The Divine Office For Dodos

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='HopefulBride' timestamp='1318771632' post='2322053']

One of the best advice my old SD gave me is to not use the St. Joseph guide until I was comfortable enough (it's confusing when you are just starting out) I've been praying the Office for about three years now and I just started using the St. Joseph guide about a year ago.



FS,

I debated on whether or not to reply to this post but I thought I would. Please forgive me if I come across in any way as uncharitable.

When it comes to deepening your prayer life and doing things such as praying the Office it should not be to impress anyone (including the sisters you wish to discern with) but rather to bring you closer to Christ. I do sincerely hope that impressing the sisters is not the real reason you wish to begin praying the Office.

Pax,
HB
[/quote]


I doubt that she meant the word 'impress' in the same way that you are taking it. Sometimes when we feel insecure about something, we want to practice it beforehand so we don't feel totally uncomfortable when we have to actually perform in front of others. I think it is great that she cares enough about it to want to learn it before entering.

That being said, they are bound to do things a little different than you practice anyway FS2009, so be prepared to feel a little unsure about it all. The first time I entered Carmel, I shed alot of tears during the Office because I felt so stupid and thought that everyone must be sick of my mistakes, but they were so good to me and helped me alot. I was too shy to ask the sister next to me when I got lost and would stumble along until I figured out where they were. My breviary is still marked with all the tear stains!

In the next Carmel, I basically knew my way around, but they did Memorias slightly differently than the previous Carmel, using more of the Common than I had been taught. I was confident enough by this time though to turn to the sister next to me and look at the page she was on to find my place and of course she always held her book a little closer so I could see it and find my place.

In the third one, I felt very comfortable, but the Prioress told me I was fortunate because in her day, anytime a sister made a mistake, they had to kiss the floor! She said this caused such a distraction to everyone that they finally stopped doing it - whew!

By the fourth Carmel, I didn't even need help marking my breviary anymore... it was old hat. But there I found I often got distracted because I knew it so well, my mind would wander sometimes! It took great effort to stay focussed. It's a bit like driving - you do it so automatically that sometimes you wonder how you got from A to B without being conscious of where you were going! I still have to work hard now not to let my mind wander, a bit like doing the Rosary.

Remember that like any new skill, there is a learning curve, and accept that you are going to make mistakes, even after you know how to do, not because you dont' know how anymore, but because your mind wanders! But it's okay (IMO) to want to try to learn it beforehand. I'm just not sure how successful that will be until you are doing it in community though. I tried before I entered and really couldn't get into it very well. Now it is like breathing, and I love it and wouldn't miss it for anything. I know though, that if I enter a Benedictine community, it is going to be different again from Carmel.

Enjoy it though - the Divine Office is such a beautiful expression of the soul's love for God and this along with the Rosary, the Angelus, the prayers to my guardian angel and St Michael, and mental prayer, make up the basis of my prayer life.

[TIWW]

Depending on where you are, there are the "Shorter " books with just Morning and Evening Prayer, and short cycles. Most of the Catholic book stores carry them. The St Patrick's Guild, which is a local store here and the Liturgical Press, from the Abbey both have various forms of the Office. They can be found on line.

Though I am a Benedictine Oblate, for my personal use I use the 4 Volume Set, and the St Joseph's Guide. But when I travel, I often just take a shorter Office with just Morning and Evening Prayer. One of the most difficult things in trying to live a "structured" prayer life when you live alone and there isn't the support and impact of the community in prayer. Different Orders, I am learning, have their own way of doing the office. I know the Benedictines have a different number of Psalms than the Office I pray. And it sounds like the Carmelites have their own. The Catholic Book Publishing Company has a lovely little 4 week "Shorter Christian Prayer," which I can recommend if you are wanting to start praying the office without having to deal with all of the complicated instructions for the longer / 7 offices.

ALSO: [u]http://divineoffice.org/[/u]

Edited October 17, 2011 by TIWW

[Lil Red]

[quote name='MissScripture' timestamp='1318785319' post='2322116']
Another thing you could do is ask a priest to help you if you know one well enough that you would feel comfortable doing that. They all pray it every day, so they know how, and sometimes it's just easiest to have someone walk you through it a few times.
[/quote]

definitely! this is how i learned...i also learned not to say the psalm-prayers at the end of each psalm because that was something ICEL added (and shouldn't really be there). so i don't do them.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='HopefulBride' timestamp='1318771632' post='2322053']One of the best advice my old SD gave me is to not use the St. Joseph guide until I was comfortable enough (it's confusing when you are just starting out) I've been praying the Office for about three years now and I just started using the St. Joseph guide about a year ago.[/quote]
see, i think it was opposite for me...easier to use the Guide at first, then i weaned myself off it (only using it for feast days), then not using it at all. i think going to the St. Joseph's Guide after not using it would be a step backwards, but that of course, is just my opinion. once you have the rhythm down, i don't see a need to go back to St. Joseph's Guide.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1318814266' post='2322368']By the fourth Carmel, I didn't even need help marking my breviary anymore... it was old hat. But there I found I often got distracted because I knew it so well, my mind would wander sometimes! [b]It took great effort to stay focussed[/b]. It's a bit like driving - you do it so automatically that sometimes you wonder how you got from A to B without being conscious of where you were going! [b]I still have to work hard now not to let my mind wander, a bit like doing the Rosary.[/b]

[b]Remember that like any new skill, there is a learning curve, and accept that you are going to make mistakes, even after you know how to do, not because you dont' know how anymore, but because your mind wanders![/b] But it's okay (IMO) to want to try to learn it beforehand. I'm just not sure how successful that will be until you are doing it in community though. I tried before I entered and really couldn't get into it very well. Now it is like breathing, and I love it and wouldn't miss it for anything. I know though, that if I enter a Benedictine community, it is going to be different again from Carmel.

Enjoy it though - the Divine Office is such a beautiful expression of the soul's love for God and this along with the Rosary, the Angelus, the prayers to my guardian angel and St Michael, and mental prayer, make up the basis of my prayer life.[/quote]

beautiful post! especially the bolded part!

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1318817492' post='2322425']

definitely! this is how i learned...i also learned not to say the psalm-prayers at the end of each psalm because that was something ICEL added (and shouldn't really be there). so i don't do them.
[/quote]

Yes! And they aren't in the 3 volume UK edition either, so the first time I had to use the 4 volume US LOH, I didn't know what they were! lol I felt really strange saying them too. But since I have spent most of my time in religious life in either the UK, Canada or Australia, I feel most comfortable with the UK set and that is the one I use all the time now (I gave up my LOH set). The other thing I like about the UK set is the chant marks which aren't in the LOH - I suppose because it is designed to be recited, and those who want to chant use the Grail Psalter instead.

[MissScripture]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1318817492' post='2322425']

definitely! this is how i learned...i also learned not to say the psalm-prayers at the end of each psalm because that was something ICEL added (and shouldn't really be there). so i don't do them.
[/quote]
Yeah, I started out using them, and then I kind of thought some of them were, um, inhibiting my prayer, and I mentioned it to my sister, who looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Yeah, we don't say those at all..." After that I just skipped them.

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1318817603' post='2322429']
see, i think it was opposite for me...easier to use the Guide at first, then i weaned myself off it (only using it for feast days), then not using it at all. i think going to the St. Joseph's Guide after not using it would be a step backwards, but that of course, is just my opinion. once you have the rhythm down, i don't see a need to go back to St. Joseph's Guide.
[/quote]
I never used the actual St. Joseph's guide, but I used online guides at first. Now just when I've gotten out of the habit, and need to figure out where we are.

[AccountDeleted]

One of the beautiful things about praying the Office is offering it up for different people and petitions. When I confessed my lack of focus to a priest, he told me that if I start to think about a particular person during my prayers, then to offer that part of the Office for them. He said he felt that sometimes things come into our mind while praying because those people or situations need our prayers. That was a comfort to me and now I like to offer the Office for others.

[brandelynmarie]

[quote name='MissScripture' timestamp='1318785319' post='2322116']
Another thing you could do is ask a priest to help you if you know one well enough that you would feel comfortable doing that. They all pray it every day, so they know how, and sometimes it's just easiest to have someone walk you through it a few times.
[/quote]

Yeah, I hope to ask some local Dominican priests for help at some point.


[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1318817492' post='2322425']

definitely! this is how i learned...i also learned not to say the psalm-prayers at the end of each psalm because that was something ICEL added (and shouldn't really be there). so i don't do them.
[/quote]

ICEL=International Commision on English in the Liturgy? Goodness! So why on earth did they add the psalm-prayers? Are they more for private use?


[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1318818032' post='2322448']
One of the beautiful things about praying the Office is offering it up for different people and petitions. When I confessed my lack of focus to a priest, he told me that if I start to think about a particular person during my prayers, then to offer that part of the Office for them. He said he felt that sometimes things come into our mind while praying because those people or situations need our prayers. That was a comfort to me and now I like to offer the Office for others.
[/quote]

Wonderful advice! I did not think you could do that...

[brandelynmarie]

Oh & the book is recommending additional bookmarkers & ribbons & so in the spirit of learning, I will be buying or making some soon. So far I have enjoyed the author's humor & I find it sweet that she even asks her readers to say a pray for her from time to time.

[img]http://img.aquinasandmore.com/items/17921lg.jpg[/img]

[HopefulBride]

When my former SD taught me the LOTH, he taught met to skip those prayers. Then I started listening to divineoffice.org and they say it (it drives me nuts! Because fort the first two years I just ignored them)

[Feankie]

[i]ICEL=International Commision on English in the Liturgy? Goodness! So why on earth did they add the psalm-prayers? Are they more for private use?[/i]

ICEL has done some other strange things. I'm in charge of our parish's transition to the Third Revised Edition of the Roman Missal, and I have to admit, some of the language, etc. is a bit strange. Our priests are even having a difficult time with the wording (about
75 % of the changes apply to the priest) and I pray they will get accustomed to and embrace the changes, even if they are a bit difficult to read and more difficult to pray.

[TIWW]

This web site below has alot of information about LOTH, including many of the various forms and translations. It also has a good review of the changes and accommodations to the Divine Office over time. [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgy_of_the_Hours"]Liturgy of the Hours - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/url]

For me personally, the [b]translation of the Psalms[/b] being used is important, because after praying the LOTH for so many years, many of the psalms are committed to memory. If the translation is contemporary, tries to fix the he/she thing, I get very distracted. Because I am used to praying the psalm-prayer, I like it, but again, it is part of my prayer routine. The other wonderful thing about praying the Divine Office, is knowing that our prayer is joining the same prayers of praise going on all over the earth, at all hours of the day and night. That we are the CHURCH at prayer, and raising up these prayers of praise and supplication unite us as people of God, whether Religious or Lay.

[brandelynmarie]

Thank TIWW! The only modern paraphrase of the Psalms that I liked was a book called [u]Psalms Now! [/u]But this was for private use, not liturgical. It didn't mess with pronouns, but put everything into modern language.