Mass for the (in)famous Danvers State Hospital in Massachusetts. Many could not even receive Holy Communion in the conventional way because they might not swallow the Host. But it seemed they were already where the Host would deign to bring the rest of us. One patient/client lady played the piano for the “hymns.” She very well might have played “A Bicycle Built for Two,” and some of her congregation might have sung along with the lyrics to “Ring around the Rosy,” but their performance heard in heaven would have far outshone anything Notre Dame de Paris ever heard. I have not yet read Fr. Henri Nouwen on his experience at Larch communities, but I know him (he helped bring me back to Christ) and bet he also saw things this way.
The soon to be canonized Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen also said some things about his experience at an African leper colony that at first seem downright heretical, but it may be that the holy cross (the back end we carry) may be far more supernatural than everything in Canon Law and all the Ecumenical Councils. It’s not to derogate this other, but rather to elevate the cross to its true, triumphal station. And to think how we ignorami are always complaining about it. “Oh, Mommy, do I really have to eat this cake and ice cream?”
2. I did manage to listen to your audio of yesterday’s (July 23) evening prayer, and the pronouns were correct—not like the txt you provided.
When I was younger, I thought I was smarter, and might also have tampered with liturgical pronouns, thereby “improving” on the word of God. I did some things I thought more “pious,” but not exactly “with the program.” This was in the days when many priests also thought they knew better and would routinely give Communion in the hand before authorized to do so. But when we take liberties, it can literally lead to anything. One priest in DC even had a guy walk a tight rope over the altar during Mass “to get the congregation to pay attention. A Vermont priest near here on Pentecost did not exactly follow the rubrics on vestments, walking down the main aisle during the Introit bedecked in Christmas lights, “after all, it’s a birthday party, isn’t it?” The give an inch, take a mile proverb is so true.
Now I obey, even when “I know better.” So the present lectionary that has a monopoly at Mass is a translation which I think I know better ought to be shelved in some dusty cellar in the Vatican, but the bosses that be say that’s the one to use, so that’s the one to use. But while we use it we can “respectfully” complain about it. And now that even that translation has been made even worse with all the pronoun distortions, lest some feminist (who I doubt even exists) should take offense that Jesus plans to leave women behind at the resurrection since he did say, :I will raise HIM up on the last day.” (I do hope this lady emails me. She ought to have a place beside the stuffed, 2-headed calf in our village library.)
I also don’t like Pope Paul VI allowing the “”deprecatory psalms” to be excised from our liturgical Psalter. Psalm 109 was good enough for St. Peter, who cites it as his reason for replacing Judas in the apostolic ministry (cf. Acts 1:20). But he did what he did, and he sat on the apostolic seat—not me, so I accept the new psalter,. Even though many of us understand that the deprecatory psalms were not to be interpreted in terms of cursing our earthly enemies, but our far worse, infernal ones, not to mention our own faults that keep us back from clinging to Christ. But maybe most folks would take it literally, and in this world of wars, wars and more wars, praying such psalms was not, just then, germane.
I did not agree with Paul VI’s detente with the Soviet Union, but sided with Cardinal Mindszenty instead. But the wall did come down, and the Soviets even dissolved themselves, so maybe Mindszenty and I would have inadvertently ushered in World War III instead. I just re-re-read The Little Flowers of St. Francis, and over and over again we are taught that obedience is everything.
So I accept the present lectionary, and suffer in the pews as it is read. At least we are finally getting a decent translation of the ordinary of the Mass this year, for which I have patiently (yeah, right!) waited the better part of a half century.
All things come to him/her/it who waits.
Grateful always,
Jim C. Cunningham
Jay Peak, Vermont
Dane Reply:
July 24th, 2010 at 08:38
Jim,
Would you mind posting this comment on our Divine Office Facebook page? The link is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Divine-Office/75941565913
You are an inspiration and your writings should be shared.
July 23rd, 2010 at 20:53
Thought I’d throw in another GOD BLESS YOU DANE, and ALL of you, for doing this work. I’d been looking for such a site for ages when this one, by the Grace of God, popped up in a search for a specific psalm. Since that day, I’ve been praying the Office of Readings (at least) from this site – - and generally continuing to use my Christian Prayer for morning and evening prayers.
I know, also, that paying ICEL for permissions cannot be an inexpensive prospect. I’m trying to save up some cash to make a donation – - being on a fixed income, this is not easy, but it will be worth it.
God Bless You and Yours, yet again.
Dane Reply:
July 23rd, 2010 at 23:10
And may God bless you abundantly as well! Please don’t feel compelled to donate. For those on a fixed income I ask that you simply pray for us and with us. Keep your money to cover your needs. We know you want to help so just tell other people about us and help spread the word about us and that will be entirely sufficient.
July 23rd, 2010 at 20:14
Dear Dane,
I thank God for you many times a day, for you have kept me true to my duty as a Discalced Carmelite. Praying with you blessed six faithful people make it so much easier for me to concentrate on the Divine Office. I have trouble keeping my focus when I pray it myself. Thank you and God Bless You.
Patti
Dane Reply:
July 23rd, 2010 at 23:28
Patti, thank you from all of us. There are four of us who have been recording for four years. Over the past six months we added Randy Sly as the reader of our second readings on Office of Readings and then two months ago we added Melinda and Vince to sing the psalms. Before that we had music from Erika Provinzano. We have also had two people getting our text right, Monica and Barbara, for about seven months.
I say this because there are now more people investing their time then just six people. It is my fault for the faulty math, but we were only four for almost four years. Then just this year we added several others with investments of time from a few hours per week to full-time. To all of them I am very grateful. I don’t want to discount their importance.
patti Reply:
July 24th, 2010 at 08:11
It’s good to know that who all is helping to bring us this blessing.
July 23rd, 2010 at 16:39
Dear Friends,
It was not till this evening at Evening Prayer that I noticed something I had not noticed before. Was I sleeping before, or is this something new?
The first psalm, Ps. 145, said:
“and declare your might, O God,
“to make known to ALL your mighty deeds”
Doesn’t the text say “MEN” where your text has “ALL”?
Is there some new, authorized text out that I do not know about? How is this going to work when praying in community with brethren (sistren? allren?) using the different texts?
Then your text had:
“let all PEOPLES bless his holy name”
But my memory had “MANKIND.” Am I mistaken? I have had big problems with this kind of tampering with the word of God. The first time I heard it was at St. Joseph’s Trappist Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, c. 1975, where the principal celebrant at Sunday Mass changed the words of Christ in John 6:54, when, in the Gospel, he read, “and I will raise HER up on the last day.”
When I heard it from the nave, I reached down to my Bible by my side, and checked, just in case I had gotten it wrong all these years, and sure enough, it said “and I will raise HIM up on the last day.”
I wrote to Abbot Thomas Keating about it, and he replied that that monk’s knuckles had been duly rapped, but that he had thought a major benefactor (Claire Booth Luce) was also in the nave, and thinking she was a feminist (was she?), changed the Lord’s words to placate her.
But is there really a single woman in the world who honestly thought/thinks that she was excluded from the resurrection by the original text? Jesus has all he can do to keep St. Mary Magdalen from hanging onto him after the resurrection, and by using the default generic third person singular personal pronoun, “him,” Jesus planned to shut her out because she was a female?
I don’t believe it. Language is sacred and we just don’t make it up to accommodate some transitory fad (other than techno-terms for unnamed things). I am always reading, and I read books from ancient times to the present. My wife and I are presently reading Dickens’ David Copperfield together. Is there really a disgruntled lady out there somewhere who has a problem with Dickens’ grammar and use of “he/him/his” for the default generic 3rd person singular personal pronoun? I wish she would email me and make my day.
In the meantime, the real persecution of the fairer sex continues unabated almost everywhere, while we self-righteously make ourselves feel good by such frivolous, symbolic gratuitousness? I grant I can’t say for sure, but I believe (as does my better half) that were I blessed with the other software called “wo-MAN” (“wo-PERSON”?), I would feel insulted by being thrown such bones.
And one of the many absurdities of trying to castrate our English language is the many inconsistencies that inevitably arise. One example is in that very same Evening Prayer service, when, in the Concluding Prayer, you had:
“you brought salvation to all MANKIND “
Consistency would have demanded you use “PEOPLES” again as above in Ps. 145.
If the text really says “PEOPLES” & ALL,” then I reluctantly admit you guys are just obediently following the given translation, miserable as it often is. But if you are tinkering around with the text like that Spencer Trappist, then my conscience bids me write this before silence wrongly sends the message of agreement. God knows are culpable silence about so many issues has made absurdities such as two PEOPLE blessed with the same software imagining that they have the requisite “sacramental matter” to effect the sacrament of matrimony!
And we don’t speak because—for but one reason–we don’t want to sound like moaners and groaners.
I have noticed the hymn choices being far less sophisticated than a few months ago, and I like it. My wife and I have wished for decades that there were some hymnal or CD that showed how to sing all the given hymns in the LOH. We don’t like to simply recite them, but more often than not, it is either that, or singing the same old, same old, all the time.
I also noticed today that I couldn’t download the offices as MP3’s in the usual way I know how to do without having any vision. I usually click on the “icon for podpress,” but today that option was not in the offerings. I can still click on the “Hide Player” and then “Play Now” which I guess is some built-in MP3 player on your website, but it is not blind-friendly like my Winamp player is, and I have no control like pause, ff, and rewind. I hope you are not deleting the way I used to be able to download and let Winamp play it on my PC for me.
Again, just giving feedback lest silence send the message that all is hunky dory here in the Green Mountains of Vermont.
What is really great about you guys is that you really do listen and pray and then act accordingly. Maybe lay-run apostolates will prove to be better at listening than the clerical-run 99.9% of them, because I still can’t recall any priest who ever made me feel listened to, but that is another story.
Always grateful,
Jim C. Cunningham
Jay Peak, Vermont
PS: There is a typo on your homepage:
A link to Saint Joseph Guide spells Saint as Seint.
Dane Reply:
July 23rd, 2010 at 20:23
Jim,
First of all I must say that we absolutely listen and secondly we learn from our mistakes and take action to correct them. Without being told of mistakes we sometimes go blissfully forward unknowingly repeating them until the work to correct them is herculean.
I read your comment and felt my heart sink. We are now licensed and pay royalties to ICEL (International Committee on the English Liturgy) so we want perfect adherence to the published text, except for errors of course. This is not just our will, but also our agreement with ICEL. But, this is not to say that we have not wanted to change the text upon occasion and in the distant path we did occasionally try to make the audio inclusionary, that was until we found that by our actions we made it even more exclusive. We no longer do what you fear we do. We did at one time, we don’t know, and we didn’t do it on purpose this time.
Listen to our audio and you will find that we read from the four-volume Liturgy of the Hours and so our audio is true to that text, except for an occasional blunder.
After a little research I found the problem. Remember, we are a small ministry and typing every word of text would create even greater errors from typos and transpositions. What we do now is copy and paste our psalm text from http://www.athanasius.com. We thought this was a reliable source for this translation of the psalms. I continue to believe this source is reliable, but now we will have to keep vigilant to keep our text to the published four-volume LOTH.
I can’t tell you how much I value your “raising the pennant” of concern, but nothing to be worried about from us, we just needed to see the problem and we will be off to fix it. I have no idea how many more of these things are in our text or how to best fix them. We will have to rely upon our community to ferret out inconsistencies so that we can get them fixed.
I can use your help in another area. We have been discussing our accessibility and we would like your guidance in making these prayers as accessible as possible to all people. If you can give us guidance on how to do that then we would be most thankful and I know that many others who are blind or visually impaired would thank you as well.
The podpress plugin we use on our site had a recent update. I think this prevented you from downloading the offices. I will look for settings to improve that behavior and I will attend to the misspelling. Thank you so much for pointing this out.
May God bless you,
Dane
July 23rd, 2010 at 05:09
Dane,I want to thank you and your whole team for the work you are doing. I felt greatly blessed when I found your sight. May God continue to bless you all for your persistance in this gift to us.
July 23rd, 2010 at 04:30
Morning Prayer 7/23, first Psalm (51) is missing audio of the Psalm-prayer. God Bless you for your work.
July 22nd, 2010 at 20:35
Dane sounds like he is getting a bit burnt out, at least from what I have read in the July 20 posts. He says is trying to perfect this website as far as it is humanly possible. Well, we all know just how impossible that actually is. Not to be patronizing, but we need to hold Dane and his associates in our prayers so that the Holy Spirit will use them to complete the work He has begun here. There is so much that is evil on the Internet – how wonderful to have a place here where we can join together to praise God. There are many beautiful prayers, especially in Morning Prayer that commend the work we do to the Father to carry forth in His glory. That spot to remember Dane and the others who work on this website as you pray those prayers.
That said…
In Evening Prayer tonite there was no invitation after the intercessions for us to stop and add our own intentions. I’ve got a LONG list and I nearly forgot. Please don’t drop that permanently! It would be really neat if sometime after you get all the important things handled there would be a way to hit a pause button right there without have to scroll up and down.
Dane Reply:
July 22nd, 2010 at 21:25
Just so you know, I hit burn out 4 or 5 times per year, but then God pick’s me up, dusts me off, and sends be back with greater vigor then ever. So don’t worry, but please keep praying.
You are seeing fewer invitations for your own prayers during the intentions, but that is not burn out. We are now under agreement and paying royalties to ICEL (International Committee on the English Liturgy) and they have required that we match the books exactly. This makes us ultra sensitive to adding anything not explicitly allowed by the general instructions or written into the text of the four-volume books.
With that said, we are actually trying to think of ways to stay completely true to the text, but also the intent and so you will see us circle back and make prayer intentions of the community an actual part of the daily intentions. We have some ideas, but we aren’t in a position to act…yet.
July 22nd, 2010 at 04:24
During Morning Prayer for 7/22, the Psalm-Prayers appear in the text but are not read in the audio.
Dane Reply:
July 22nd, 2010 at 18:17
Thank you. I removed the psalm prayer text verses adding the audio prayers because, as far as I can tell, the directions imply the psalm prayers are left out when you use the common of saints, which was the case for 7/22. Thanks for helping us get things fixed up.
July 22nd, 2010 at 04:19
I would like to know where the prayers of confession are in the 4 volume breviary are please
Dane Reply:
July 22nd, 2010 at 18:18
I am not aware that they exist in the breviary, but they can be found in the lectionary for Mass.
July 21st, 2010 at 18:49
Thank you so much for this site. With four little ones, I think this site is the only way I am able to participate in the Divine Office. Thanks again for your work!
July 19th, 2010 at 18:25
When will the mobile application for Sprint HTC EVO be available for us to purchase?
July 19th, 2010 at 08:24
Your “ribbon placement” states “All from the Psalter: page 1111″ This is not correct. It should be “All from the Psalter: page 1143.” Also your written concluding prayer is incorrect coming from the Psalter. it should be from the Common of the Seasons, page 522; It is all very clear in the St. Joseph’s Guide. I struggle to understand why the frequent errors. Follow St. Joseph’s Guide!
Carlos Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 11:06
I think it’s important to keep in mind that Dane and his team are doing their best to share and promote the LOTH. It is much easier for someone to pray the LOTH on their own then what the DivineOffice team does. From what I’ve observed, they pray the separate sections, record them, create the text, match everything up (including finding previously recorded segments to re-use) and paste it all together before the date they need to be posted. Mistakes will happen, especially when you have 6+ people trying to divide and conquer. It’s not that easy and it can be very time consuming.
I consider this ministry similar to a product in beta-testing. They are still in the building stages and are working out the kinks, but they will get there. I’m confident that the Holy Spirit will perfect any errors in our prayers.
My sense has been that Dane is committed to making this perfect and we should remain charitable and patient when helping the team perfect their ministry. God bless.
Dane Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 12:25
Thank you for explaining Carlos. Your perspective is accurate and I appreciate having the community support and understanding. This is a labor that will take us a long time, but will eventually reach perfection (at least as far as humanly possible).
Mahree Reply:
July 21st, 2010 at 04:06
I have to agree with Carlos. It is so wonderful to be able to pray along with many others.
I have also found that as I do have the book, Christian Prayer, I can usually follow that and the written or spoken parts of this ministry. So, if it happens that there is a discrepancy, I can follow my book.
Knowing this is all accomplished with love by 6 people I think it is easy to have patience as the kinks are worked out.
Mahree
Dane Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 12:21
It appears you are referring to Morning Prayer for Monday, July 19th. Thank you for giving us the correct page number for the 4th volume. You are incorrect about using page 522 for the prayer. This is the concluding prayer for Office of Readings only. You will notice that the concluding prayer is taken from Sunday for the Office of Readings and remains the same all week, but Morning and Evening Prayer take their concluding prayer from the Psalter.
St. Joseph’s guide is an excellent guide, but it can confuse people as well because it isn’t enough to use the guide. One must follow the instructions in the LOTH books over the guide because the guide often gives too little detail.
We are trying to get everything perfect, but this is an enormous project that has been in the works for over 3 years and will likely take another year to complete. Until that time we would appreciate your patience with us. This is a ministry of 6+ laity with jobs and families to attend to as well.
July 19th, 2010 at 04:26
For today’s Morning Prayer, 7/19, none of the palm-prayers match what is in Christian Prayer. I don’t see a Solemnity or Memorial listed, so I’m not sure why they do not match. Am I missing something?
July 18th, 2010 at 07:09
You asked me to post inconsistencies: Today, Sunday July 18, your written Invitatory Pslam properly matches the St. Joseph’s Guide. However, the audio uses a diiferent antiphon.
Dane Reply:
July 18th, 2010 at 19:03
OK, I will get it fixed. Thank you for your help!
July 18th, 2010 at 06:55
The spoken Antiphon for the Invitatory for today, Sunday 7/18, does not match the text, and does not seem to come from any part of today’s ribbon placements in Christian Prayer.
Dane Reply:
July 18th, 2010 at 19:02
Thanks for letting me know. It really helps!
July 16th, 2010 at 21:51
I wish you would closely follow “St. Joseph’s Guide For the Liturgy of the Hours. I wish you would make the audio match the written office. Is seems that you don’t even follow your own ribbon placement very closely. Nevertheless, as a diaconate candidate, you have brought the LOH to life for me. Thanks!
Dane Reply:
July 17th, 2010 at 12:02
If you see that we don’t follow St. Joseph’s guide then let us know specifically where we have not. We do seek to follow it, but also keep in mind that this is a project we have been working on for 4 years and within another year we will finally be complete, until that time there are imperfections so please provide us with specific things we have missed.
July 15th, 2010 at 08:44
I’m curious – - Today (July 15) is the Memorial of St. Bonaventure. In my calendar it’s NOT listed as an optional memorial, and so at least the closing prayers of MP and EP should be proper. The hymns, antiphons for the Invitatory, Cantical of Zacharia and Magnificat can be either from the commons or from the day.
Is there a reason that you’ve skipped the closing prayers, and kept the prayer of the 4-week psalter, or is it an oversight, or have I made a mistake (DISTINCTLY possible!).
God Bless, and thanks for your ministry.
Dane Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 09:10
I admit, this one caught us completely by surprise. In the St. Joseph guide on memorial days you are usually given the option of the proper of the day or the memorial. We (I) made the wrong assumption that this was the case so we are scrambling to post something.
You are correct and this is our mistake. Furthermore, we try to use as much from the Common of Saints as possible to better commemorate the saint. For St. Bonaventure we prefer to use the Common of Doctors of the Church.
dcnstephe Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 18:57
Thanks. I sometimes misread things – - and I don’t have a St. Joseph’s Guide. So – - I use the calendar from the book – - one page per month, which lists the memorials, feasts, solemnities, etc. In Christian Prayer, at any rate – - haven’t seen the 4-volume set in a long time – - the Obligatory observances are printed in normal script, and the optional memorials (or commemorations during lent) are in italics. That’s basically How I keep track.
I sometimes wonder how to choose which common to use when there are various options, and I’m almost always at a loss as to which hymn to use when they’re not specifically given.
Thanks again. You really perform a wonderful service. It’s a blessing to know you’re spreading the observance of the Official Prayer of the Church to the world.
July 15th, 2010 at 06:42
Morning prayer for July 15 audio does not match the written. Audio is from Sun week I, Written isn’t. Thanks
July 11th, 2010 at 08:45
I recently purchased the 4 vol set of LOTH and was wondering if they need to be blessed. I was thinking we pray with a rosary and that is blessed…we pray with the LOTH so should they be blessed? thanks.
amis41 Reply:
July 11th, 2010 at 13:55
Peace Elaine,
Here is a website that explains the ‘Priest’s power to bless”.
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=7702
It is best to read the article than to take the room here.
Pax et Bonum
Paul
Elaine Reply:
July 11th, 2010 at 16:17
Paul,
thank you very much for the resource. I took away from it that it really doesn’t matter in this instance. Since there is nothing evil in the books, I don’t think there is anything to worry about.
Thanks again,
Elaine
amis41 Reply:
July 11th, 2010 at 21:06
Peace Elaine,
An old fashion reason religious items are blessed, is that they are blessed by the Priest, so that they become holy objects used to give glory to God, and that God would through them help remind us of His love for us. These items cannot be sold since they are holy blessed items. They are not to be used for profit. I had my LOTH Volume blessed by a priest and he prayed over the book, that it may bring blessings, and answers to prayers, and bring glory to God. It is a little more special to me now. God bless,
Pax et Bonum (peace and goodness – St. Francis of Assisi)
Paul
July 10th, 2010 at 07:50
I am new to the Liturgy of the Hours, and I am finding it a true blessing. The book I have is “Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours”, by Pauline Books and Media. My book only has Psalm 95 in the Invitatory, but references Psalm 95 may be substituted by Psalm 100,67 or 24. What determines which Psalm is used?
Dane Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 09:30
The Invitatory psalms are allowed to be varied as desired to provide variety. The only requirement is that they should not be one of the psalms that will be included in any other psalmody on that same day.
July 9th, 2010 at 04:02
Good Morning, I was wondering why the date banner on the left side of the page first loads up as the correct date but then changes to “Prayers for Jun 31″ It seems all the other places the date is accurate. Keep on with this wonderful ministry. God Bless you all for the work you do.
Dane Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 11:15
This is just a bug. It has been a low priority to fix because it doesn’t cause any problems, just occasional confusion.
July 8th, 2010 at 10:19
Dane: how far in advance to you prepare the feeds? It looks like you cover a week at a time, correct? Any chance of going out further, e.g. 2 weeks @ a time, esp. since summer’s upon us in No. America & many ae traveling? It’d be great to download 2 weeks worth of the LoH so that one’s covered during vacation time.
Regards & thanks for a great ministry.
July 8th, 2010 at 06:10
I just bought a book by Thomas Dubay titled, “Prayer Primer: Igniting a Fire Within.” There’s a chapter about the Liturgy of the Hours. I saw his program on EWTN and I looked up some of his books.
July 4th, 2010 at 19:30
Hi Dane. Glad to hear you are going to the CNMC. We are looking forward to meeting you. We would love to join you in Morning prayer on the 7th depending on where it is. We are not staying at the hotel but at a campground nearer to the pastoral centre.
July 4th, 2010 at 07:34
I think I have finally lost it. Friday night I downloaded the prayers for Saturday. Last night when I played EP, it was MP for the Feast of St. Thomas. This morning when I checked your site, it was the correct EP. I replayed what was on my mp3 player and it was MP. It would have realy been scary if it had switched over night or I just imagined it. God Bless and have a happy Independence Day
July 3rd, 2010 at 22:21
Just letting you know, it happened again during Saturday night prayer, that just before the final blessing, suddenly they were saying the Responsory again.
July 2nd, 2010 at 21:01
I really enjoy this site – - I use it, primarily, for the Office of Readings. I pray the rest of the office from Christian Prayer, and actually enjoy praying with the longer readings found there than in the 4-volume set. I also like the fact that both Christian Prayer, and your site, allow people to know what the hymns sound like. The 4-volume set has no music, but CP does.
Anyway – - I frequently read OofR on a desktop computer. I don’t have an i-phone, but have been using a blackberry for years. The blackberry browser does not give me the chance to open the OR, for some reason, and Opera Mini, actually a better hand-held browser, doesn’t do it either. I’m anxiously awaiting your design of an app for the blackberry.
God Bless you for this ministry.
July 1st, 2010 at 06:48
I really enjoyed reading the Office of Readings today. That’s why I don’t think I would like the Christian Prayer (shorter version). I’m not sure I would benefit from ordering the volumes at this time. I think I prefer viewing it throughout the day here at work. Also, you can listen to the audio and hear the music, too. On Tuesday, I heard a female vocalist sing Psalm 23. I don’t remember her name but it was a hyphenated name. It was beautiful.
July 1st, 2010 at 05:07
Peace! I’ve just concluded morning prayer for July 1st. Perhaps you’re unaware the reading doesn’t correspond for today; the intercessions were said before the benedictus, then the intercessions were repeated twice with a different musical background. Finally, the prayer of the day didn’t correspond either. I know life isn’t perfect…so I gave up to God this morning with a LOL. Just wanted to let you know. Peace!
amis41 Reply:
July 1st, 2010 at 23:46
Pax et Bonum, spiritbrother,
The LOTH for July 1 online website is correct and is the same in Volume III, pages 769-774, and agrees with the St. Joseph guide for LOTH. Do you mean podcasts downloads are incorrect. It would be helpful to be specific with the problem so a solution or reply could be made. It may cause confusion if everyone thinks the website prayers are wrong, when they are not. Hope this will help. Dane will check on the problem I am sure. Peace my friend.
June 28th, 2010 at 06:19
Hi Dane. I noticed in today’s Morning Prayer (June 28th) the 3rd Antiphon and corresponding Psalm was not included in the recording. I don’t know if that was intentional or not, so I thought I’d mention it.
Additionally, I loved the sung arrangement of the Canticle of Zechariah. It was a beautifuly powerful rendition.
Thank you for your team’s great work and your ministry.
amis41 Reply:
July 1st, 2010 at 23:57
Peace Carlos, Just a note: The website Morning Prayer for June 28th is correct and complete in the audio and text .
Are you referring to a podcast download, or where is the problem found. This may cause confusion to those who use the website audio and text, thinking it is missing something.
Giving complete information on the problem location and source would help Dane find the solution. Hope this is helpful. Wishing you well, Pax et Bonum, my friend.
Carlos Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 06:30
How curious that the website file was complete. I was listening to it from the Divine Office iPhone App and I have the app set up for automatic downloads, so I think I had the latest version that morning.
Anyway, it’s not the end of the world. The Holy Spirit perfects our prayers infinately more then we could ever do, so I’m not worried.
Thank you for your reply. Should I notice something similar in the future, I’ll be sure to include source information for the sake of clarity.
I will say it once more, because I think it needs to be said … I love this minstry!!
God bless.
Dane Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 09:02
We occasionally update content only hours before people use it and that update must not have made it to your iPhone. Sorry about that.
Carlos Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 09:11
Mystery solved then. No worries and thank you again.
amis41 Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 10:19
Pax et Bonum
Peace and goodness.
June 27th, 2010 at 21:09
Hi Dane, I’m having the same experiance on the night prayer as jenH ,my encounter with it was tonight 6/27/2010 ,at 11 pm. missouri time. hope this helps.. I love this site may God bless you all richly for what you do ..
Dane Reply:
June 27th, 2010 at 22:07
Would you mind explaining what issues you are having? It is not clear to me what you are experiencing.
June 27th, 2010 at 14:11
devine office has and is a great help to me
June 27th, 2010 at 13:25
Hi, what is the difference between this podcast and the SQPN liturgy of the hours with the exception of the music you have and the people kind of leading you through? Are these the complete liturgy of the hours like the other ones. Sorry to make this so long but I’m new to this and am blind and need to make sure that I get the complete thing.
Dane Reply:
June 27th, 2010 at 22:18
I am sorry, but I have only listened to SQPN’s Liturgy of the Hours a few times and that was months ago. I just tried to look at the SQPN site, but it is confusing so I couldn’t find their Liturgy of the Hours so that I could make a real comparison. Let me just say that when they do the Liturgy of the Hours it is exactly as ours in content, but they usually have a priest doing it. We do all the major hours, which means we do Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Office of Readings for every day. We also do Night Prayer and we provide the full text for all these prayers plus Midday Prayer. SQPN is a great site, but in all humility I must say we have added much more then SQPN, not in content, but in additional prayers through the day.
I recommend you try us both and if you are praying with SQPN you must know that you are still praying with us and the entire Catholic community because these prayers are the prayers of the Church and when we pray we pray in communion.
June 27th, 2010 at 05:49
This is the announcement that is on my wall whenever I try to listen every morning and evening prayer. Of course, when I say “whenever”, it means I have tried for a week. I used to be able to listen to it before. I’m the person who commented the same question yesterday. But your reply can be help. It’s so odd,isn’t it? How it is possible that it doesn’t allow to listen only to me..? There is nothing wrong with my computer and monitor of Divine office except below sentence. Please, reply again.. Thank you….
“”"The Audio Liturgy of the Hours for Jun 27, Morning Prayer has not been produced by our Ministry yet. We’re working hard on getting the Divine Office audio podcast complete soon. Stay tuned!”"”
June 26th, 2010 at 21:51
Love the site! I’ve become quite fond of Night Prayer… but I’ve noticed some nights that just before the closing Blessing, they’re suddenly saying the Responsory all over again even though it’s not indicated in the text, and then they don’t say the closing Blessing. What gives?
Thank you for this wonderful site! God bless you!
Dane Reply:
June 26th, 2010 at 23:46
I will take a look at it, but can you help me by telling me the day? Thanks.
JenH Reply:
June 27th, 2010 at 06:15
It happened Saturday night. 26th. And I can’t remember the exact dates before that.
June 26th, 2010 at 06:33
I have a question, why I cannot see morning and evening prayer? In my computer, only Invitatory and Night prayer are available. However, one of my fellow can see and listen to it.
What’s the matter. According to the message, they haven’t prepared the sound file yet. But only to me not to other..
I’m sad… Please, let me know.
Dane Reply:
June 26th, 2010 at 07:33
You should quit and restart your browser. If you know how to clear the cache on your browser then you should do that also. If these things don’t work then you could try rebooting your machine. Let me know if this corrects your problem.
June 25th, 2010 at 15:32
Hi Amis41 & my other bros. & srs. in Christ,
I hope you do not think anything I said implied anything but zeal for the reforms of Vatican II. I have long believed that Vatican II will go down in history as one of the greatest ecumenical councils ever, albeit not dogmatically, but practically. As Pope John XXIII intended, it definitely opened up the windows to let in the fresh air. One example of this freshness is this very lay-created and operated web site. Former clericalism would have said, “Just who do you think you are? And ladies, too? Your place is at home or maybe in the Blue Army or some Ladies’ Sodality.”
Clericalism is still a problem, just as there are still many problems that the poor implementation of Vatican II has hardly yet corrected.
This web site is a correction and a true implementation of Vatican II’s encouragement for laity to become more involved in the Liturgy, not only of the Eucharist, but also of the Hours, which formerly was thought to be almost exclusively a priest’s “thing.” But, as far as I know, this apostolate was not created from the top down, but from the bottom up. None of the many chanceries, nor even the USCCB gave us Anglophones this site. The Holy Spirit blows where He will (cf. John 3:8), and He blew in the hearts of these wonderful laymen to do this ministry.
I cannot recall ever hearing the Office even mentioned from any pulpit, and I was educated by the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Augustinians and Catholic University. Before I ever heard of the LOTH (c. 1973), I was with an Augustinian when he purchased the readings for Christian Prayer. I looked at them intriguingly. Then we went out for coffee, and I pointed to his bag of books and asked just what it was that he had purchased.
“Oh, just something we priests have to do.”
Later, after knocking on many doors and kicking a few in, I found out the “Secret of the Breviary,” and I have not looked back (well, till now).
As for Latin, I have seen it used miserably as well as excellently. One of the main reasons our family moved here to Westfield is because of the Benedictine cloister (Congregation of Solesmes) called the “Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” (http://www.ihmwestfield.com). I encourage single women, whether never married or widowed, to check them out. Mass there is in Latin (except for the readings, thank God), and it is so reverent. However, most folks, hearing of a “Latin Mass,” assume that means the old, Tridentine Rite (now called “extraordinary”). But no, it is still the “Novus Ordo,” just as one finds in the parishes.
Let’s not forget that, whatever our personal opinions may be, the objective fact is that Vatican II did encourage Latin, especially for priests and religious (see Sacrosanctum Concilium, NN. 36, 54 & 101). That this is so little known is one example of the “poor implementation” of Vatican II I have referred to. I think the Mass we see/hear on EWTN is a perfect example of true, Vatican II reform. Why is it that I have never heard the Orthodox disparage Old Church Slavonic or Greek, but we of the Latin Rite act as if we are ashamed of our own awesome liturgical heritage? I may be prejudiced, but I imagine that the angels themselves prefer to lend their ears where Gregorian Chant is sung. The same goes for liturgical art. We Latins emulate the East as though we have something to be ashamed of. Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Russian intelligentsia of his day (19th cent.) themselves were mesmerized by no other than Rafael’s “Sistine Madonna” who, unlike Our Lady of Vladimir or Kazan, is so human you can practically hug her as you would hug your own mother.
Hey Latins! Our Rite is superb an we should be proud. And DivineOffice.ORG is an asset to be very proud of and grateful for.
Jim C. Cunningham
Westfield, Vermont
amis41 Reply:
June 26th, 2010 at 22:34
Peace, Jim,
You know I mean no disrespect for you or the Church. You are a very interesting and experienced gentleman. I just think that the faucet for Vatican II changes was turned off after the death of Pope John XXIII to hold a more conservative line. That is what we all have to follow. It could have been planed by the Holy Spirit to be this way, not intending anything but what the Lord wants for His Church.
I yield in this discussion and thank you for your kind and interesting background. I will simply pray that this website grow, Maybe someday it will be developed into many varieties of prayer forms, including Latin, chant, and others that meet the comfort zones of it’s users. As of now it is drawing thousands of people to prayer. The seed is planted, let us nourish it with our prayers and support. God bless everyone.
Pax et Bonum
Paul
Dane Reply:
June 27th, 2010 at 00:27
Just this moment I read your message of 6/25 and found it food for many curious things in my soul. I am not far off from you in age (I guess), but I was denied the experiences for which you speak so your experiences intrigue me.
To be clear. This ministry was “technically” my creation, but it was Greg Pedroza that moved us into the LOTH. I must always thank, and perhaps also curse, him for getting this ministry into these all consuming divine works.
Greg was the inspiration to my young Catholic/Technological itch and then came along two women, diverse from each other, Denise and Chriss with experiences in life and a relationship with God that left me wonting. We were only four for a long time, but then we were joined by Randy Sly (Potomoc Falls, VA, USA) and Erika (Rome, Italy) as the voices you hear. These are the voices, but the people who help everyone else pray with us are those who enter the text and cover all my blunders, namely, they are Barbara (in the Northwest of the USA) and Monica (Romania). These women do a remarkable job of getting the text of the Hours right and letting me know when I have necessary corrections.
I mention these good souls because of your comments about how unusual it is to have laity and lay women as core to something only priests would do and even know about. Well, times are a chang’n when someone like myself along with a few folks around the globe, mostly women, are building upon a remarkable tradition and asset to glorify God and bring his body into common love and adoration. Alleluia.
And the work does not even slow down as you will notice we have added Melinda and Vince to sing the psalms and bring our common worship to a new level.
To all these laity I am grateful because they really make the wheels go round for this ministry, but I will also acknowledge a key spiritual leader who is Monsignor Manion, our diocesan theologian and parish shepherd.
Because I don’t mention the hard work and dedication of these good souls I felt it necessary to do so and now I feel it is befitting to thank you, Jim and community, for the constant acknowledgement of this work and the pressure to get it right. To you I/we are very grateful.
June 25th, 2010 at 07:59
You replied: Are you sure you are speaking of Evening Prayer I? We used, at least I am pretty sure, the most basic Gregorian Chant on Evening Prayer I and Office of Readings. We used a flourished chant for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer II.
jcc: Yes, I was mistaken, having waited too long to reply. It was EP2 that I meant. It was so “flourishing” that I skipped EP altogether, though I should have at least settled for the text you wonderfully provide.
I am glad you understand where I am coming from. I know you can’t please everybody. Some folks want to kick back and listen, and this prayer is valid. But I am used to praying the Office in a more active way for over 30 years. I am old enough (barely, b. 1953) to remember how Liturgy was in the olden days and I have always embraced the authentic reforms of Vatican II, among them encouraging laity to participate more fully.
I just recently realized that the newbloods being ordained never experienced what went before. A 34 yr old seminarian friend of mine seemed to have no problem going to confession at one of four working confessionals during Mass in Chicago. He thinks, “Heck, it’s confession isn’t it? And shouldn’t we rejoice that four confessors are busy, even if it is during Mass?”
Yes, and no. Why not before or after Mass? Mass is not confession, except for its own penitential rite at the beginning and at the Agnus Dei when we again get off on beating our breasts.
Just to let the youngbloods out there know:
Back in the 50s and early 60s, it was customary for the laity to be “at” Mass, yet not fully . We altar boys represented them and we did all the responses in Latin (which I love). Perhaps because of the Latin most Laity were not “all there,” but contented themselves—with clerical approval—with reading their own missal, prayer books, saying their own rosaries and novenas, and even walking around the church lighting candles at this or that shrine. All those things were (and are) good in themselves, but during Mass? Do you want Tom Brady meditating on the rosary during a Patriots football game? (Okay, if you’re an Indianapolis Colt, maybe you do…)
I don’t think young people can picture the way it was.
And back then the choir, like us altar boys, would do the congregation’s part for them, singing important parts like the Gloria and Credo with polyphonies very beautiful indeed, but too sophisticated for the rest of us. So the laity sat there doing and thinking something pious (hopefully) until bells rang and they rubbed their eyes, looked up, saw the consecrated Host above the priest’s head with an altar boy kneeling behind holding up the back of an abbreviated chasuble that needed no holding up any more than a bikini needs to be hemmed. (BTW, many such traditions once had very practical explanations such as when chasubles were very voluminous and long, they needed to be held away from lighted candles and thuribles for safety reasons.)
Unless the new generation of priests understands the context in which Vatican II and liturgical reforms occurred, they cannot, at long last, implement them. Even though I have raised five children, I forget what they have not experienced. Context is everything. Only God is His Own context.
Thanks for listening to the likes of me. Sometimes I feel like I am in your studio/oratory with you.
There is more than one way to skin a cat, as we Yankees say, and every community has its own way of offering the sacrifice of praise called the Divine Office. The important thing is that we all follow the rubrics and not take unauthorized liberties. Youngbloods do not even remember the madhouse 70s when matters went so far afield some priests celebrated Mass (or so they thought) with pretzels and Coke! We must remember that madness, too, lest we repeat such mistakes.
I noticed a recent comment from another blind person like me. I wonder how many of us are out there. What an aid your ministry is for us!
My rooster is impatiently letting me know I should send this now and liberate him and his harem from their coop. At least he succeeds in shutting me up.
Jim C. Cunningham
Westfield, Vermont
amis41 Reply:
June 25th, 2010 at 13:24
I am one of those laymen who used and still have the Old Roman Breviary, and served as an altar boy during Vatican II as a Chaplain’s Assistant in the Army. I found the old ways difficult, and that is why the people were brought back by Vatican II, into the liturgical ways of the Church with English at Mass ( the Latin currently used is still for me not prayerful in my understanding- I know it is the language of the Church world wide), and the revision of the LOTH, which was a blessing. I discovered it late in 1970’s in the Christian Prayer Book.
There are many who have not experienced the past ways, and those who did, welcome the revisions with participation, and devotion, and have a renewed spiritual life with the various contributions to music, and media presentation of the LOTH. It is best to let the past go to some degree, or find communities that still practice it.
This Divine Office website is unique, and invitation to everyone, and an educational, and convenient way, to learn, and pray, the Divine Office for years to come. The Team is working very hard to make adjustments to have a flavor of a variety of prayerful ways to pray the LOTH. The Holy Spirit will guide them, and we can all pray that it will blossom one day, so that it will be prayed by a greater number of people, far beyond our imagination.
All you who pray, Bless the Lord. Share this website link with other Catholic, and Christian websites, and support it financially if you are able. It needs our positive 5 star votes in iTunes, and where the link is available.
Pax et Bonum, God be with you.
Patti Day Reply:
June 26th, 2010 at 06:27
Jim, You are a couple years younger than I. I’m not as much a fan of the changes of Vatican II. The IHM sisters at my school taught us a number of prayers and hymns in Latin. It may be just showing off, but I love to try to pray and sing in Latin. There are few opportunities now. I would like to find a website that recites the Regina Caeli and other Latin prayers of my youth so I can improve.
I won a prize from the SQPN website, The Catholic Foodie. It’s an I Phone app link for this website. I hope to replace my old Sprint cell phone which is 2005 vintage with a new phone so I can get TLOTH and not have to stoke up my old computer twice a day for MP and NP. When, God willing, I get my phone, I will definitely give the 5 star rating this site deserves.
June 23rd, 2010 at 20:04
I wasn’t going to say anything lest it seem like I was criticizing the new addition of chanting the psalms. However, although the chantress is obviously very talented, I find the melodies are far too difficult for me to follow. I actually find them very distracting. In fact, I find myself trying to concentrate on the notes to sing along and lose almost entirely the meaning of the prayer in the process. Also the key is very high and the current rendition seems to engender a bit of an unusual peppy upbeat feeling. I am sure this is just a matter of personal taste, but if there might be a way to include some traditional chants (i.e., Gregorian or the echo-y monotone versions used in monastaries), it might prove to be more condusive to the prayerful mood of the psalms. This too might just be my own desire since I have only heard the psalms sung in a more soothing musical arrangement such as the typical chants.
I realize this endeavor is mammoth and has required tremendous efforts on everyones’ parts. I myself feel very hesitant in offering my opinion because I have done nothing to contribute to your ministry. It is easy to sit on this side and ramble on about what might be a better direction. I know, though, that all of you are being led by the Holy Spirit and therefore are extraordinary people. I do hope that these comments will be accepted in a spirit of alternative considerations rather than criticisms.
Thank you again for what you are doing. I am so grateful for this site and it’s immense addition to my prayer life.
Dane Reply:
June 24th, 2010 at 08:10
We need the feedback and appreciate that you clearly expressed you were trying to be positive, it helps us more that way.
You may not have noticed, but we have only recorded Sunday’s Hours. Evening Prayer I and Office of Readings have been recorded in simple Gregorian chant. Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer II used a chant from a publication created by GIA for chanting the Liturgy of the Hours specifically. These GIA chants are most likely the ones of which you speak. I found myself calling them the chants with the fancy flourish. They are lovely to listen to and we felt appropriate for Sunday, but since we want everyone to actively participate and not just listen we will move in the chants into the most accessible direction.
June 23rd, 2010 at 18:05
I am looking for a song by Erika Provenzano, that was played on the Divine Office – Morning Prayer, a while back. It was the Canticle of Zechariah. I really enjoyed singing along with it and I’d love to hear it again with a link provided so that I can purchase the song.
Thanks.
June 23rd, 2010 at 14:37
I am trying to find the divine office with music for a Rector in India. Is this an audio book? How do I buy one?
Thank you
Dane Reply:
June 24th, 2010 at 08:12
We are also in search of Divine Office music so please let us know if you find any. This ministry creates the audio Divine Office and only a few of the songs are our own recording.
June 23rd, 2010 at 10:54
Oh-oh. After all I wrote about chanting the psalms and all, I was very dismayed as soon as the chantress sang the first antiphon last Saturday at Evening Prayer. The tune was so highfalutin that I could never join in, even by the time the psalm had ended. I vote for music that is far more congregation-friendly. Please Keep it simple I do not know what others think, but I fear that, if the chant remains that sophisticated, people (like me) will prefer to revert to the former simple recitation and throw the chant out with the holy water (as it were). I hope she has not recorded the entire breviary already.
Sorry to be negative, but if my two cents means anything and is timely, maybe you will not assume we are all thrilled with the way the new chanting is.
Gratefully anyway,
Jim C. Cunningham
Westfield, VT
Dane Reply:
June 24th, 2010 at 08:21
Hi Jim,
Are you sure you are speaking of Evening Prayer I? We used, at least I am pretty sure, the most basic Gregorian Chant on Evening Prayer I and Office of Readings. We used a flourished chant for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer II.
Good news is that we have learned not to record too much before letting our community “taste and see” so that we can better respond. This is also why we are criticized because we often cut it too close and miss a feast day or something, but in this case it proved to be best because we do have time to adjust. We have only recorded Sundays and they can be redone.
Today we record psalms to psalm tones and we will have the Chantress (Melinda) sing along with a male Chanter (Vince) and we will take your recommendations to heart.
Please check on Evening Prayer I and Office of Readings from last weekend and let me know if you do indeed consider them too highfalutin. Then Listen to Sunday Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer II from last Sunday and compare. Let me know what you think please.
Thank you!
June 23rd, 2010 at 09:38
There have been several good comments made. A few positive notes:
1) Praying the LOTH here for several years, and watching it’s growth, it has become a premier ministry that invites all Christians to pray the LOTH, including laymen, Christians, and all people, as well as the religious, and those of other faiths. Maybe having a more open invitation would be helpful.
2) I too think the advertising is becoming a distraction and needs to be used elsewhere. It occupies 2/3 of the space.
3) As for the music, I cannot see going to total Gregorian Chant style music “Gelineau, the Trappists, or Benedictines”, there are many new laity now praying the LOTH, and I am for a very “prayerful variety” of music, that would include some chant, but nothing distracting or dominating the style. We want a variety of people to enjoy and understand that praying the LOTH is for everyone.
4) The direction of this beautiful and unique website
should continue to progress on it’s own, guided by the Holy Spirit, and our support, and positive suggestions. After it has blossomed, it can make choices what to do, to keep the new people who have discovered the LOTH, and pray it in joining other LOTH websites. The seed planted here is growing beautifully, and we should be thankful as is commented for what is here.
5) Just a note on the 4 Volume version Large Print. I find it the best because it is easy to read, and the cover is nice, and it comes in a nice 4 section box for storing the volumes.
6) Pray for the Divine Office team. They are adding staff, and it is good to see such dedicated, and kind people, giving themselves to this ministry.
Pax et Bonum. Peace and goodness always.
June 23rd, 2010 at 07:15
MargaretAnne, Concerning the edition of LOTH, there is no difference in content between the Leather bound and Imitation bound volumes and no difference in type size. The dimension are different because the leather is “bulkier.” In my mind, the question as to which edition to get comes down to $$$ and how you are going to use them. The Leather bound edition is bound and sturdier. I guess you get what you pay for. As a Deacon I take my volume with me throughout the day. I have the Imitation Leather edition but bought a cover. See http://ocdsrose.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/page8.html for examples. This allows me to keep the Volume, the Supplement, my prayer list and prayer cards all neatly contained.
If you need larger type, there is a large type edition available from the publisher: http://www.catholicbookpublishing.com/ShowProduct.aspx?ProductID=446&DepartmentID=90
Hope this helps.
Dcn Dick
MargaretAnne Reply:
June 24th, 2010 at 12:35
Dcn Dick,
Thanks for your response. I was thinking about going to a local (somewhat local) Catholic book store in Scarborough, Maine. It’s called “The Abbey” and I visited the store years ago. I thought I would look at both the leather and imitation leather editions. When I called them, they said that if I wanted the large print edition, they would order it. From what I’ve been told, the regular print isn’t very difficult to read. I guess it’s average sized print. I was told that the leather bound volumes are all black and that the imitation leather set is in four colors. I think that the large print edition has wider margins. I guess I’m too fussy. It’s the words that are the most important but it is quite an investment and does take a little consideration. Thanks for your help. ~ MargaretAnne
June 23rd, 2010 at 06:48
I’ve been reading all the prayers throughout the day here at work. I’m not exactly reading them in the manner they were meant to be read but at least I’m reading it. When scripture is referenced, especially when there’s a long passage, I read the text in Bible Gateway and then go back to the Liturgy of the Hours. Even though I’m unable to listen to any audio here at work, I can remember some of the music of the familiar hymns so I can read it as though I’m actually singing it. This is a wonderful sight. I don’t have a computer at home. I can print a copy of the prayers for Saturday on Friday (usually at the library) and I can print the ones for Sunday on Monday (yesterday’s prayers).
June 23rd, 2010 at 05:56
Praying alone as I do daily,the divine office online has become a great addition. However, I offer several suggestions for your consideration:
(1) It would be great if DivineOffice.org and Universalis.com were in partnership.
(2) Since the psalms are songs, consider more the use of chant, using psalm tones and words from a variety of sources (e.g. – Gelineau, the Trappists, or Benedictines).
(3) Be inclusive and invite others to participate in this undertaking..as volunteers. I think many of us would love it…depending on location.
(4) For those who register online remove the “ads” which are too distracting. If it means paying a small fee to remove anything but the office…it would enhance it greatly.
(5) Be more ecumenical..Involve Anglicans, Lutherans, Orthodox, Methodists, and others who pray the liturgy of hours. Prayer is the one essential element of Christian faith that should unite all of us. “How good and pleasant it is where brothers and sisters dwell as one.”
Peace and blessings.
June 23rd, 2010 at 05:13
If you are not seeing the Liturgy in your browser, I had the same issue, you need to clear out your browser cache files and history. That worked for me and should work for you.
June 23rd, 2010 at 04:51
I’ve been trying to make a decision about which edition of the Liturgy of the Hours to buy. Are the older editions different in the text or just the arrangement? Does the leather edition have a different type size than the imitation leather edition? The leather edition seems to have different dimensions when I looked in Amazon. Is there a difference in the paper. The thickness of the volumes seems to be different as well. That’s why I thought the text size might be different. Is the leather more flexible than the imitation leather? Is it a very soft leather? Thanks for any help you can give me. I’ve seen one edition on another website that has a 4-volume set with all black leather covers. I don’t like to buy something without seeing it first. You can never really be sure when you order something online. I suppose I could order a copy through Interlibrary Loan just to take a look before ordering a set. I think that the imitation leather may be ordered one volume at a time but the leather set isn’t available that way.
Dane Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 07:08
Dear MargaretAnne,
I have purchased most of the new versions available. I can’t speak to anything before the 1975 version, which is the newest. I find it very confusing also so you are not alone. I can share some of my experience with you. I have purchased the leather and the imitation leather and I just can’t recommend leather. The imitation leather is not soft, but nether is the leather, but it is very pliable and sturdy. I also found the expensive leather books I ordered ended up being black covers on all volumes and smaller dimensions, which meant smaller text inside. All of us at Divine Office love the large print edition and we can all see just fine. The large print edition is only slightly larger, but it makes it feel more substantial and looks nicer. It is much better to use in prayer. Only if you plan to travel around a lot would I suggest the smaller sized books. As far as I know, you must purchase a full four-volume set to get the large print. Hands down we recommend the Large Print edition. You can find it on our web page under recommended books (lower right corner of web site) or here http://divineoffice.org/liturgy-of-the-hours/recommended-books/
MargaretAnne Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 07:19
Dane,
Thank you very much for your reply. You provided some very valuable information to help me with my decision. I’ve always been indecisive and it helps to hear from others to make it a little easier to make an informed decision. Thanks again.
June 22nd, 2010 at 03:10
I haven’t seen any of the hours for about a week now. I click on the tabs, and the message is that they are not completed yet. Also, every day the date for the next day is displayed, not the current day and date. Am I doing something wrong?
Dane Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:05
If you are not seeing the hours on the web site then there must be something wrong with your browser. If you know how to clear the cache on your browser then please do so, if you don’t know how to do that then quit your browser and start it again and see if that helps. You can also reboot your computer if the problem continues or you don’t know how to clear your cache or restart the browser.
By browser I mean Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or what ever you are using to browse the Internet. If the problem continues the please let us know more about what browser you are using and on what type of computer.
eag7125 Reply:
June 27th, 2010 at 05:32
Today (June 27)was the first day that I have been able to see all the prayers for the day when I went to your site. If it was my browser, then why were the readings on Universalis opened to the day that I was looking for? (If it was Saturday, June 26th, then those readings for June 26th were visible when I went to that site. If my browser was not working properly, then I would think that have affected all sites that I visited that were date specific or dependent. However, I don’t really know that much about computers. I’m just glad everything is working fine now!
June 21st, 2010 at 05:59
Dane, I’m a newbie to the LOTH, but I absolutely LOVE this ministry and this service. You have made the Divine Office much less intimidating and you guys, through your interview on The Catholic Foodie, inspired me to pick this up.
I’ve read in a couple of places that for the Psalms, even though the publisher chose to print the ending sequence as “Glory to > Psalm-Prayer > Antiphon”, the correct sequence at the end is supposed to be “Glory to > Antiphon > Silence > Psalm-Prayer”. Have you ever heard this before?
Thank you again for all that you do!
Carlos
June 20th, 2010 at 15:21
With the Psalms being sung by Melinda Kirigin-Voss, I found myself singing along. It is very well done, and prayerful for those who read along, or join in the chorus or prayer. Continuing to pray for your progress with the Divine Office. If everyone found a website to add a link for the Divine Office it would be a tremendous blessing. Pax et Bonum Paul
June 20th, 2010 at 09:29
As a convert I am not very familiar with the Divine Office.
I can easily understand how to use ‘Morning Prayer’, ‘Daytime Prayer’, ‘Evening Prayer’ and ‘Night Prayer’.
I do not have any idea as to how to best use the ‘Invitatory Psalm’ and the ‘Office of Readings’ — at any time of day, perhaps? Are there any ‘rules’ or guidelines?
Thanks for all your hard work!
Carlos Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:40
The Invitatory Psalm is used before the first prayer that you choose to pray for any given day. For most people that would be either the Office of Readings or the Morning Prayer, but it can be any prayer that you are praying first that day.. Whichever of the day’s prayers you start with, the Invitatory Psalm would be said in lieu of the “God come to my assistance …” and “Glory to…” for that prayer only.
Many choose to start the day with the Office of Readings, but that Hour can actually be said at anytime of the day.
I hope this helps.
June 20th, 2010 at 04:13
‘Hi Dane and all,
I might be embarrassing myself here, but I listen to you via your web site and do not find the normal Podcast entry into Morning Prayer for Sunday, June 20, 2010. I’ll just do the reading myself. However, is it just that’s it not there today or is there a bug?? Not sure. All other hours seem to be okay. Thanks so much for your ministry and especially your recent efforts to put it on a much higher level with the Psalm Tones.
Dane Reply:
June 20th, 2010 at 05:51
I found a little mistake in the audio so it was not there when you needed it, but now it is. Sorry to miss you.
June 18th, 2010 at 05:32
I now receive audio & script. Thank you and may God continue to bless you and your ministry.
June 18th, 2010 at 05:25
I receive no prayers today audio or script. Is there anyway I can correct this?
June 17th, 2010 at 17:06
Perfect again, thanks!
June 17th, 2010 at 05:38
Further to my comment, all the prayer buttons are greyed out, which doesn’t let me open them.
June 17th, 2010 at 05:37
HI!
I can’t get anything to open, it is showing the Invitatory but I can’t change to anything else!
I am in Newfoundland, Canada and I didn’t have any problem with the today, yesterday and tomorrow but now…nothing
Many thanks again for this ministry!
June 16th, 2010 at 21:18
Hi Dane; what happened I cant get any prayers tonight? I hope its something simple, God bless
Dane Reply:
June 16th, 2010 at 22:08
Try it now. We just implemented a fix to our “yesterday, today, tomorrow” problem and everything should be working correctly from this point forward. We also added a feature to correctly, we hope, detect people’s time zones and give them the correct “today”.
June 16th, 2010 at 11:21
I am blind and I just depend on this ministry. Please consider putting the day prayer on mp3 also please. Thanks again. Jenny
Dane Reply:
June 16th, 2010 at 16:53
This year our focus has been on providing Office of Readings and that will take us up to the season of Advent. We will have a little more work to do to complete all the Solemnities and Feasts, but once we do then we will begin the day prayers. Thanks for letting us know of your interest in them.
June 16th, 2010 at 10:13
Why can’t we get prayers for days in advance? Like a week in advance like Universalis and ebreviary offers?
Dane Reply:
June 16th, 2010 at 16:50
We only recently received ICEL (International Committee on the English Liturgy) approval and it will take us a few more months before we have all the text in place. When we do then you will be able to view it. Remember, we are providing the Liturgy of the Hours for free with full-text and audio and we are using the authorized version of the Liturgy of the Hours so please give us a little time to get this in place. We all have our own day jobs and families to provide for while we complete this important work at the same time.
June 16th, 2010 at 08:13
I noticed that the daytime prayer is missing for Tuesday, June 15th. Are there times when there are no prayers for certain times of the day? Also, forgive my ignorance but I have a question. What is the abbreviation [ant.}? I just discovered the Liturgy of the hours. I am not Catholic but I’m enjoying learning about Catholicism. I’ve been watching a lot of the programming on EWTN and I’ve learned a lot. Thank you.
Dane Reply:
June 16th, 2010 at 16:47
There are no times when the prayers are missing, but occasionally we are unable to get everything published so that is our fault if you do not see it, but within a few month’s time we will have all the content all the time.
The abreviation “Ant.” means you should repeat the antiphon from the beginning of the psalm where you see this abbreviation.
June 16th, 2010 at 03:56
Hi Dane: Still can’t get the Office and morning prayer to work even by changing dates, any other suggestions?/ Richard
June 16th, 2010 at 03:04
Hi ,
i just purchase the iphone app.. i have several questions . Pardon me if this has been answered somewhere..
- How do i delete previous day prayers ?
- How can i download more than -n- amount of days of prayers in advance ?
- Will there be plan to include the complete divine office (at least text only) for this application ?
All in all… Great thanks for this wonderful apps.. i love the feature that enable me to see who in worlds are praying the office at any current time
Best Regards
kartono – singapore
Dane Reply:
June 16th, 2010 at 16:56
Hi kartono,
To answer your questions.
The previous day prayers should delete automatically.
There are no settings to download additional days in advance. The default is for 5 days.
We are adding full-text and this will take us a few more months to complete.
Thank you for praying with us!
kartono Reply:
June 16th, 2010 at 18:07
Thanks Dane… That’s very fast reply.. wow
excellent customer service 
Thanks also for the info…. Just one more question; in the 20th june prayer that is available for download today, i got morning prayer & night prayer only, and one section titled “samuel 1:1-13″ ? i did factory reset and it still download exactly like that for 20th june… any other thing i should do ?
Thanks again & God Bless
June 16th, 2010 at 01:16
Hi Dane,
You noted the following information for the Wednesday Evening Prayer hymn:
“O Radiant Light” performed by Michael Joncas; Music: Gregorian; Text: Pos Hilaron, Greek 3rd cent.; Translation: William Storey; Artist: Michael Joncas
The information should read:
Text: Phos Hilaron; tr. by William G. Storey, ©
Tune: RADIANT LIGHT, LM; Michael Joncas, b. 1951, © 1979, GIA Publications, Inc.
Thank you.
June 15th, 2010 at 00:02
Hi
Thanks for the response. I just finished using the “date change”; it works fine here.
marty
June 14th, 2010 at 15:50
Hi Dane: Reveived your e-mail and tried changing dates which I did but still no success: Any other suggestions, I really enjoy the Office but can’t really use it, without getting upset. Richard B.
June 14th, 2010 at 07:46
Praise be to God, that he is good and merciful and has give to us the beauty of wonderful people like you that is working hard on the new technology to bring out the best of our prayer time.
I love the your change of the psalms. It was so powerful to pray like that, I’m terrible in signing, that is a gift God didn’t give me, but I enjoyed it so much when I can follow something so beautiful.
I felt a big difference between reading that following it, with the chant, or signing.
May God keep blessing you and giving you the strenght and resources ($$$) you need to do this wonderful job.
I keep telling all my friends (even non catholic ones) about the applications.
Dane Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 13:45
Dear liss8rubio,
Telling others about our ministry IS THE BEST WAY to help our ministry. It is our mission to bring everyone into prayer from any where they may be.
Keep spreading the word and ask people to link to our site.
Thank you!
June 14th, 2010 at 03:31
June 14th having a problem with the buttons for (office of Reading and Morning prayer) when I click on them it goes back to the Invitory, but if I click on yesterday or tommorrow those work OK, its just the present day dosen’t work . Any suggestionsd ?? Richard B.
Dane Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 13:48
This is a known bug that we are working to fix. As a work around, try clicking on the yesterday or tomorrow and you will see that a date is placed on the address line. You can change that date to any day you want, including today, and that should make today reappear. The date is in the form YYYYMMDD.
June 14th, 2010 at 00:03
Hi
I usually come looking for NIGHT PRAYER after midnight.
I was able to go to YESTERDAY and then close the day with NIGHT PRAYER ……….. but not now.
Thanks for your prayerful service!
Dane Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 13:42
Hi Marty,
We are trying to identify exactly who is affected by this bug. It appears around your midnight and it probably lasts for about one hour.
As a work around, try clicking on the yesterday or tomorrow and you will see that a date is placed on the address line. You can change that date to any day you want, including today, and that should make today reappear. The date is in the form YYYYMMDD.
June 12th, 2010 at 18:16
Yes!
No sooner had I uploaded my two cents comments about using chant, etc, than I sat down for Vespers (Evening Prayer) this (June 12) evening, and lo and behold, a female chantress did a great job chanting the psalms and the canticle from Philipp. 2. She sang well, distinctly, not operatically, at a good pace, and we could either learn to join her or/and chant the simple response, as at Mass.
Who is the chantress?
Singing adds something nothing else can match, like wine at dinner. Jesus both drank wine at his last supper, and for dessert (as it were), sang, with the apostles, psalms 148-150 (see Matthew 26:29-30).
Who says we can’t have it all? After all, our Daddy owns the world and everything in it!
Jim C. Cunningham (Westfield, Vermont)
Dane Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 13:39
Dear Jim,
The chantress is Melinda Voss. You can read a little about her on the music profile page on our web site. I think I will see if we can tag her with the name “Chantress”.
Melinda used to be the music director at our parish at St. Vincent de Paul in Holladay, Utah. She left when her husband had to attend medical school and with his education complete she has returned to our parish and is now part of our ministry.
Melinda has published 3 CD’s, which we will soon make available, on her behalf, to all who would like to purchase them. She is a blessing to all of us.
We will be adding a male voice in the next few weeks as a compliment to hers. This will allow the singing of psalms with alternating voices for each strophe and joined during antiphons so as to lead our prayer community to intuitively know how to pray the psalms interactively.
We strongly welcome and encourage everyone to help us get everything right. We are trying, but at times, we (at least I) don’t know some of the nuances. Even as my understanding has evolved, we don’t catch everything that needs to be corrected, but with the help of our community pointing it out to me we will eventually evolve to something really glorious.
I appreciate all your comments and we make note of everyone’s recommendations, corrections, and criticism.
Thank you Jim!
June 12th, 2010 at 16:16
Thanks again tremendously for your devotion to the Lord and to us, aiding us in our own devotion. It must be so hard to keep us fed day by day, and even throughout the day!
My wife, Linda, used to make altar bread. You, too, are like that; you confect the “verbum” to which we add breath (i.e. Spirit),becoming the “sacrifice of praise.”
I am loathe to give any critique, as I am still jumping up and down on my one remaining leg, happy to have found you, but since so many others have ventured to put in their two cents, so I feel maybe I should as well.
I am not a passive pray-er, but an active one. I prefer a format that best allows us pray-ers (and not mere listeners) to join in.
Therefore, I prefer hymns that are truly congregationally singable such as “All creatures of our God and King” and “From all that dwell below the skies,” etc. I know some fans seem to like the more esoteric stuff, and maybe they know it and can sing it, but most of us plebs cannot. If you do use those highfalutin hymns, it would be nice if we could also have the text so we can follow along and get something out of it other than using the time to get my coffee.
Psalms:
I agree with the many who have complained about the responsorial way of praying the psalms, as it does interrupt the flow of the psalmist’s (and Spirit’s) composition. The invitatory is an exception, as even St. Benedict said, for the very practical reason of allowing his monks enough time to do their “bathroom stuff” and get their sleepy bodies into choir.
And it’s OK for Mass, as it makes it easier for the congregation to actively participate, having only to sing the same antiphon throughout the psalm, leaving the “harder” stuff to the cantor(s).
Your pace of praying and silences are perfect—better than many a religious community I have prayed with.
When one person reads a psalm, so we can pray along aloud, it should not be done idiosyncratically, with overly interpretive stresses and pauses, even though that would be better were it merely a reading to passive listeners. Your readers read the readings extremely well, better than some lectors here on the Quebec border who read Romans, telling us we are “hairs” of the kingdom!
Traditional chant—even recto tono—precludes this problem as it ignores even punctuation, and the designated musical note(s) allow for no other interpretive, emotional, accentuations. Save that for the readings; psalms are meant to be sung.
Dismissals:
If I am not mistaken, one of your female members at Easter season was dismissing us with a form reserved only for a deacon, priest or bishop (i.e. “Go in peace.)
Chanting:
I favor introducing simple chants for at least some psalms and canticles, such as the Benedictus and Magnificat. I don’t know the musical ability of you as a group, and if you do not have the gift, then it is better not to try it, but some chants are exceedingly easy. I have taught congregations who instantly caught on and did very well. The thing to remember is KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). “Congregational” means anybody can do it. I think that is what Vatican II wanted. Mass was not to be between choir, altar boys and priest, with the congregation lighting candles at various shrines until bells rang and brought our attention to the altar, but it was supposed to be a dialog between priest and people “ad Deum.”
But even the simplest chant (recto tono, monotone) can be difficult. One monastery I stayed with would begin on a designated note and end on another, nearly an octave lower. That’s where a simple background instrumental can keep everyone on track without distracting from the flow and meaning of the psalm/canticle itself.
Some will not like chant, because we Catholics have lost an ear for it over the past few decades, but it adds a meditative, mantric element to psalmody, like the Aves of the Rosary.
I have almost half the psalms memorized, but if I can’t chant them, I am a basket-case when it comes to remembering them.
I once met a Cistercian chaplain who simply had to sing his Office in Latin. To recite it was for him like eating a baloney sandwich rather than filet mignon. (And he would even do it while watching Sesame Street!)
Latin:
I vote for some, such as the Glorias and Domine, ad adjuvandum, etc. More than that would not be truly congregational since we have unfortunately moved so far away from our sacred language since about 1970.
But if you do nothing different, you are all great. It’s just that, when it comes to the liturgy, I always vote for making it better and better, till we are on the other side, worshipping the Lamb on the throne with the myriads of angels and saints who have graduated from signs to the bliss of Essence.
Extremely grateful,
Jim C. Cunningham, Westfield, Vermont
June 12th, 2010 at 15:46
Peace to you Dane,
Maybe it is time for a general review of the status of the Divine Office website. It appears there is confusion on what selections are used for readings, technical problems accessing podcasts, and how to select the “yesterday, today, and tomorrow” readings, what is being re-done so far as music and antiphons are used, and new features and updates.
A general information talk, or information sheet on these and other problems, made like you did once before, may calm the storm of comments, and let the many new people understand the complexity, limitations, and many “wonderful” things happening in the Divine Office ministry.
It is a growing and developing, and very unique progression to get to a level of completion, but there is a ways to go yet before we can get the correct readings in the St Joseph Guide for Christian Prayer – note it gives a choice of the ordinary, or feast day readings. I believe the ordinary is being created first, and the feast days are being created next.
Thank you, all my friends in Christ, in helping in a positive way, Dane and the team, in this effort to make this one of the finest LOTH websites. It is for everyone to pray and enjoy using. With understanding it will make it easier to get through these creative trials with patience and love.
Pax et Bonum
Paul
June 12th, 2010 at 06:42
Stfrancisciv, You are right, there aren’t really options, and yet there are.The listings are right OOR pg 959, psalter Week II, Propers (Readings) 345 (However for the for the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the 2nd reading should be from the Propers of the Day 1445 ) The same would hold true for Morning and Evening Prayer. The Psalter is Week II with the Propers from the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1626) and Canticle Antiphons and Morning Prayer from thePropers of the Day (1446)
So the psalter was correct and the 1st Reading was ( Sat. 10th week of Ordinary time and Week II of the Psalter. It’s just that a differrent 2nd Reading and antiphons are used for the feast day.
Confused yet? Me too.
You would think that with four volumes, they could get things in order and not have us page all over. Imagine 70 deacons praying the Office in choir and not having the Guide. There were times many years ago when I didn’t catch up until the Lord’s Prayer.
You mentioned p 1372 , that’s the Proper for St. Scholastica
Have a great Day. Even though we muddle through our prayer, God knows the prayers in our hearts. May God Bless you Always!
June 12th, 2010 at 04:36
Greetings! I am one of those who are truly grateful to people who work to bring others to God through prayers and deeds. I have been using your prayers by downloading them in my Ipod touch to be assured that I wont be needing any internet connection, thus, i prefer this method than thru the apps. My problem lately is i’ve been having some difficulties in download the Morning Prayers the error code is 404. I would download the prayers a couple of days before the start of the week, but only the Invitatory is available. Is the problem with the downloading? Thanks and hope to hear from you. God bless
Dane Reply:
June 12th, 2010 at 08:45
Don’t be too concerned about anything on your side. We are trying to make many improvements in all the prayers so we have gone back and rerecorded many and fixed others. This means that we are not posting ahead by more then a day so you are seeing 404 errors, which means the audio was not found, but it will be found soon. We should be through must of this cleanup work within 3 weeks.
Dane Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 13:23
The 404 error simply means the audio file is not available. This may happen when we remove an audio file while we are in the process of replacing it. This condition will continue for a few more weeks and you should only experience these 404 errors when there really is an error.
June 12th, 2010 at 03:59
Hello – Just wondering – Are you using the St Joseph Guide for Christian Prayer (LOH)? I was instructed by my Spiritual Director to use that guide. But I am thinking you may be using something else. For instance, today, Saturday, 6-12, in the guide, is the Immaculate Heart of Mary with Morning Prayer starting on p 1372 (Ant) 845. Haven’t checked anything else yet but I will have to pray alone today. I so miss praying with the group and listening to the hymns. It’s a much richer experience for me. Anyway, if you don’t use the St Joseph Guide, would you consider using it in the future? I didn’t really know there were options since I am new to the LOH. Thanks so much for what you do. Carol
Dane Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 13:21
We do follow the St. Joseph Guide, but we don’t have 100% of the Feast Days completed yet. We expect to have everything in accordance with St. Joseph’s Guide by this Advent.
June 11th, 2010 at 09:09
I am a little lost. When I try to download what appears to be the Office of the day I get only the first reading but when I go on line (like today) the whole office comes up for audio. Am I doing something wrong with downloading to my Ipod? In spite of this I am sooo grateful for what I get. I love the “feeling” of praying with people when I use my Ipod and the music adds to the spirituality of prayer. God Bless you all and this website!
Marie
Dane Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 13:19
This is because we posted the single reading from the Office of Readings last year, but as we create the complete Office of Readings we replace these individual readings with the complete Office of Readings. The Office of Readings are often posted one day in advance while we work through them, but in a few months they will all be in place well ahead of time.
June 9th, 2010 at 22:10
The Evening Prayer and Night Prayer are for the following day already. If I click on yesterday, it would show the prayers actually for yesterday. i.e. We cannot access the actual Evening and Night Prayers of the actual day.
June 9th, 2010 at 21:50
Just a note re: “yesterday|today|tomorrow switch – it no longer works as it should.
Still am grateful for your great service – keep up the good work!
June 9th, 2010 at 11:55
Hi and blessing to all. I love this application is my favorite, listen to it, every morning, middle of the day and night.
But very sadly for the past three or four days I haven’t been able to play the audio for the morning pray.
I don’t mind reading it, but I love the music that you always add, that makes my morning prayer so much more special. What is that I have to do to be able to listen to the morning pray. I try the re-loading and didn’t work.
Something else, thanks for adding the option to be able to buy some of the hymns, as soon as my economic situation is better I will star collecting my favorites.
Que Dios los siga bendiciendo. May God keep blessing you
June 9th, 2010 at 08:53
It has taken unusually long to download the audio for the office tonight (iPhone). I usually listen to Evening Prayer while walking the dog in the late afternoon. I was all the way home before the audio track finally finished downloading. Didn’t the iPhone ap used to download files days in advance? Sure was easier that way. But overall, I continue to value the Divine Office recordings very much. Thank you.
Dane Reply:
June 11th, 2010 at 07:37
The iPhone app does download 4 or 5 days in advance, but that is only when we have content for it to download. The Office of Readings is all new content that is posted only 1 or 2 days ahead.
We are also rerecording many Morning and Evening Prayers to fix a number of little issues we had with them in the past. In many cases this means that the prayers are not available for advanced download, but at least we are making the files smaller so that they are faster downloads. We have about 3 weeks of working through things before we can get ahead again.
June 8th, 2010 at 08:17
Audio will not play on morning prayer even after restart today 6-8-10 Office of readings fine
June 7th, 2010 at 22:03
Hi Dane, maybe I should get on sooner but lately I’ve not been able to get to night prayers well into the night, I can’t get that day’s prayers; I’ll get yesterdays tomarrows for today and tomarrow for tomarrow, could you please enlighten me ? thank you God bless…
June 7th, 2010 at 05:33
can you download the to an mp3 player and if so where is the link?
June 6th, 2010 at 11:09
Hi Dane et al: Great email article for Feast of Corpus Christi. Thanks!
Mike
June 5th, 2010 at 04:29
I agree with amis41. You all keep up the good work. This site is wonderful. To me, the emotional tone of a hymn is what moves me to feel closer to God. It is awesome to have such a thorough knowledge of liturgical music history – I certainly I have none – but I think God is pleased with any prayer whether it is historically correct or not, as long as it comes from the heart. I know that when I try to sing along with any hymn as best I can, for sure He knows an angel is not singing. But I hope He doesn’t turn away from my heartful offering nonetheless. Somehow, I don’t think He does.
June 4th, 2010 at 23:00
O Perfect Love – the analogy of the Bridegroom, Christ, and the bride, the Church, is a spiritual marriage, which if you stretch your imagination can be interpreted in the song.
Having a variety of music with the wide range of followers helps make this website vibrant, and prayerful. I hope we do not go back to mostly chant, but I do love hearing it.
I hope that we can focus on what the Liturgy of Hours is in the eyes of Vatican II, for all lay people, and religious, and all people who come to pray to Our Lord, in communion together.
May our comments be positive, and not distracting to the difficult effort it takes to produce this wonderful website. Having produced much of the Weekly LOTH, going back to polish it up is quite an effort, but Dane is sensitive to the music choices, and has improved it very nicely.
Dane you are a remarkable person, and your team as well to bring so many to prayer. Keep up the wonderful work. God bless you all.
Pax et Bonum
June 4th, 2010 at 17:45
I so appreciate this site. I notice lately however that you are repeating the antiphons after each strope which is unnecessary except for the Invititory. It tends to break up the reading quite a bit. I would also like to request that one of the women slow down her reading some. It’s quite fast and difficult to absorb the substance as we pray along. Thank you
Dane Reply:
June 5th, 2010 at 06:28
Hi bbf,
You are hearing some of the first Hours we recorded. We are in the process of replacing them. You will noticed a marked difference between these old ones after you hear an Hour we have recorded recently. Thank you for your suggestions however.
June 4th, 2010 at 14:29
One more question regarding the use of O Perfect Love as a hymn for the Office of readings today. Did you download the sample from Amazom? I ask this because the music cut out after the first verse exactly in the same place the sample cuts out. That seemed a little strange to me.
June 4th, 2010 at 14:24
I have a question about the use of O Perfect Love as a hymn for the Office of readings today. Why did you choose a text that was written for and intended to be used solely as a wedding hymn?
History of the text:
One Sunday evening in 1884 at Pull Wyke, Cumberland, England, Dorothy Francis Blomfield (later Gurney; b. London, England, 1858; d. Kensington, London, 1932) wrote this text for her sister’s wedding.
The hymn tune STRENGTH AND STAY by John B. Dykes (PHH 147) was her sister’s favorite, but that hymn’s text (by Ellerton and Hort) included the line “the brightness of a holy death-bed,” which made it inappropriate for a wedding. So her sister challenged her to write a new text to fit that tune.
At a later time Gurney said,”After about 15 minutes I came back with the hymn, ‘O Perfect Love’, and there and then we all sang it to the tune, STRENGTH AND STAY. The writing of it was no effort whatever after the initial idea came to me of the two-fold aspect of a perfect union, love and life, and I have always felt that God helped me to write it.
The text was published in the 1889 Supplement to Hymns Ancient and Modern with a reference to Ruth 1:17. Because of its use at the wedding of Princess Louise and the Duke of Fife that same year, it gained much popularity. Thereafter its place in many hymnals and at many weddings was assured.
“O Perfect Love” is a prayer that Christ’s love and life may infuse a wedding couple’s new life together.
June 2nd, 2010 at 11:54
Just another chance to say “Thank you” for making the LOTH available in this format which is so great from me when I am having to drive for some distance to and from work.
I appreciate your using the antiphons as directed in the Invitatory. I feel as if I am sitting in community when I am able to respond.
I’d also appreciate your leaving a silent space for me to respond/repeat at the approrpiate points after the antiphon is first said and at the end during psalmody as well as Canticle of Zechariah and the Canticle of Mary.
One other request: most of the time your hymn selections are just right. With the renewed emphasis on using traditional chant, perhaps more of these could be used.
Thank you for reading my suggestions. But again, thank you for performing your much-needed minstry.
June 2nd, 2010 at 09:10
Hi Dane,
Thanks for all your hard work on this site.
What is the reference for the recording of “How Can I Keep From Singing” (hymn for Morning Prayer – 6/2/10)? It is a wonderful arrangement. Who is the recording artist? Is that particular piece available for pruchase? It reminds me of Paul Tate’s arrangements.
By the way… I have not heard from you concerning my offer to help with the music. You asked for my e-mail.
singcook1@astound.net
I’ll be waiting to hear from you.
Ron Jones
June 2nd, 2010 at 08:08
Repeating the Antiphon after each verse is for the Invitatory only and not necessary to do in all Psalms. Repeating the Antinphon in the Psalms actually distorts the flow of the spirit of the Psalmist. I know many have been recorded already but it would be nice not to have the Antiphons not repeated except for the Invitatory. I just find it so distracting instead in praying/listening to the Psalms to be broken by the Antiphons.
June 2nd, 2010 at 03:35
How Can I Keep from Singing – Hymn for today’s morning prayer is so uplifting. A great start of the day in praising the goodness of the Lord, my rock and strength.
Please email me on how I can use the “Subscribe to my feed.”
Thank you,
Ruby
rubybrigman@aol.com
June 2nd, 2010 at 03:05
Dane,
For the past two days, I can’t get the audio to work for morning and evening prayer! It seems to download fine to my IpodTouch – I can see the words on the screen, but no audio. Help! It’s amazing how I’ve come to depend on you! Thanks! Barbara Sardella OCDS
Dane Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 11:19
Hi Barbara,
Please try using the factory reset function. It resets everything back to normal so things return to normal functioning. Let me know if that does not work.
bsardella Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 19:03
It worked! Thank you!
mikemullard Reply:
June 8th, 2010 at 07:36
Dane: I have been having the same problem and tried the factory reset on my iPhone but the problem continues. Any suggestions? Thanks, Mike
May 31st, 2010 at 15:21
Monday, 5/31, was the Feast of the Visitation of Mary. Evening Prayer should have been from Vol III, p 1436 and from the Common of the BVM p 1614.
Alternatively, I suppose, you might have used the 9th week of ordinary time, but from Vol III, not Vol IV.
Thank you.
May 31st, 2010 at 14:10
Hi Dane,
I generally like the music used for the hours. Today’s morning prayer is the exception. I personally would have prefered a hymn or even antiphoal song to the setting of the Lord’s Prayer used today. Even though it had an extension after the initial words of the prayer, I thought it inappropriate as a hymn choice for the office. May I also say that I disliked the setting of the Benedictus as the Gospel Canticle. I do not mean to insult the composing skills of Erika Provinzano. I just don’t think it works well as a musical setting of those words. Music in liturgy is a great passion for me and I believe we need to be more cautious and critical of the selections we choose for liturgical prayer.
Thanks for listening,
Ron Jones
Dane Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 08:08
I agree. In our defense, this week’s Morning and Evening Prayer were produced a few years ago. I am reworking almost everything, but this week I am trying to take a few days off to focus on my family so our new content couldn’t be produced. In the next few weeks you will see vast improvements.
mauro Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 09:43
Hello,
All the initial production made by Erika was aimed at creating modern songs out of the hymns and canticles. The Benedictus used in the Divine Office is actually a draft and the full arrangement is even more a song then what you can hear now. That was what we originally asked for, and she did some beautiful songs for us, including many advent hymns ( you can hear some samples in the flash player on this page http://divineoffice.org/music/erika-provinzano/ ).
The experience taught us our community tends to prefer more traditional music in the liturgy. Erika’s latest work for Divine Office has been setting to music the midday prayer psalms in a much simpler way (guitar and voice), with simpler melodies, and we are planning on recording more psalms using traditional tones.
May 31st, 2010 at 04:13
Dane, as if you didn’t have enough problems. Todays Office should be the Visitation of Mary
May 31st, 2010 at 04:09
No Ipod downloads today?…. HELP!
mauro Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 09:05
Hello! We solved this!
Sorry, while fixing a website bug we accidentally broke the iPhone feed. We fixed this, please reset your app (factory reset or reset contents in settings screen) and you’ll get the Divine Office back!
Mauro.
May 31st, 2010 at 03:13
What a wonderful website?! Thank you for your effort and hard work to create and run this site. LOTH is my favourite prayer I do love praying here with you. God bless you! THANK YOU!!!!! Andy from London, UK.
May 30th, 2010 at 19:06
Dane, thank you and your group for this ministry. I think sometimes we, as frail human beings, have come to expect perfection from you all. Forgive our demands and pressure for removal of this “devil bug.” We are with you no matter how long it takes. Please know that the service you provide has brought most everyone of us closer to God and we thank you for that. Any inconvenience is worth the wait. God Bless You and thank you.
May 30th, 2010 at 18:53
I am so glad you were able to fix the problem. I am new to praying the Divine Office and your site is a joy. The music is beautiful and the readings are said with such feeling. Thank you and God bless you.
May 30th, 2010 at 13:27
Praying for you thru the intercession of St Isidore, patron saint of IT, that the bug will get fixed! I just want to point out that this url is incorrect http://www.cornerstonelacrosse.org/teachUsToPray.htm. It should be http://www.cornerstonelacrosse.org/teachUsToPray.php This hymn is in the Morning Prayer for 31 May
May 30th, 2010 at 13:18
Humor: The devil bug will be defeated by prayer and expert work by Dane. Keep up the good work Dane. A bit of humor never hurts. Pax et Bonum.
May 29th, 2010 at 22:57
it is 9:55pm Sat. May 29-there is no May 29th prayers
Dane Reply:
May 29th, 2010 at 23:54
We know there is a bug with our site. We are working on it. Please see our post on the site about the work around.
May 29th, 2010 at 21:28
Dane,
Have just gone onto the Divine Office website. Current time here is 19:15 Mountain Daylight time. Upper left corner of page says Prayers for May 29, the header at the top of the main page reads Evening Prayer II (Sol) for Trinity Sunday. If I click on yesterday it gives the readings for May 28. If I click on tomorrow it gives me “May 30, About Today for Trinity Sunday”. This all changed from the correct readings earlier this afternoon when I last checked. Using the Divine Office app on my Ipod touch I get the correct readings for today.
Hope this helps.
Dane Reply:
May 29th, 2010 at 23:55
Yes, I definitely see this problem. We are working on it. I am sorry for the error. We posted an announcement on the site for a temporary work around.
May 29th, 2010 at 09:54
I am in Missouri and having the same trouble about evening and night prayers. This a a great site and I know you will get this problem fixed God Bless and thank you for this site.
May 29th, 2010 at 09:52
I’m again commenting on the current Night Prayer problem. I received your reply, but it seems as problematic as the problem itself is.
First, the problem is very, very new. I first noticed it within the past week. Therefore, something has changed at your end. Prior to this new manifestation, I could come to your website and say my NP at 11:55 pm without any problem.
Secondly, when I experience this new “feature”, I should be able to access the correct day’s NP by clicking on “yesterday.” Wrong. When I do that, I get the NP from two days before. So how do I access the current day’s NP? Must I now start saying my NP in the afternoon? Hello? It’s called NIGHT Prayer!
Thank you.
Dane Reply:
May 29th, 2010 at 23:58
I was mistaken about this being normal behavior. I now see the problem you are experiencing and we are working on a fix. Please look at the announcement we posted on our site as a way to work around this problem until we fix our technology. Sorry for the inconvenience.
May 29th, 2010 at 08:36
I am having the same trouble I think. All of the morning prayers are ok until I log in to do evening and night prayer and then it is already on the next day. If I try to click on yesterdays prayers it is the previous day with the current day nowhere to be found. I am in San Diego.
May 28th, 2010 at 20:40
Good evening. It’s Friday, 10:38 pm. I clicked on Night Prayer and got Saturday’s NP. It’s still not fixed, Dana.
Dane Reply:
May 28th, 2010 at 23:16
This is normal behavior for the web site. Here in the USA we are far behind the time zones of most of the world. It is tomorrow for most of the world. The web site operates without knowing what time it is where you are at so we had to chose a time zone for it to operate and we selected one that is half way between the USA and Europe.
May 28th, 2010 at 18:10
I have had the exact same problem as courts5946 but with Evening Prayer for the last 3 or 4 days and the problem is still there today. If I use my Ipod Touch using the Iphone app it is okay.
Dane Reply:
May 28th, 2010 at 23:17
Where are you located?
garcritt Reply:
May 29th, 2010 at 00:23
Dane,
I am located in Alberta, Canada
May 27th, 2010 at 21:02
Days and dates for Night Prayer are messed up. For example, today is Thursday, 5/27, but NP is for Friday, 5/28. Clicking yesterday gives you, Wednesday, 5/26. Clicking tomorrow gives you Friday, 5/28. What happened to Thursday.
Dane Reply:
May 28th, 2010 at 05:50
Please let me know if this happens again. I needed to see this error while it was still Thursday because now everything appears normal. Thanks for reporting this issue.
May 27th, 2010 at 09:40
Tech problem? Today May 27 on Lauds, Morning Prayer, there was a link offering song “click here to purchase this hymn” re: Isaac Watts “I sing the mights power”.
It linked to Amazon, with another hymn, a Taize hymn, featured for $.89, but I could not for the life of me find the one used in your Lauds.
Oh well.
May 27th, 2010 at 05:42
Good morning to all. I have used your app on my Iphone and been greatly satisfied with it. Because of cell coverage issues in my new parish I had to give up the iPhone and purchase a Motorola Droid. I would love to have this app on my new phone. Are there any plans to make a Droid friendly app in the future? I know in some cirlces this is anathema, however, I need my phone first and foremost for receiving and making phone calls.
Peace and be well,
Fr. Chip
May 26th, 2010 at 06:18
Hi!
Just wanted to let you know that the audio for Office of Readings for tomorrow Thursday is actually the audio for today.
Again, many many thanks for your wonderful ministry!
Dane Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 10:45
Good catch! It is fixed.
May 24th, 2010 at 22:11
I aggree with romang1 ,I really enjoy this site and use it every chance I get, my the LORD bless you all who work on this, with His very best blessings!!!!! may the peace of our Lord be with you! In Christ,
gillysuiter
May 24th, 2010 at 07:39
Just a note to point out a technical item – since this is the 8th week in ordinary time, we should be reading from the 4th week of the Psalter, not the 1st or 3rd as is posted on the web site today (we did conclude our readings before the Easter season in the 2nd week, but the readings are to be aligned with the weeks in ordinary time, modulo 4).
Best,
TK
Dane Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 13:26
We had the content right, but we did have a typo on the Invitatory. It is fixed now. Thanks!
May 23rd, 2010 at 22:35
God bless those who tirelessly devote themselves to providing this service. I am especially grateful for the recorded music and the decision to use some excellent English choral performances whch exemplify the musical standard that should be in every Catholic parish. It is my hope that those who are praying on this site will demand high quality choral music in there own parishes.
One suggestion: Please provide the text and/or a choral performance of the Marian antiphons for each of the offices.
Pax dominus vobiscum.
May 23rd, 2010 at 18:44
We will be bringing the page guide back. After starting to create the page guide it became apparent that we needed a more efficient method of creating it and distributing it so that it didn’t take 2-3 hours per week to publish. We will have the solution soon and the page guide will be back.
May 22nd, 2010 at 19:16
What happened to the LOTH page guide? It was very helpful and a learning tool.
Thanks you.
May 21st, 2010 at 10:03
What happened to the page guide?
Marie
amis41 Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 11:11
Greetings,
As a substitute suggestion for a LOTH Weekly Page Guide,
may I suggest a website that emails it out weekly free of charge. It may not have the Feast Days listed but the Ordinary days instead. However, it is a worthy ministry who supports linking the Divine Office website on theirs.
The Weekly Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours is a free service provided by the Classical Liberal Arts Academy to promote family and personal prayer. It is designed for use with the Catholic Publishing Company’s editions of the Liturgy of the Hours. Please encourage your friends and relatives to pray the Liturgy of the Hours and let them know we’re here to help! Direct them to the CLAA’s Liturgy of the Hours resource center at: http://www.classicalliberalarts.com/LOTH.
Request to be added to their mailing list. Until Dane can get back to it, this will help you.
Pax et Bonum
Paul
May 21st, 2010 at 09:51
When I try to download from the Itunes website for the following week some of the LOH prayers don’t download even if they say it was released. There appears an exclamation point to the left of that particular office. Some of them download just fine. Am I doing something wrong? This is being downloaded to my Ipod… Thanks and God Bless you for all this wonderful work. It has enhanced my prayer life 100xs over!!
Marie
May 20th, 2010 at 23:52
There are three days listed – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. These cover three timezones in the world. Australia is 12 hours different, Europe is 12 hours different, and the United States is usually the “Today” I believe that is what was meant Dane. Just think we are praying with people around the world. God bless. Pax et Bonum
Paul
May 20th, 2010 at 18:21
Dear Dane,
I love praying with you each day. I was hoping that I could take you with me on my Dell Axim pocket pc, but it seems that I can only access you on a mobile via Apple products.
Is this correct?
Monthly supporter,
Patti Hartman
Dane Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 21:26
Many people use pod catchers to download our podcast to their mobile devices. I have not researched them, but you should find one that will do the job for you.
Good luck!
JeffFerguson Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 12:03
I listen to the podcast on a Zune HD, which is a Microsoft product, so I can vouch for the fact that the podcast is not resticted for use only on Apple products.
Do you have a podcast application for your Dell Axim?
RBushlow Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:38
Juice is a free, multiplatform podcast receiver that I have used on both MS and Linux platforms (Apple os is a Linux variant) so you should have no trouble. Just google Juice podcast receiver and load it to your system.
May 20th, 2010 at 17:02
Dane Why are there three days listed in office?
Dane Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 17:40
Sorry, I am no sure what you mean.
uemcan123 Reply:
May 21st, 2010 at 09:12
Do not worry I know why
May 20th, 2010 at 10:23
I recently got this app for my iPad. WOWWWWWW! Jesus definitely owns a Mac, as this is now ever so accessible to anyone wishing to participate in the Office. I bought my hard books for just shy of $200 and do adore using them in Adoration every morning. BUT, having the Evening Prayer being recited aloud keeps me totally engaged. And that view of our planet and all who are praying??? This app costs the equivalent of two starbucks. Don’t even hesitate. It would make a great gift (gifts!) for family and friends alike. I’ve been showing it to my Priests, who are in the main technophobes, and they are all over it. Thanks so much for such an inspirational site. Beth Parks
Dane Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 13:16
Priests, deacons, seminarians, and nuns are all welcome to request a code that will allow them to redeem our apps for free if they have access to the USA iTunes store. If they have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch then let them know.
May 18th, 2010 at 19:38
I am sorry to not see the LOTH page guide. I have been using these guides to help me during the learning process of saying the Divine Office. While I have been studying and learning, I have been able to follow along with the guide and say the prayers in the interim. I hope that they will return, but I do not have the time to sit in front of my computer to follow the prayers on the website, and I do not have a iphone to try and get it to work correctly. I am very appreciative of all of your efforts that benefit so very many, but the page guides were the only ones that helped me for now. Thank you again.
Dane Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 22:15
I am really sorry that I couldn’t continue, but I will start doing it again. The reason I had to stop is that it was taking me about 2 hours to put it together and the demands of this ministry were already so high that doing it all was impacting the quality of the audio prayers so I had to give it up temporarily, but only temporarily.
rip2351rip Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 01:07
Thank you for giving me hope. I will continue to study the structure and execution of the Divine Office while I wait in anticipation for the return of the LOTH page guide. Thank you again for your ministry and all your efforts.
amis41 Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 00:01
Greetings,
As a substitute suggestion for a LOTH Weekly Page Guide,
may I suggest a website that emails it out weekly free of charge. It may not have the Feast Days listed but the Ordinary days instead. However, it is a worthy ministry who supports linking the Divine Office website on theirs.
The Weekly Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours is a free service provided by the Classical Liberal Arts Academy to promote family and personal prayer. It is designed for use with the Catholic Publishing Company’s editions of the Liturgy of the Hours. Please encourage your friends and relatives to pray the Liturgy of the Hours and let them know we’re here to help! Direct them to the CLAA’s Liturgy of the Hours resource center at: http://www.classicalliberalarts.com/LOTH.
Request to be added to their mailing list. Until Dane can get back to it, this will help you.
Pax et Bonum
Paul
May 18th, 2010 at 19:35
Greetings Dane et al. I’ve really been enjoying the iPhone app for about 6 months now and just found your website. This is an awesome ministry that definitely deserves support.
I’m a long-time Benedictine oblate (New Camaldoli Hermitage, Big Sur) and love the Divine Office, but due to work commitments, cannot celebrate as many of the hours as I would like, until now! This app makes it much easier to pray as I am driving, etc.
My only request/plea: Perhaps allow a few more seconds of sacred silence between the end of the last Psalm antiphon and the beginning of the next Psalm to allow us to internalize the meaning and, thus, enter more deeply into the experience of prayer. An intonation of the chime would be great at this point as a centering device. To me, the praying of the psalms feel just a bit rushed.
Thank you for your wonderful ministry.
Blessings,
Mike
Dane Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 22:19
Mike,
This is a great suggestion. I have felt there should be more time, but I was concerned it would be too much for others. The psalms are the foundation of this liturgy and I am trying to get them perfect.
I hate to get technical, but what would you say is an average number of seconds between psalms? Is there a different space of silence between psalms that are continuations of the same psalms verses a new psalm?
mikemullard Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 04:04
Hi Dane:
A general rule of thumb is that silences in the LOH as in any liturgical act should never be so long as to make one weary or uncomfortable, but long enough to deepen the experience.
That being said, there has been some variance in the length of silence between psalms in the different monastic houses with whom I’ve been associated over the years. Personally, I like enough time for the psalm to sink in to my heart while my mind remains in silence – an average of approx. 10 seconds. But, I would experiment with different timings and get the input of others on your crew as you pray the LOH yourself. Some people are more comfortable with silence than others, and so probably best to strike a happy medium.
One idea might be about 4-5 seconds of silence after the antiphon, then one chime tone, then 4-5 more seconds of silence.
I’ve also seen differences in periods of silence during continuation of the same psalm. But the groups I’ve been associated with have, in general, given somewhat less silence, so as to keep the continuity of the text intact.
BTW, I like the longer period of silence after the reading. This seems just the right length of time.
Thanks again and blessings in your ministry.
Mike
amis41 Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 23:50
Interesting comment. Yes our society is not used to silence but it is suggested that if priest, or ministers introduce the silent periods congregations will get used to them. For three years now a pattern has been set and easy to follow.
Preferably, I like the sound of the bell before silence as a queue to take a moment to reflect on the psalm (5 seconds, then apply my thoughts to it (5 seconds), with out the bell in between as a distraction. It may break up the thought thinking something else is happening, or the bell is delayed. Also to change all the recordings now would be a considerable time consuming effort.
A nice article “Quiet Please: The importance of silence in liturgy.” on this is found at :
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Quiet,+please:+the+importance+of+silence+in+the+liturgy-a0140711082
God bless the Divine Office team, and members for helping foster this ministry.
Pax et Bonum
Paul
mikemullard Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 00:14
Paul:
Great article. Loved the following sentence in re silence and the discomfort we seem to feel when we experience it: “It is a confrontation with our emptiness, self-deceptions, even self-image–those things we try so hard to hide under blankets of activity and sound. Silence involves a reorientation from doing to receiving. From silence emerges the most natural expression before the divine mystery: awe and speechlessness.”
Thanks for sharing the article.
May 18th, 2010 at 10:12
HI. Are there any plans on having The Divine Office in Latin and chanted as was done throughout the centuries?
Dane Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 12:00
We don’t have the resources to tackle that yet. It would be something we would like to do as our ministry “grows up”, but for now our focus is on making the Divine Office accessible and available to as many people in as many places as possible.
Dane Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 12:02
I should add that we have started creating the chants, but only for the English psalms.
May 18th, 2010 at 03:15
Dane why do all three apear online?
May 17th, 2010 at 02:02
Since I don’t pray Morning Prayer with you I have not seen the introductory comments before (“Today is the Solemnity of the Ascension….”) but I stumbled across it tonight and found it very interesting. There were several references to last week’s commentary and I tried to find that but had no luck. Putting the date in the address got me to the Invitatory and Morning Prayer for May 9, but I could not find the commentary. Is there a way to do that? Is there any problem (eg copyright) in copying the comments to share with my faith-sharing group?
May 14th, 2010 at 11:18
I cannot thank you enough for this great tool of prayer. I know that you all are making extraordinary efforts to have it ready on a daily basis. That takes a lot of your time. For that, I know that many of us are grateful.
Being a one Priest only in a parish in the desert of the Imperial Valley in CA, it’s wonderful to pray with all of you. I feel the sense of being Church praying together from many different places in this World.
I only have one suggestion. Please, pay attention to the Feasts and Solemnities. Most of them are there but like today, the Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle is not there. Rather it’s only the regular Easter Friday. I wanted to pray with you but I can’t because Feasts and Solemnities must be prayed.
That’s the only concern. Other than that, you guys are doing an amazing job.
May God bless you always.
Fr. Jose Luis Muro
Dane Reply:
May 14th, 2010 at 12:44
We did get today’s feast day published, but apparently too late for your needs. Sorry, but there are so many special days this week that we got behind.
May 13th, 2010 at 05:25
Once again, thank you for your ministry. This has become such a large part of my prayer day.
May I ask what happened to the invitation to add our own requests at the end of the Intercessions? If there is a way, please bring that back, as it reminded me to add my requests for my loved ones to the community of prayer.
God Bless you all.
May 13th, 2010 at 00:45
A glorious Ascension Day to you! … Just to note that the iPhone Divine Office for the Office of Readings today (Ascension Thursday) cut off at about the half way mark.
Also, I’ve long been meaning to express my gratitude for the lovely space you provide following the recitation Lord’s Prayer for those of us who use the ecumenical version (For Thine is the Kingdom …). Sorry to say that it is the absence of the space in Morning Prayer for a couple of days that has finally lead me to express my appreciation and, now, concern that the space has been cut (no doubt accidentally).
FrWalter Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 09:30
Evening Prayer tonight (Ascension Day) the space after the Lord’s Prayer (just long enough for the “For Thine is the Kingdom …) also missing. Is this intentional, I hope not. If so, may I plea for the return of the pause?
May 12th, 2010 at 21:25
Hello,
I lost my ipod shuffle recently that I used to use to listen and pray the office with you. I can’t afford a new ipod at this time and don’t have an i-phone. I was wondering if you could recommend an alternative device. Could you use an mp3 player with this application or do you have to have an ipod or i-phone? I tried an inexpensive mp3 player but could not figure out what to do. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike in Jax, Fla
Dane Reply:
May 12th, 2010 at 21:39
You are in luck. I have an extra iPod. I will send you a private email to get your address and it will be on its way.
May 12th, 2010 at 07:49
Sorry, I hit submit by mistake.
I also wanted to say that George Weigel writes on his death on Jan. 8, 2009 in ” An Honorable Christian Soldier” http://www.newsweek.com/id/178875:
“Father Richard John Neuhaus’s work will be remembered and debated for decades. As a Lutheran pastor, he was one of the first civil-rights activists to identify the pro-life cause with the moral truths for which he and others had marched in Selma; he set the terms of the contemporary American church-state debate and added a new phrase to our public vocabulary with his 1984 bestseller, “The Naked Public Square.” As a Catholic priest, he helped define new patterns of theological dialogue between Catholics and evangelicals, and between Christians and Jews. The journal he launched in the early 1990s, First Things, quickly became, under his leadership and inspiration, the most important vehicle for exploring the tangled web of religion and society in the English-speaking world. All of this suggests that Richard Neuhaus was, arguably, the most consequential public theologian in America since the days of Reinhold Niebuhr and John Courtney Murray, S.J.
He was also a marvelous human being, with the convictions of a true Christian disciple and the heart of a spiritually insightful pastor. In the retrospect of the death of my closest professional friend on Jan. 8, his living room—in which we prayed, argued, laughed and planned for more than 30 years—strikes me as a concise summary of the man.
May 12th, 2010 at 07:39
Dear Dane
Isn’t there anything you can do to remove today’s Chatter and Cheese segment from the Office of Readings for May 12. It pained me when I first heard it the first time it played during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit . It was equally painful today, just knowing that others are hearing John Richard Neuhaus surmised with such distain. Fr. Neuhaus had a dry wit and humor and great intellect. Our personalities don’t always suit all people but a man of Fr. Neuhaus’ quality and integrity shouldn’t be remembered in this way. He was Raymond Arroyo’s co-host for EWTN coverageof the event. Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Editor in Chief of FIRST THINGS — and one of the top 10 intellectuals in the U.S. according to the New York Times and George Weigel speaks t;, Editor in Chief of FIRST THINGS — and one of the top 10 intellectuals in the U.S. according to the New York Times;
May 11th, 2010 at 14:44
Hola!!! It is a blessing to have your applications, I have been enjoying it a lot, I specially love it more when Christ talks to me through it. Hasn’t happen to you? you are worried about something or doubting something, go to Divine Office to pray and either the bible verse, the psalm or the commentary, speaks exactly about what you are going throug. Well one of those times was last week, sadly I was too busy at work and didn’t have time to sign up on the web to save the commentary that I love. Is that any way I can find it, I’m not sure if it was May4 or 5, I just remember it was on the Office Readings. I will appreciated if you can let me know if there is a way to go back more than one day to look for it. “Gracias y que Dios siga bendiciendo su ministerio” thanks and make the Lord keep blessing your minestery
Dane Reply:
May 11th, 2010 at 18:18
Hola,
You can go to any date by entering it as part of the address. To go to May 4 you would put http://divineoffice.org/?date=20100504 in the address.
May 11th, 2010 at 05:17
Hello everyone, I’m an Anglican priest who very much appreciates all your company when praying. I own the three volume set of the Divine Office and am wondering if your excellent Ribbon Placement idea can be transfered and if so how? As you can tell, i’ve only recently begun using them
amis41 Reply:
May 12th, 2010 at 07:50
Welcome to the Divine Office Reverend. I am a layman and wish to simply greet you in Christ to pray along with us. Your website is very nice and your church is beautiful.
In answer to the ribbon placement, Dane will explain how he does his as he prays the Solemnities. I am sure it takes time to organize it.
I researched the web and could not find any place on the subject.
There is another source that does the Ordinary mostly and also uses a page numbering for all the prayers. Maybe you can get an idea from there. it is called Classical Liberal Arts Academy, email http://www.classicalliberalarts.com/LOTH
William Michael is the site producer. Between the two you may get an idea how to mark you books as you wanted. Even make your own page guide.
Again welcome to the Divine Office, you will be in our prayers as well.
Pax et Bonum
Paul
vicman Reply:
May 12th, 2010 at 08:47
Many thanks for your welcome Paul… I shall give your suggestion a try.
Yours,
Vince
amis41 Reply:
May 12th, 2010 at 21:32
You are most welcome. By the way the service is free and via email. You may try Danes set up and enter the basic readings, and the page numbers, and see if that helps. The only other option may be just purchasing the four volume set, which has all the readings. The Christian Prayer does not have the Office of Readings, and the daily shorter prayers.
Best wishes.
Peace and Goodness.
Paul
May 10th, 2010 at 20:39
God is great I am so blessed to find this site,
May 10th, 2010 at 20:21
Hello Badback catholic. How do you “tie to my alarm function of my iPod”?
May 9th, 2010 at 23:04
I would like this to be an app on my blackberry, but cannot find it. I do not have an IPhone and refuse to own one.
liss8rubio Reply:
May 11th, 2010 at 14:47
Please if that happens let me know too, a friend has a blackberry and loves my Divine Office applications, and of course just like FrKeyes doesn’t want to buy and IPhone just for it, he loves his blackberry, just Divine Office is missing on it.
Dane Reply:
May 11th, 2010 at 18:20
We will certainly let everyone know with each new platform we launch upon. Blackberry is coming, but it is right behind Android. This isn’t just economics, but rather it is the resources we can access first. Thanks for letting me know.
May 9th, 2010 at 19:18
I am sorry to hear of your loss. May the Good Lord grant you and your family some peace at this difficult time.
Cy Cote
Dane Reply:
May 9th, 2010 at 20:07
Thank you. We appreciate everyone’s prayers and God has comforted our family and we now find ourselves it peace.
May 9th, 2010 at 00:27
Profound compliments for your happy and joyful work for us all!
Praying was never more joyful and happy!
Though I am mother-tongue Italian and the divine office here in English spoken, I enjoy it fully
I have always liked English, so I really eat word’s God rejoicing within now. The 2 powers are together. My faith plus my root love for English.
Thanks to the voices who animate the readings. Both men & women really touch me deeply and raise me up in joy with Christ!
Pls go on praying the way you do, deep voices. I feel really in company with you within.
THANKS THANKS THANKS and LET’S REJOICE US ALL WITH THESE WONDERFUL PROGRAM!
May 5th, 2010 at 19:35
Dane, May God Bless and strengthen you in your sorrow.
Eternal rest grant unto Dane’s father-in-law, O Lord.
May he rest in peace.
May his soul and souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
May the love of God and the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ bless and console you and gently wipe away every tear from your eyes. Amen Alleluia
Dane Reply:
May 5th, 2010 at 21:45
Amen. And thank you.
May 5th, 2010 at 14:32
Loved the new “C&C” open mic addendum to last week’s (Saturday” morning prayer. It was the best bit of Catholic podcasting I had heard since your “Why I Remain Catholic.” Keep up these forays into truth and innovation.
Maybe you might want to have it as a separately listed/downloadable file, to ease the objections of some subscribers.
I find the Divine Office podcasts a great aid to my love of the prayer, and perserverance in praying as many of the hours each day as possible (by having them tied to my alarm function of my iPod).
Pax Christi.
Dane Reply:
May 5th, 2010 at 21:51
We did this about one year ago in response to requests to get to know us. It turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Sadly, we realized that some of our community wasn’t open to our sincerity and so we felt that if we couldn’t be real we shouldn’t do it. It might be a good idea to do it as a separate audio file and we may consider doing that. We really want to connect to everyone and solicit interaction. Your idea is a good one.
May 4th, 2010 at 21:39
Bessings and peace to your family, Dane. We are praying with you.
May 4th, 2010 at 11:13
May the grace of God be with you, Dane, and also with your family. I realize that this website may not be updated for a few days more due to the death of your father-in-law. I am new to the website so please excuse me for not scrolling down to the other comments before my original question regarding site maintenance. I am very grateful for the time that you already spend in maintaining this site, as it is very helpful. Thank you for being patient with me.
May 4th, 2010 at 10:59
Why is last week’s Liturgy of the Hours showing instead of this week? The invitory prayers, office of readings, morning, daytime, evening, and night prayers are all last week’s prayers. When will you update this website?
Dane Reply:
May 4th, 2010 at 11:48
As a result of the death of my father-in-law last week and his funeral with all our family and guests arriving I will not be able to get the prayer guide updated for this week. I will have it in place for next week. I apologize for this, but I have simply not had the time to produce the prayers and do the page guide.
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:45
Dane,
Is it possible to get the page guides out by Sunday? They are really useful to me, but as I am in Iraq, I usually don’t see them posted until Wed. my time. What do you think?
Tod
Dane Reply:
May 3rd, 2010 at 14:15
Hi Tod,
I may not be able to get that out very soon. My father-in-law died this past week and I have been fully engaged with his funeral and all the family and friends who arrived from everywhere to attend. I will get better at it in the future and I will try to get it done soon.
Jan Reply:
May 3rd, 2010 at 21:08
Dane
Our prayers are with you and your family. May they all travel safely.
RBushlow Reply:
May 5th, 2010 at 08:56
Tod,
I just wanted to say thank you for your service. Be safe. You are in our prayers. God Bless and be with you.
May 3rd, 2010 at 06:53
Dear Paddyspets,
I am a hospice/palliative care rn and I will pray for your family.
God Bless
carol
May 1st, 2010 at 03:10
Hi all, My dad made it home today to begin his Hospice care. Its hard for me switching gears from Palliative care to Hospice, but I know God is strengthening me and He is able.
I love having all the apps on my Iphone and this website on my laptop. When I was at the ICU so much, between Dads naps or visits with nurses, I found so much refreshment in prayer. And now that we are all home (mom is recovering from leg surgery, and has the beginning of Alzheimers); you can’t imagine what a blessing this is to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
April 25th, 2010 at 16:40
From: Jim C. Cunningham
Date: Apr. 25, 2010 Good Shepherd Sunday
RE: Thanks
To: Brs & Srs in Christ’s Heartbeat
I am a blind man with 3! transplants, 1.5 legs, and other health blessings. My juvenile diabetic complications were staved off till my latter 30s, after fathering 6 “gifts from the Lord” (Ps. 127), one of whom miscarried and the others homebirthed by my wife, Linda.
I am a revert, rediscovering Christ 36 years ago at about age 20, being “knocked off my horse by I Corinthians 13. Weeks later, when I went to a Mass and a Quaker meeting on the same Sunday, I was drawn to the Father through Christ (cf. John 6:44f). If I Corinthians 13 knocked me off my horse, the consecration and elevation of the Host shuttled me into outer space in 1973 and I wouldn’t even know how to get back down to the planet (i.e. “the world”) if I wanted to.
As a youth, I used to dabble in poetry (horrid!) until I happened upon the psalms, which expressed everything worth expressing so perfectly and beautifully that my own attempts at poetry fell away with no regrets. It was what Paul refers to as “Christ in me” (Galatians 2:20). Before, I had expressed myself and there were two things very deficient about this: apart from Christ, “I” was hardly worth expressing, and that woefully deficient “I” was doing the expressing, whereas with the psalms resonating in my being, the Word Incarnate assumed the job of expressing, and who knows more about “word” than the Word, and even the flesh of that Word, in which “the fullness of Deity dwells” (Colossians 1:19 & 2:9)?
Then I began to discover the Benedictines, beginning at St. Anselm’s Abbey in Manchester, NH. My naiveté was surprised to find that, not only did those guys also know the value of the psalms and of praying them all the time, sanctifying time, but saints and seekers of sanctity had been singing those praises, gratitudes, imprecations and pleas for mercy even long before the Word, in obedience to his Father, found in Mary the perfect “outfit” for his visitation to us children of Eve, viz. that very flesh elevated above the altar than whom no Quaker private inspiration can hold even a thin taper.
From that moment on, I have been addicted to the Divine Office, at first using the Benedictine apportionment of psalms such that all 150 are prayed weekly rather than monthly.
In 1976, atop Mt. Carmel, in the very 13th century ruins of the chapel of Our Lady, Stella Maris built by those first hermits like Sts. Brocard and Berthold, I prayed beneath the stars for many things, among them my vocation in life. Shortly after returning to the USA, I met that vocation at a Bible study at a Polish parish in Massachusetts. Her name was/is Linda.
She was instantly sucked into the updraft of that Liturgy of the Hours, joining me daily in chanting it in English and Latin. 33.5 years later, we are still hard at it.
Along with “the great sacrament” (Ephesians 5:32) of our marriage, understood most fully in terms of John Paul II’s theology of the body, where our union in one flesh effectively communicates no less than Christ to each other, the Divine Office is that same Christ in us, enraptured by his Father’s excellence and beauty, giving back to him his all, which is “all in all” (Colossians 3:11).The mutual self-giving of our ”great sacrament” is caught up in an infinitely higher mutual self-giving which is the dynamism of the Blessed Trinity himself.
When I read the documents of Vatican II early on in my reversion, I found them to be poetry also. In them (can’t find the reference now—do you know it?) the laity are encouraged to exercise their lay priesthood by praying the Divine Office. Formerly, it had been considered by many such as my Irish Catholic grandmother, practically sacrilege for a layman to even read the Bible on his own, let alone dare to touch a breviary. And when I asked my Augustinian friend what those books were that he had bought while with me at a Carmelite bookshop (they were the volumes of Christian Prayer), he turned to me from his coffee and doughnut and said, “Oh, just something we priests have to do,” as if I were not practically drooling to take a peek into those mysterious books!
I have long lamented the effectual exclusion of laity from the Divine Office. I have even written to EWTN to urge them to include at least some of the Office in their broadcasts. They broadcast other devotions, but the only Liturgical prayer is Mass. There is no competition between Mass and Office, between the Liturgy of the Eucharist and of the Hours. Like many other things in Catholicism, it is a both/and proposition and not an either/or one.
Then, in my rural northern Green Mountains of Vermont I managed to graduate from my dial-up internet account to the 21st century wireless world, and enter your wonderful ministry.
Until I discovered you, whenever Linda was unable to pray the Office with me, I had to content myself with a textual scan of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, scanned into my talking PC. Repetition is all well and good, but to tell you the truth, I did get a bit tired of reading either St. Aelred or Lumen Gentium every single day for my second reading at Vigils (Office of Readings).
Both Linda and I are techno-phobes. It took me a whole year to figure out how to print a document from my PC—“Control + P”! It is really all very simple (at the user’s end, that is), yet I usually feel like the Ethiopian eunuch (well, in some ways) when he complained about having no one to teach him (cf. Acts 8:31). I only recently figured out how to download your MP33 files, having finally found a player that is friendly to my blind screenreader (BTW, it’s Winamp). your own player built into your website is not blind-friendly. I can click on “Hide player” and then “Play Now,” but if I need to respond to what St. Pachomius called “the necessities of nature” which sometimes occasioned is cenobites to excuse themselves from their chanting of the Office (all memorized back in those good ole days), I cannot click the pause button like sighted users can do. My screenreader cannot find it. If you are interested in learning how to make your website blind-friendly, you might want to contact Freedom Scientific who produces the Jaws 11 screenreader I use. Their URL is:
http://www.freedomscientific.com/
But my secretary managed, after 2.5 hours, to show me how I can right click on the icon for podpress and then follow the download prompts, find it on my hard drive and when I open it, my Winamp player automatically plays it and, unlike Windows Media Player, I can control the play about as well as a sighted person, even pausing to “see that man about a horse,” as my wife’s people used to say.
Under separate cover, via snail mail, I am sending a modest donation.
Your work is very important. I trust you already understand that numbers are not as important as the world would have us believe. You are providing a mechanism allowing hearts like mine to unite with the Sacred Heart in giving God the glory that is his due, or at least some of it. This is what eternity consists of, and you are already helping to make it happen. Keep it up!
In the Spirit who prays in us and for us because we are such basket-cases at it (cf. Romans 8:26),
Jim C. Cunningham
Foothills of Jay Peak, Vermont
P.S. You may publish any or all of this on the internet as you please.
Dane Reply:
April 25th, 2010 at 16:58
Jim, You touched my heart with your story. I will share it with our ministry team. By making this post you have donated and by praying with us your contribution is already invaluable. Don’t send us money, you have done so much already.
In humility,
Dane
Jan Reply:
April 25th, 2010 at 21:14
To Jim C. Cunningham
What a beautiful story. You hinted at some things I never heard before – like, you mean lay people weren’t SUPPOSED to pray the Liturgy of the Hours prior to Vatican II?!!!? One more for the (short) list of reasons to be glad I live in this particular time. I loved your description on yourself as a “revert!” Never heard that term before although I understood it immediately. Me too, I guess, although I never formally un-verted – just became one of those lukewarm types the Lord is so fond of. Thank you for being willing to put yourself out there as a witness!
amis41 Reply:
April 27th, 2010 at 00:31
Peace be to you, Jim,
I am sure you have heard about the Church’s teaching and by St. Paul “I live in Christ, and Christ lives in me.”
You are a wonderful example of St. Paul, and from your sharing, one can easily tell, that “Christ lives in you.” Keep up the faith, and joyful spirits. We will include you in our intercessory prayers. Thanks for sharing your story.
Peace and goodness always,
Paul – Amis41
April 25th, 2010 at 15:51
Thank you for putting the effort into endeavors such as this, especially with tools such as the iPhone/iPod Touch. We need a lot more prayer in our lives. Personally as I become more familiar with this prayer I hope to practice it more and include it daily. Thank you again and God bless you and your efforts.
April 25th, 2010 at 13:37
I just want to say that I will glady support the Divineoffice website. I will ask my son to help me set up a paypal account. You have been a huge blessing to me—
May God continue to bless you.
Dane Reply:
April 25th, 2010 at 15:17
Thank you for supporting us, when you can, with donations, but the best thing you can do for us is pray with us, for us, and tell others about us. God bless!
April 24th, 2010 at 21:26
Could not open Evening Prayer for April 24. Got a message saying “Error Opening File” even after shutting down and trying again. I wanted to hear the hymn – it looked really nice – so I went to the website you gave but the closest I got was something really weird. Googled Josh Blakesley and got it at spiritandsong.com. Naaaah.
Dane Reply:
April 25th, 2010 at 15:16
Jan, we fixed the error with Evening Prayer. Our audio file hosting provider is moving us to a new service and things are moving around. If it happens again please let us know. Thank you!
Jan Reply:
April 25th, 2010 at 20:31
I am about to go to Evening Prayer for April 25. If you don’t hear back it went well. I’m usually here for Evening and Night Prayer.
Thanks a bunch!
Jan
April 23rd, 2010 at 23:35
Hello
Strange to note that the Office of Readings for April 23 & 24 are identical except for the readings (same hymn, “Faith of our Fathers” same Psalms (2 … etc)
Can that be intentional?
Otherwise, I continue to appreciate this ministry very much.
Dane Reply:
April 24th, 2010 at 08:35
Yes, this is correct. These are both optional memorials for Martyrs so there is only a difference in the second reading, response, and concluding prayer. Most of the content comes from the Common of One Martyr for Easter.
April 22nd, 2010 at 06:05
Good Morning All,
I was just wondering why the open mic dialogue after the Office of Readings this morning. I found it took away from the prayer.
Just a note: Revelation actually has an opening blessing for those that “read” and listen to the message: ” Blessed is the one who reads aloud and blessed are those who listen to this prophetic message and heed what is written in it, for the appointed time is near.” Just my thoughts.
Jo
April 21st, 2010 at 14:43
4/21: I am not able to see the two readings for the Office of Readings. Will they not be online anymore?
Dane Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 10:06
This year we are adding new feast days as get near. You will often see the audio posted first and within a day to just a few hours before it is time to pray that hour you will see the full text get completed.
We are working to get everything complete and will continue to add the Office of Readings audio and full text.
April 21st, 2010 at 05:36
My ears and my eyes do not match many times. Confusing… Please help. Thank you for your ministry. God Bless, Susanna
April 21st, 2010 at 03:28
just found the Office of the Readings.. God bless!
April 21st, 2010 at 03:26
helloe! I thank God for inspiring you to create this site. Thank you very much for creating the mp3s. It’s very helpful for us who want to pray the Liturgy of the Hours while on the road. I’ll be waiting for the Office of the Readings! I hope I can make a donation but I don’t have a PayPal account and I am just a student and not earning. Maybe someday God will show me the way how can I help you guys! God bless!
April 19th, 2010 at 05:13
Night Prayer April 18. The Gospel Canticle is not there but its antiphon is repeated an extra time (or two?)
April 18th, 2010 at 20:15
God bless your work I truely find this refreshing
and satisfying to my ears and heart please continue
this beautiful work. May the peace of our Lord be with you…
April 14th, 2010 at 06:04
Hello,
I just listened to the Apr 13 podcast entitled “Help! iPod Drawing?”. I’d be only too happy to help, but, since I don’t own an iPod (I listen to the podcast on a Zune HD), I am looking for a link where I can download the $0 iPhone app. Can someone show me how to do this so I can leave a five-star review?
God bless,
Jeff Ferguson
Dane Reply:
April 15th, 2010 at 22:24
Jeff,
I really appreciate your offer to help. Many others stepped in and we had around 100 five-star ratings and 70 or so written reviews. Many good people came to our aide so now we can all relax, but I do thank you for wanting to help and in the not too distant future we may have the need again.
Thank you!
February 13th, 2010 at 16:56
What a surprise and a pleasure to have the Office of Readings for Our Lady of Lourdes!
Dane Reply:
February 13th, 2010 at 17:15
Yes, we are actually trying to get ALL feasts and memorials done, but no promises…yet.
February 13th, 2010 at 12:35
I’d like to support the development of a divine office app for windows mobile, and blackberry. If someone could contact me about the costs involved, I’d be more than happy to get it rolling.
Rev.Fr. James O Schulz+
DeaconDaveCedrone Reply:
April 15th, 2010 at 19:20
Fr. Schulz:
What I’ve done from a Blackberry standpoint is to download the MP3 version to my C:\ drive then use either Bluetooth or the Blackberry Desktop Manager to transfer the file to my B/B.
Dcn. Dave Cedrone
Dane Reply:
April 15th, 2010 at 22:26
Dear Dcn. Dave,
Thank you for helping out with this question. There are so many people who ask about it and I never know what to say. One of these days I will need to write up a good FAQ section to handle questions and answers, but until that time I want to express my thanks.
February 10th, 2010 at 10:01
Hi Dane!
I was very pleased with using the date in the address as you suggested. However, having reached the third week of Lent, I have discovered many errors. The pages will not open at all, the audio files I mean.
Thanks again for all your help and all you do to make this ministry available to all!!
Dane Reply:
February 10th, 2010 at 13:17
This is because we moved our audio files to a much faster hosting service, Amazon S3, and I need to update the links to those audio files. I make sure to update them at least one week ahead of their scheduled time, but I will try to get to it sooner. Thanks!
February 10th, 2010 at 02:24
Welcome to the Saint Blogs Parish, A global Catholic online community. May you find this website a way to enjoy praying the prayer of the Church, the Liturgy of Hours. Please let others know about it, so that together, our voices give praise, and glory to our Lord. Peace and goodness be with you always.
February 6th, 2010 at 21:41
I have a palm-any chance a palm app is in the works?
Dane Reply:
February 7th, 2010 at 19:38
Sorry, but we don’t have a palm app planned. These apps cost us significant money to produce so we can only do it if we feel it can pay for itself.
February 6th, 2010 at 21:39
I’m trying to get used to the form; it seems to change from day to day, when the antiphon is repeated after each strophe or until the end. But this site has been a terrific find for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this tremendous ministry & undertaking.
Dane Reply:
February 7th, 2010 at 19:36
Both of the formats are valid, but the antiphons between strophes are in less common practice. You are experiencing different formats because we are in transition as we replace all content with no antiphons between strophes, but this process takes time.
January 25th, 2010 at 21:57
To get the free Weekly Guide to the Liturgy of Hours, simply go to the CLAA’s Weekly Guide to the LOTH, and sign up free, for an email that will be sent to your computer weekly. Enter your email address in the box and complete the sign up. You can select either the 4Vol Version or the Christian Prayer version from the email you receive by simply by clicking on the title. Prayers are listed by page number. It is very simple. Ribbon placement can be set up before you begin your prayers from the list. Print the pages separately so they are both facing the same direction on each side of the page. Enjoy.
January 25th, 2010 at 06:47
What happened to the notes about ribbon placement for LOTH and Christian Prayer??
January 23rd, 2010 at 18:53
CLAA Weekly Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours is now available in both versions. See the BLOGROLL Links.
Weekly Guide to Christian Prayer JANUARY 24-30, 2010
Weekly Guide to 4 Volume LOTH JANUARY 24-30, 2010
To print your weekly guide to the Liturgy of the Hours, select the correct version. The guide should be printed in color on two sides. Fold the guide in half and tuck it into your prayer book. Enjoy!
A Special Thanks to William & Dania Michael
Classical Liberal Arts Academy /LOTH
(Pray for all the people of Haiti and those who help them.)
January 23rd, 2010 at 08:39
What a blessing your service is to the Church! I love your current format since it maps so well to the format being taught to all currently in formation in our Diocses.
Your faithfulness is an encouragement to all of us preparing for a greater service to the Church.
January 23rd, 2010 at 03:10
Thank you! Your wonderful site is helping me to properly make use of Christian Prayer. God bless you all, abundantly.
January 20th, 2010 at 08:15
I just want to say THANK YOU for the work that you are doing!!! I found your site about a year ago and have been following the Liturgy with you since then almost daily. Not being Catholic, I had no idea of the Liturgy of the Hours, but I have come to truly appreciate these time honored prayers. I now have the books to follow along and have found them to be a blessing. The iphone app is great also!! May God bless you in this work!!
January 16th, 2010 at 23:36
Welcome to potential Knights of Columbus members. Please join us in this wonderful prayer of the Church. The world needs our unceasing prayers. God bless.
January 15th, 2010 at 11:47
Thank you! Just posted some praise over at http://lifeofless.com/?p=87
January 13th, 2010 at 05:00
Good Morning!!
I just wanted to thank you for your info on using the date in your address, works great!!
Thank you again for this beautiful ministry!!
January 12th, 2010 at 05:29
Thank-you, thank-you, THANK-YOU!!
January 11th, 2010 at 21:33
I noticed you did nnot have the pages listed.
Today Monday, January 11th we Begin Volume III
All from Monday Week I, Page 702,
Office of Reading Mon, 1st Week of Ordinary time Page 53
Night Prayer Monday, page 1275I have an extra ordo if you would like it.
Blessings & Prayers
January 8th, 2010 at 11:02
You can access any date by simply adding /?date=YYYYMMDD to our web site address. Eg. http://divineoffice.org/?date=20100109.
January 8th, 2010 at 09:44
Enjoy using the application whilst traveling – will the audio sections soon return for all the hours? I recently purchased the application for my iphone and found it very good . . . but I bought it for the audio feature. God bless your work. Ora et Labora
Dane Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 11:18
We had a small bug on our system that missscheduled some of the audio files. That should be working again.
The content that you can expect to see is as follows:
Invitatory Psalm – audio and full-text
Office of Readings – audio on solemnities and full-text
Morning Prayer – audio with some days full-text
Midday Prayer – text only
Evening Prayer – audio with full-text
Night Prayer – audio with text outline
We are working hard to have Office of Readings in audio form for Ordinary Time, but can’t promise it yet.
We are also reworking much of our Morning Prayers to bring them more inline with our new format.
This is a lot of work and we are doing our best, but the one thing you can be assured of is that there will be more and more and better and better all the time.
Thanks for joining us in prayer!
January 6th, 2010 at 21:53
Thank you for producing Divine Office. I use it each day on my iPhone. I particularly like the application which allows us to see dots where others are praying. I truly makes me feel a part of the great community praying in other parts of our world.
January 4th, 2010 at 13:49
Correction: Website for LOH page guide for 4 Volume Set is:
http://www.classicalliberalarts.com/loth/index.htm
Thank you.
January 4th, 2010 at 09:05
Happy New Year Dane and everybody. My wife and I enjoy starting our day with morning prayer.
The past couple days the full text of morning Prayer has the Canticle of Mary instead of the Canticle of Zechariah. The audio file is fine. Probably just a cut and paste error in the template.
Dane Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 09:13
Opps! We will get that fixed.
January 4th, 2010 at 00:29
Those who use the 4 volume LOH set, a reminder. A free email website that has pdf sheet with a week’s worth of Liturgy of Hours, by page numbers for each item. It is a printable two sided sheet that fits right into the book. It is free, or a charitable donation can be made. It is very useful.
wmichael@classicalliberalarts.com
Peace and goodness always.
dholley Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 09:13
Can you please provide me with the free email website address for the 4 volume LOH set. Thank you.
Dane Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 09:15
I will add a link on our site, but you can subscribe to the free email on their site at http://www.classicalliberalarts.com/ or you can send an email to wmichael@classicalliberalarts.com and ask to subscribe.
armchairmystic Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 19:18
thanks, I just signed up.
January 3rd, 2010 at 23:04
Could there be a Palm WebOS application?
Also, could there be a way to include the Roman Calendar on the site? So that if for 1/4/10 one wanted to pray the office in the name of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and not simply the office of the 2nd Week of Christmas?
January 2nd, 2010 at 12:34
Thanks so much for adding the ribbon placement information on the podcast. I just received the 4 volume set and I was a lttle lost at first. I was used to the Christian Prayer single volume set.
Thanks again,
Larry A. Franz
December 30th, 2009 at 12:10
Any chance that we can access this Divine Office via a Blackberry phone?
Dane Reply:
January 1st, 2010 at 15:48
There was some discussion about using a Blackberry in the feedback area of our site so you may want to see if anything has developed.
What may work is for you to use a podcast client. There are many good ones. Then subscribe directly to our podcast feed.
December 30th, 2009 at 05:21
Good Morning!
I have a few questions, please. Why are some of the links not working, it says play but nothing happens? And also, how come there is only night prayer?
Dane Reply:
January 1st, 2010 at 15:51
If you find a link that does not work then please let us know, but if you are referring to the tabs on our site then they work, but there is not always content. You will see in the feedback area that we discuss the content delivery.
During the Christmas season we are a little less complete then we would like because of conflicts with our own families and Christmas events, but we are working hard to keep on the minimum, which is Morning and Evening Prayer.
December 21st, 2009 at 14:58
Hi Folks-
I see that you have ITunes Podcasts. Is it possible to have this set up with the Zune site.
http://social.zune.net/podcasts/
I use a Zune and wish to subscribe to the Podcast but do not wish to install Itunes.
Dave
Dane Reply:
December 21st, 2009 at 20:29
I just added our feed to Zune. Try searching for Divine Office and when you find it, please leave us a positive review to help others find us on the Zune. Happy Advent and Christmas!
December 19th, 2009 at 20:39
God Bless all of you who bring this treasure online. God will reward you immensily.
Merry Xmas and a Happy 2010 filled with praises to God. Our prayers will bring God back to the center of peoples lives.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:28
HI everyone,
I notice that itunes is missing parts of the daily office
in recent times. If you could fix that I (and others)
would really appreciate it.
Peace to all who work behind the scenes this Christmas
and 2010.
Dane Reply:
December 19th, 2009 at 11:07
During the Dec17-23 period of Advent it is different each year and we had to replace the content so I am feverishly working to get it all completed and posted.
December 14th, 2009 at 15:05
I have tried to teach myself the Divine Office and it has been so difficult for me. I found the Divine Office on ITunes and now I listen to it on my iPod. Thank you for doing this and now I can listen to the hours on the hours that everybody is praying. God Bless all of you. Please have a very Blessed Christmas and a Wonderful New Year in the Name Of Our Lord.
December 13th, 2009 at 13:55
Those who use the 4 volume LOH set, a reminder. A free email website that has a week’s worth of Liturgy of Hours, by page numbers.
wmichael@classicalliberalarts.com
Simply sign up for the email, and you will find every prayer, by page number, easily. Peace and Goodness always. It is a printable two sided sheet that fits right into the book.
To simply get the latest issue, go to this website:
http://www.classicalliberalarts.com/LOTH
Click on “Print this Week’s Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours”
Peace and goodness always.
December 11th, 2009 at 23:35
This is a perfect service for people like myself who are learning the LOTH but don’t readily have a local community at hand. This has been instructive and inspiring. I can’t thank you enough.
December 11th, 2009 at 22:16
Thanks a bunch for this site and the podcasts. I was hoping to find out the artist/album for the Veni, Veni, Emmanuel used for Thursday evening prayer on Dec 10. Thanks again!
December 11th, 2009 at 08:18
Dane what am I missing the office of readings does not seem to match. ?
December 10th, 2009 at 03:54
Thank you for this wonderful site.
Is there a place I can read/print the versions of the Canticles you use? The translations of the Canticles I learned are a bit different, so if the text isn’t printed, I fumble through the words. (We don’t own the Liturgy of the Hours, unfortunately.)
Thanks again for a great site!!!!! God bless you and your ministry.
Dane Reply:
December 11th, 2009 at 14:00
Yes, we have the words printed on our site. Go to the upper right navigation and select “Liturgy of the Hours”. You will see a link on the right hand side to content that many people don’t see and two of the links are these canticles.
December 8th, 2009 at 08:24
Thank you for this site. My husband and I both have it on our i-pods. I am delighted with the Office of Readings – it is my favorite office, and one I rarely have time to do at home.
Thank you.
December 7th, 2009 at 13:08
This morning, Monday, Dec. 7, I could not play Morning Prayer– “error during loading”. I hope this was a temporary glitch and did not affect other site users. Just wanted to let you know. I missed my Morning Prayer with the community! Theresa
Dane Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 17:10
That might have been my fault. I didn’t realize we didn’t have Morning Prayer for today until early this morning and so I put one together and posted it. You probably started it just as I posted. I hope others were not affected.
I am guessing that December 8 was on this Monday last year so we had the Solemnity of the Immaculate conception in place of the normal Morning Prayer.
I think all is working fine now. Sorry to have missed you this morning.
December 6th, 2009 at 18:40
Thankyou this office makesmy Lectio Divina musc easer. I am able to contenplate much easer
December 6th, 2009 at 10:43
Thank you for this site. I feel so close to my fellow Church members when reciting the Divine Office. I am home bound for the majority of time and don’t often get to go out and experience the fellowship I feel here. I so enjoy the audio along with the reading.
December 3rd, 2009 at 17:24
I would also like to say that I appreciate the ‘emotion’ and excellent phrasing in the readings. It makes it much easier for me to understand the meaning of the psalms and it makes the prayer more of an emotional connection with God (which I think is a GOOD thing).
Dane, et. al., please keep doing what you are doing. I know you strive to be liturgically correct while creating an uplifting prayer time. You never set out to compete with monks/nuns chanting in choir! I think you provide a wonderful and musical alternative to praying the hours alone. You will never be able to please everyone who visits so please don’t worry about trying to.
For those who don’t like the background music or the inflection of the readings here at Divine Office may I suggest that you might find Pray Station Portable more to your liking.
Dane Reply:
December 3rd, 2009 at 18:36
Thank you for expressing your preference.
December 2nd, 2009 at 07:44
I like the vocal inflections in readings (i.e. emotions), especially in the psalms. For me, the words become more meaningful, and easier to ponder for my own present life.
Dane Reply:
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:59
I agree. I find the words easier to ponder as well. Thanks.
November 30th, 2009 at 20:17
Concerning the Antiphons – The General Instruction of the LOH says in #112 “each psalm retains its own antiphon, which is to be said even in private recitation. The antiphons help to bring out the character of the psalm, the highlight the sentence which may otherwise not attract attention it deserves; they suggest an individuality quality in a psalm, varying with different contexts; …they are of great value in helping toward an understanding of the topological meaning, or the meaning appropriate to the feast; they can also add pleasure and variety to the recitation of the psalms.” Page 60-61 Vol 1.
To eliminate them for the convenience of distraction misses the point of their purpose. I humbly encourage to leave them in, with the option to omit them on some occasion, but allow the Liturgy of Hours to be what it was created to be. How can their individual character and flavor be a distraction except to save time? God bless you in you wonderful work. Do not undo what you have already created. Thank you.
Dane Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 23:16
Nicely stated and you reflect our own humble understanding and intent. Thank you.
amis41 Reply:
December 6th, 2009 at 21:08
Thank you, Dane, it was an interesting topic. I will learn from it and continue in prayer. May the Divine Office site be blessed and continue to develop and grow.
May we, in a united prayer, give praise to Our Lord this Advent Season, for his coming. He is with us as we all pray the LOH together. God bless, and Peace and Goodness be with everyone. Amen.
November 30th, 2009 at 19:59
New to visiting the site. Love the idea and the concept. Listened to several prayers. If I could make one suggestion for your consideration. The only thing I am struggling with in listening is the common responses. Everything else is great. What I think it is for me is that the common responses are so distinct for each person responding. I am used to and enjoy the common responses in church where it is a common group response and the individual voices are lost in the common chantlike response. Maybe recording the voices away from the microphone would help bring that chant like sound we experience in church. Just a thought.
Dane Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 23:14
Hi kinsed05, we are starting to add full text so there will be very little that will be missed by not knowing the common responses. With that said, the best way to learn is to simply do and you will soon know the common responses by osmosis.
I know what you mean by hearing the common responses. We have tried so many things to alleviate this effect, but the best we have found is to simply reduce the number of “community” voices to two people. This gives you the queue that it is a response by the community, but it has less force so as to not be jarring or overwhelming.
Also, keep in mind that some content was created a year or two ago and we bring it back around each year so even though people are praying in the here and now, our voices were recorded a long time ago and before we understood the best ways, which we are still struggling with, to do things.
Thanks for praying with us!
November 30th, 2009 at 19:32
Just a fast THANK YOU for this great service. I don’t always log in but since I have found you I have prayed with you for at least one of the hours every day – it is a big help to my prayer.
I just want to thank you for the EVEN TONE – lack of emotional reading – in todays Office (Evening – Mon Wk I). From daily celebrations of the Eucharist with big groups I found I have to hide and let each participant put their own spin on the WORD or words. I can’t tell them how they should feel – even if often I wished they were as excited as I was about the word I heard.
Kep up the good work – you and your ministry are in my thoughts daily at the Eucharist
marty
November 29th, 2009 at 12:03
I think this is absolutely beautiful! I tell everyone about it. One suggestion… you might not want to make the psalms so affected when read. God speaks to us in different ways through the Liturgy of the hours. Although it is poetic in nature to some degree, the expressive tone can be distractive from what the Lord is doing. It should be read at a normal speaking pace. After all, it is human expression of praise.
November 28th, 2009 at 15:04
Hello,
I am very happy doing the the ‘Liturgy of the hours’ through your site!!! I also have an ipod touch, & basically bought it , to access the prayers on the run. I’m a busy mother of 6 children, & prayer is very important.
Thank you, God bless
Dane Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 23:18
You are exactly who we did this for. We always wanted to involve those people with busy lives into a life of prayer. We love our contemplatives and all who have already placed God at the center of their lives, but it is people like you, which I am, that we targeted in the first place. So welcome and God bless you mother of 6!
November 26th, 2009 at 09:52
I wanted to support Theresa’s comment of November 25th,2009 at 22:38.
I used to be a Benedictine monk. PLEASE stop repeating the antiphon after each strophe. The operative word in her comment is “distracting”. We are alone when we pray The Office so the rule is ” In individual recitation the antiphon may be said ONLY at the beginning of the psalm; it need not be repeated AFTER EACH STROPHE.” PLEASE!
God bless you,
Steve
Dane Reply:
November 27th, 2009 at 12:08
Hi Steve,
I responded to Theresa’s comments if you want more detail, but you should know that we haven’t placed antiphons between strophes for over a year, yet we don’t have time to replace them and since they are liturgically correct we will continue to make them available. Hopefully we will have opportunity to go back and make everything similar to what we are doing now because I think our recent work is beginning to reach a level of maturity we lacked when we began. We were not incorrect, but now we are getting better all the time.
May God bless you also,
Dane
November 25th, 2009 at 22:38
I’ve been praying with you for a couple of weeks now, and I think you rate 5 star, but in today’s evening prayer, the repetition of the antiphon repeated after each verse of the psalm is distracting. It breaks up the continuity of the psalm, and for those of us following our own text, or the text provided on the website, we find our eyes jumping around to locate where we left off. I would much prefer the antiphone before and after the doxology. I used to pray the office when I was in the convent (many many years ago!) and we used the antiphons to begin and end each psalm. Much smoother and less distracting. Thanks so much! Theresa
Dane Reply:
November 27th, 2009 at 12:02
We are no longer reciting the psalms between the strophes of psalms. We originally did it this way for reasons we have discussed at length in the past and in our discussions with liturgists the antiphons between strophes are more correct for this medium, but not required. Over a year ago there were so many requests that we not place antiphons between strophes that we stopped doing it. However, these older Hours remain correct and we wont be able to remove them until we have the time to replace them.
Everything we have created within the last year and everything we produce going forward will only have the antiphons according to common practice, which is as you have suggested.
Thank you
November 25th, 2009 at 07:46
I MISS THE PAGE NUMBERS AT “BEGINNING”, SO I CAN FOLLOW ALONG IN MY BRIEVIARY WITH PRAYERS…PLEASE? MRS. C.
amis41 Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 00:36
A free email website that has a weeks worth of Liturgy of Hours, by page numbers for the full version of the LOH.
wmichael@classicalliberalarts.com
Simply sign up for the email, and you will find every prayer, by page number, easily. Peace and Goodness always. It is a printable two sided sheet that fits right into the book.
Peace and goodness always.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:17
Welcome, to those, who join the Liturgy of Hours, from New Zealand, and from Rev.Bosco Peter’s website. We pray together to bring the good news of Jesus to the world. Glad to have you with all of us to take part in the beautiful Divine Office website.
It has helped me understand and learn this important form of prayer. Peace and goodness to all.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:49
Your site is truly a blessing. For those of you who love Gregorian Chant and would like to listen to many classics of the Church, I suggest that you go to youtube.com, and search for GREGORIAN CHANT. There are many sites, hymns, and liturgical canticles with natural pictures. Some of the Eastern orthodox sites are filled with the beatiful icons of Christ, Mary, and the saints. Look for Hildegard von Bingen. This music is so contemplative, and will bless your spirit. Theresa
November 15th, 2009 at 01:32
Dear Mike, i am happy that your here in this group. Do not thank me,thank God for using people as an instrument to spread the mission,a mission to pray and spread the good news to all.
Robinson
November 13th, 2009 at 08:38
once again, you are blessed. thank you for this site.
November 12th, 2009 at 18:04
I’m seeing a problem with the iphone app where a reference is given in the Evening Prayer screen to use Vol III of the Liturgy of the Hours where clearly the reference should be to Vol IV
Dane Reply:
November 15th, 2009 at 10:16
Most of the prayers are found in multiple volumes so the references are not wrong, but just incomplete. We are working on adding the full references for all volumes and should have them before we return to Ordinary Time after Christmas. Thank you for letting us know.
November 12th, 2009 at 13:21
From our group of Singles For Christ, we thank you for Robinson in posting the Divine Ministry website to his friendster.It really helps a lot and we pray that more people will join in prayer.God Bless
November 11th, 2009 at 06:25
Whoops! my mistake. I’m not to bright, but I have now been able to complete my transaction. Takes me a little while.
Please forgive me.
Mahree
November 11th, 2009 at 05:59
Hi, we are a group of Single’s For Christ and i am happy that someone posted your site on friendster.Now i can gather some of the members of the group to pray the Liturgy of the Hours,Morning,Day and Night if possible.Thanks to the Ministry of Divine Office, we are happy to join with your group.And more power and blessing.
Dane Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 21:18
I am very grateful to have you and yours joining in prayer with us and you are a witness to one of the best ways to help our community of pray grow even larger so please continue helping our mission by posting and mentioning and getting the word out about our ministry.
Again, welcome welcome!
November 11th, 2009 at 04:14
I’m not sure if your PayPal is working correctly. I did just make a donation to a different website using paypal and it went through fine.
November 10th, 2009 at 08:28
Been joining the Poor Clare Nuns here in my place.They have Public Adoration and daily chanting the Divine Office.Its wonderful and beautiful and i cant explain the joy here in my heart chanting the Divine Office and most specially the Canticle of Mary. Beautiful.
Robinson
November 10th, 2009 at 08:25
Hello to all, i am happy that some are already joining this group. Its an honor for me to be of service to the Divine Office Ministry by promoting and posting the community website to different sites like catholic site.Hope and pray that i can bring more to this site and pray more and more each day.
Pray for more vocations.
Robinson
November 9th, 2009 at 21:13
There is definitely a reason why the Church has cherished chant and is trying to bring it back. It truly brings ones heart and soul into the prayer.
Once a year I have the privilege of being on silent retreat with the Jesuits living in community with them and praying the Offices. The Chapel is a stone structure and the chanting with the echoes is wonderful.
November 9th, 2009 at 20:25
JMJ+ What a wonderful site that refered to me by someone who always share his vocation on the catholic chatroom.I will pray for you and its amazing to have a prayer group promoting in praying the Divine Office.
November 9th, 2009 at 00:49
I love praying and chanting the Canticle of Mary.I used to chant when i am in the seminary before and even now.Thanks to the Divine Ministry prayer group and to Robinson who refer me here.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:55
I agree with Deacon Ken about how prayerful the chanted Mary’s Canticle in Saturday’s Evening Prayer is. I’ve had the privilege on occasion to attend a Mass at St. John’s Seminary where the seminarians chant prayers and hymns. I’ve attended countless Masses over the years, but it is those in particular which stand out in my memory.
November 8th, 2009 at 08:01
Hi Dane,
Our Lady’s Canticle last night (32nd Sun, EP1) was beautiful. Canticles are chanted songs or hymns and when they are chanted they are truly prayer. For me least, it is much more prayerful than listening to even great solo or choral performances of the canticles and psalms. The Hours are meant to be simple. The monks would be rpoud of you.
Blessings and prayers to all
Ken
Dane Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 10:52
Hi Deacon Ken,
I am actually learning a lot as this ministry evolves and first and foremost I am learning that the beautify of the Liturgy of the Hours stands on its own and keeping it in its simplest form is indeed what was intended and most perfect.
I do wish we had voices to chant the psalms; eventually we will have someone in our ministry that can do that.
November 2nd, 2009 at 07:04
Thank you for the Morning Prayer and the beautiful readings and prayers for today, All Souls day. The format and inspirational voices of the readers did lead to more prayerful meditations for me.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:53
Thank you so much for the beautiful prayers on this Feast Day of All Saints. We truly entered into prayer today. What a pleasant surprise to hear the Hymn (today’s Gospel – the Beatitudes) All of you were so prayerful and not just reciting the Office. Serving at God’s Altar this morning extra special after preparing by praying the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer with you and all that join in with us.
Prayers and Blessing to all of you!
Dane Reply:
November 2nd, 2009 at 17:45
Deacon Ken,
Your comment was very pleasing to me as I thought about how serving at God’s Altar was made even more special after praying the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer together. Knowing how we make a difference in the world and in people’s lives puts “flesh” on this ministry. My humble thanks to you for sharing!
October 31st, 2009 at 23:24
Happy Sunday to all!
October 31st, 2009 at 08:55
I didn’t realize that this site had become a forum to express personal theology.
Thank you Mauro, for your response. Indeed Purgatory is not punishment for sin but a purification for those who “died in God’s grace and friendship”. ( 1030 – 1032 Catechism of the Catholic Church).
I’ve always found the answers in the Magesterium of the Church and particularly as it is set forth in the Catechism.
I wonder what our non-Catholic friends think about these remarks about having “second thoughts” on Church teaching. Holy Mother Church teachs much more sound doctrine than I can, with my second thoughts.
October 31st, 2009 at 06:40
I am in a Vocation Crisis,please pray for me.
Robinson
October 31st, 2009 at 02:15
Mauro,
Peace be with you. Study your faith with an open mind and look deeper in to your studies. I take no offense, as you will find somethings are not as clear as we think. Also you will find things in the Church that you won’t like, but its part of the Church History. Studying the Catholic faith is great, I which more people like you, who had second thoughts about what is said would investigate what is said.
October 30th, 2009 at 13:07
one would hope you further on the feast of all souls day:
All Souls Day follows All Saints Day, and commemorates the faithful departed, those who die in God’s faith and friendship. However, Catholics believe that not all those who die in God’s grace are immediately ready for the Beatific vision, i.e. the reality and goodness of God and heaven, so they must be purified of “lesser faults,” and the temporal effects of sin. The Catholic Church calls this purification of the elect, “purgatory.” The Catholic teaching on Purgatory essentially requires belief in two realities: 1. that there will be a purification of believers prior to entering heaven and 2. that the prayers and masses of the faithful in some way benefit those in the state of purification. As to the duration, place, and exact nature of this purification, the Church has no official dogma, although Saint Augustine and others used fire as a way to explain the nature of the purification. Many faithful Catholics, including Pope Benedict XVI, grant that Purgatory may be an existential state as opposed to a temporal place. In other words, Purgatory may be something we experience instantaneously, because it is outside of the confines of created time and space. Many non-Catholics, including C.S. Lewis, have believed in Purgatory, and the official dogma of Purgatory is hardly offensive, even if the popular understanding of it has led to confusion. As a more everyday explanation, many liken Purgatory to a place to “clean up” oneself before going into the presence of Almighty God.
All Souls is the day to remember, pray for, and offer requiem masses up for these faithful departed in the state of purification. Typically Christians will take this day to offer prayers up on behalf of their departed relatives and friends. Others may remember influential individuals that they never knew personally, such as presidents, musicians, etc. This may be done in the form of the Office of the Dead (Defunctorum officium), i.e. a prayer service offered in memory of departed loved ones. Often this office is prayed on the anniversary (or eve) of the death of a loved one, or on All Souls’ Day.
There are many customs associated with All Souls Day, and these vary greatly from culture to culture. In Mexico they celebrate All Souls Day as el dia de los muertos, or “the day of the dead.” Customs include going to a graveyard to have a picnic, eating skull-shaped candy, and leaving food out for dead relatives. The practice of leaving food out for dead relatives is interesting, but not exactly Catholic Theology. If all of this seems a little morbid, remember that all cultures deal with death in different manners. The Western aversion to anything related to death is not present in other cultures. In the Philippines, they celebrate “Memorial Day” based loosely on All Souls Day. Customs include praying novenas for the holy souls, and ornately decorating relatives’ graves. On the eve of All Souls (i.e. the evening of All Saints Day), partiers go door-to-door, requesting gifts and singing a traditional verse representing the liberation of holy souls from purgatory. In Hungary the day is known as Halottak Napja, “the day of the dead,” and a common custom is inviting orphans into the family and giving them food, clothes, and toys. In rural Poland, a legend developed that at midnight on All Souls Day a great light shone on the local parish. This light was said to be the holy souls of departed parishioners gathered to pray for their release from Purgatory at the altars of their former earthly parishes. After this, the souls were said to return to scenes from their earthly life and work, visiting homes and other places. As a sign of welcome, Poles leave their windows and doors ajar on the night of All Souls Day. All of these customs show the wide variety of traditions related to All Souls Day.
Catholic doctrine
Purgatory (Lat., “purgare”, to make clean, to purify) in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God’s grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.
The faith of the Church concerning purgatory is clearly expressed in the Decree of Union drawn up by the Council of Florence (Mansi, t. XXXI, col. 1031), and in the decree of the Council of Trent which (Sess. XXV) defined:
“Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has from the Sacred Scriptures and the ancient tradition of the Fathers taught in Councils and very recently in this Ecumenical synod (Sess. VI, cap. XXX; Sess. XXII cap.ii, iii) that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar; the Holy Synod enjoins on the Bishops that they diligently endeavor to have the sound doctrine of the Fathers in Councils regarding purgatory everywhere taught and preached, held and believed by the faithful” (Denzinger, “Enchiridon”, 983).
Further than this the definitions of the Church do not go, but the tradition of the Fathers and the Schoolmen must be consulted to explain the teachings of the councils, and to make clear the belief and the practices of the faithful.
Temporal punishment
That temporal punishment is due to sin, even after the sin itself has been pardoned by God, is clearly the teaching of Scripture. God indeed brought man out of his first disobedience and gave him power to govern all things (Wisdom 10:2), but still condemned him “to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow” until he returned unto dust. God forgave the incredulity of Moses and Aaron, but in punishment kept them from the “land of promise” (Numbers 20:12). The Lord took away the sin of David, but the life of the child was forfeited because David had made God’s enemies blaspheme His Holy Name (2 Samuel 12:13-14). In the New Testament as well as in the Old, almsgiving and fasting, and in general penitential acts are the real fruits of repentance (Matthew 3:8; Luke 17:3; 3:3). The whole penitential system of the Church testifies that the voluntary assumption of penitential works has always been part of true repentance and the Council of Trent (Sess. XIV, can. xi) reminds the faithful that God does not always remit the whole punishment due to sin together with the guilt. God requires satisfaction, and will punish sin, and this doctrine involves as its necessary consequence a belief that the sinner failing to do penance in this life may be punished in another world, and so not be cast off eternally from God.
Venial sins
All sins are not equal before God, nor dare anyone assert that the daily faults of human frailty will be punished with the same severity that is meted out to serious violation of God’s law. On the other hand whosoever comes into God’s presence must be perfectly pure for in the strictest sense His “eyes are too pure, to behold evil” (Habakkuk 1:13). For unrepented venial faults for the payment of temporal punishment due to sin at time of death, the Church has always taught the doctrine of purgatory.
So deep was this belief ingrained in our common humanity that it was accepted by the Jews, and in at least a shadowy way by the pagans, long before the coming of Christianity. (“Aeneid,” VI, 735 sq.; Sophocles, “Antigone,” 450 sq.).
Rev. Bro. Anthony Mikusak, TOS
October 30th, 2009 at 03:19
Lets offer a day of prayer for all the departed love ones,relatives and friends.And all souls in purgatory,they need our prayers.
October 30th, 2009 at 00:52
The Day of the Dead, “Happy Catholic Halloween”
All Soul’s Day is a Roman Catholic day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who have passed away. This comes from the ancient Pagan Festival of the Dead, which celebrated the Pagan belief that the souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family. Candles in the window would guide the souls back home, and another place was set at the table. Children would come through the village, asking for food to be offered symbolically to the dead, then donated to feed the hungry.
The day purposely follows All Saint’s Day in order to shift the focus from those in heaven to those in purgatory. It is celebrated with masses and festivities in honor of the dead. While the Feast of All Saints is a day to remember the glories of Heaven and those there, the Feast of All Souls reminds us of our obligations to live holy lives and that there will be purification of the souls of those destined for Heaven.
The Christian holiday of All Soul’s Day pays respect and remembers the souls of all friends and loved ones who have died and gone to heaven. The living pray on behalf of Christians who are in purgatory, the state in the afterlife where souls are purified before proceeding to heaven. Souls in purgatory, who are members of the church just like living Christians, must suffer so that they can be purged of their sins. It is a time to pray for their souls that they may be received into heaven.
mauro Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 03:14
Dear Mikusaktos,
While I really appreciated you wishing a “Happy Catholic Halloween” and everything you said, the concept that souls “must suffer so that they can be purged of their sins” in purgatory didn’t sound right to me. And thanks God it’s not.
The suffering of purgatory is caused by the fact that the souls can not yet see God face to face, but is also a place of joy because there is already a certainty of the beatitudes, there is already the ability to communicate with God by prayer, there is the “communion of saints”, which is the possibility of the souls in purgatory pray for us just like we pray for the souls in purgatory.
Thank you for giving me the chance of deepening this aspect of my catholic faith!…
What follows is a Google based translation of an Italian resource, which explains this better…
The Second Vatican Council speaks of the souls in purgatory as “faithful in a state of purification” and “disciples of Christ.” We must not forget that classical theology has talked of the souls in purgatory as “Church purgative”. This means that purgatory is the place of salvation and that those in purgatory are already saved. It is wrong to imagine the purgatory almost midway between heaven and hell because the hell is a place of eternal damnation from which you can’t get out, while purgatory is the place where the soul already saved and already immersed in God’s mercy and His love is preparing for the vision of God. The Second Vatican Council also added that the Church which is on earth, the church which is in heaven and the church that is in purgatory are the one mystical body of Christ even in the diversity of states and in different gifts of the Holy Spirit. The basic idea is therefore that us who are pilgrims on earth, our brothers who are in heaven and those who are in purgatory — together we form the mystical body of Christ, albeit with different functions and with a different level in regards of the gift of the Holy Spirit and therefore with a different contribution that each of us gives to the work of redemption.
We are not expected to believe that in purgatory there’s a fire like the one that is in hell. There is no question that the Magisterium of the Church speaks clearly of the “pains of senses” when referring to hell: a punishment that we mean by the word “fire”. In Purgatory there are no pains of senses and the fire can be thought of as the fire of God who purifies the souls.
The council told us that the souls in purgatory are part of the mystical body of Christ, therefore we can say that in the souls in purgatory there is an action by the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of love (Holy Spirit). The fire which works in purgatory is just the fire of the Holy Spirit that penetrates the deepest roots of the souls enabling them to love perfectly. Purgatory is therefore the place where the love of God purifies the soul from selfishness and leads to the perfection of love in a kind of school where the teacher is the Holy Spirit which acts directly upon these souls.
This teaching results mainly from a great mystic, St. Catherine of Genoa, who wrote the Treatise on Purgatory, but also a lesson that has become the heritage of many theologians today. The suffering of purgatory is caused by the fact that the souls can not yet see God face to face, but is also a place of joy because there is already a certainty of bliss, there is already the opportunity to communicate with God by prayer, there is the “communion of saints”, which is the possibility of the souls in purgatory pray for us just like we pray for the souls in purgatory.
Source: http://purgatorio.altervista.org/doc/docvari/novissimi.html
mauro Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 06:07
Wow, I just scrolled down and I realize now who you are.
Please take no offense form my reply above
And don’t take me wrong I’m just on my path to deepen my faith and I don’t mean to sound presumptuous.
When I have some difficulties in accepting something that is part of our Catholic faith, I always check because things are much more subtle then it looks when speaking and important concepts may easily be misunderstood.
I’ve met many people that do not accept what they think is the catholic church and our beliefs, but instead they where mislead by approximation in the message they received.
That’s why I’m so picky… and I’m sorry if that sounded presumptuous to you.
October 28th, 2009 at 22:56
To my fellow members of this prayer group community,i need your prayers for my vocation discernment process.May God Bless me and strengthen me,and protect my vocation.Robinson
October 27th, 2009 at 09:40
Wonderful site and its my joy to join and pray the Divine Office daily.Thanks much for the recommendation.srmegan
October 24th, 2009 at 02:39
Blessed Day To All of You,Today is the Feast Of St.Anthony Claret.We pray that through his prayers and intercession may we inspire us to become a true missionary of the gospel to preach to all nations.Happy weekends to all.
October 22nd, 2009 at 02:37
ani and to you exseminarian,thank you so much for coming here.God brought you here and am happy that you are now joining this prayer group community with awesome ministry.I am just an instrument to attract others to pray more and join in this prayer group.Robinson
October 20th, 2009 at 21:12
Ave Maria! I was trying to search the site that someone is sharing to me last time in a catholic chat his name is gabriel0478 and really i forgot it but thanks be to God,for trying now i am here.I am happy for those people that God make them an instrument to bring others in a beautyful prayer group.I was before a seminarian but i feel God is calling me in the other way and now am happy with my life and everytime i saw or even hear someone who wants to become a priest,i feel happy and i will pray for them.And lets pray for more vocation. Henry
October 19th, 2009 at 20:35
Hi to all, i am new here and need time to explore this wonderful site.Thank you for the person who guided me to visit here.His name is robinson and i am thankful for his recommendation.I will pray for your vocation…
October 19th, 2009 at 10:59
I was inspired through a friend of mine to use your site for the hours since I had not obtained my own book. I just started with your site about the beginning of last week. It is soo beautiful. I really enjoy the podcasts along with the hymns. My friend has given me a copy of the hours although I am still in learning mode, I am reliant upon your site! I just wanted to comment that this site is well done. I look forward to the office done in podcast as well! Have a blessed day and may God Bless all of you!
October 18th, 2009 at 09:09
I just came across your site. I really enjoy it. I am traveling and forgot my litergy and your site allowed my to pray the divine office.
I will frequent the site often. I really enjoyed the music and praying in community (virtual).
God Keep you,
Deacon Pat
October 15th, 2009 at 00:57
Peace to All! Today is Oct.15,Memorial of St.Teresa of Avila,Virgin and Doctor. May the spirit of St.Teresa of Avila lead us the way to perfection and inspire us and awaken in us a longing for true holiness.St.Teresa of Avila,pray for us,
September 29th, 2009 at 22:04
Dane : if you hear back from gabriel0478, He should contact the Archdiocese of Manila for help, or the Franciscans or the Order he is interested in and explain his problem.
Here is the info He needs.
Arzobispado de Manila
121 Arzobispo St., Intramuros, Manila
P.O. Box 132 1099 Manila
Tel: 527-7631 to 36
Fax: 527-3956
Email: RCAM@pldtdsl.net and rcamaoc@tri-isys.com
Vocation Office: Franciscans, Con.
The Vocation Director
Marytown Circle, Greenfields I Subdivision
Novaliches, 1123 Quezon City, Metro Manila
Tel: 02 – 936.60.82
E-mail: vocation@conventuals.org
I hope this helps, Bro. Anthony, T.O.S.