The Lay-prayer Of The Liturgy Of The Hours

[Ziggamafu]

Two questions:

1. Do priests / bishops have to pray [b]all [/b]hours of the Divine Office or must they only pray a part of it?

2. Are there any indulgences associated with the lay-prayer of the Divine Office and if so, is full recitation of [b]all [/b]hours required or would the Shorter Christian Prayer suffice?

[Lil Red]

moved for an answer

[journeyman]

A plenary indulgence was available during Year of the Eucharist:
[url="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/tribunals/apost_penit/documents/rc_trib_appen_doc_20041225_miraculorum-maximum_en.html"]http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/tribunal...maximum_en.html[/url]

which was 2005
[url="http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=64735"]http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=64735[/url]
[url="http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=66419"]http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=66419[/url]

Praying the Liturgy of the Hours (the Divine Office, the breviary) is encouraged for laity.
Catechism 1174
In this "public prayer of the Church," the faithful (clergy, religious, and lay people) exercise the royal priesthood of the baptized.
[url="http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s1c2a1.htm"]http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s1c2a1.htm[/url]

But I don't think it presently carries the benefit of an indulgence.

[mroger]

Yes. Priests must pray all the hours. However, if you notice the midday hours, they are set up in the four volume so that the priest is expected to pray at least one.
so - we have, the Office, Laudes, a Midday, Evening. I think that covers it.

Indulgences? It is my opinion that no person should ever receive an indulgence for any thing at any time ever, I'm sorry they were ever a part of church history. Let's just stick with being good, holy people and not try to think about what we can get away with.

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='geistesswiesenschaften' post='1197553' date='Feb 16 2007, 10:34 PM']Yes. Priests must pray all the hours. However, if you notice the midday hours, they are set up in the four volume so that the priest is expected to pray at least one.
so - we have, the Office, Laudes, a Midday, Evening. I think that covers it.

Indulgences? It is my opinion that no person should ever receive an indulgence for any thing at any time ever, I'm sorry they were ever a part of church history. Let's just stick with being good, holy people and not try to think about what we can get away with.[/quote]

That's not only a horrible, but a heretical attitude.

From [i]Fundamentals[/i]:
[quote name='The Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by L. Ott']1.The Church possesses the power to grant Indulgences. (De fide.)
2.The source of Indulgences is the Church's treasury of satisfaction which consists of superabundant satisfactions of Christ and of the Saints. (Sent. certa.)
3.The use of Indulgences is useful and salutary to the Faithful. (De fide.) D989,998[/quote]

From the Council of Trent:
[quote name='The Sacred Oecumenical Council of Trent' date=' Session XXV']DECREE CONCERNING INDULGENCES.

Whereas the power of conferring Indulgences was granted by Christ to the Church; and she has, even in the most ancient times, used the said power, delivered unto her of God; the sacred holy Synod teaches, and enjoins, that the use of Indulgences, for the Christian people most salutary, and approved of by the authority of sacred Councils, is to be retained in the Church; and It condemns with anathema those who either assert, that they are useless; or who deny that there is in the Church the power of granting them. In granting them, however, It desires that, in accordance with the ancient and approved custom in the Church, moderation be observed; lest, by excessive facility, ecclesastical discipline be enervated. And being desirous that the abuses which have crept therein, and by occasion of which this honourable name of Indulgences is blasphemed by heretics, be amended and corrected, It ordains generally by this decree, that all evil gains for the obtaining thereof,--whence a most prolific cause of abuses amongst the Christian people has been derived,--be wholly abolished. But as regards the other abuses which have proceeded from superstition, ignorance, irreverence, or from what soever other source, since, by reason of the manifold corruptions in the places and provinces where the said abuses are committed, they cannot conveniently be specially prohibited; It commands all bishops, diligently to collect, each in his own church, all abuses of this nature, and to report them in the first provincial Synod; that, after having been reviewed by the opinions of the other bishops also, they may forthwith be referred to the Sovereign Roman Pontiff, by whose authority and prudence that which may be expedient for the universal Church will be ordained; that this the gift of holy Indulgences may be dispensed to all the faithful, piously, holily, and incorruptly.[/quote]

From the Catechism:
[quote name='The Catechism of Pope St. Pius X']Indulgences

124 Q. What is an Indulgence?
A. An Indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment due on account of our sins which have been already pardoned as far as their guilt is concerned — a remission accorded by the Church outside the sacrament of Penance.

125 Q. From whom has the Church received the power to grant Indulgences?
A. The Church has received the power to grant Indulgences from Jesus Christ.

126 Q. In what way does the Church by means of Indulgences remit this temporal punishment?
A. The Church by means of Indulgences remits this temporal punishment by applying to us the superabundant merits of Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Virgin and of the Saints, which constitute what is known as the Treasure of the Church.

127 Q. Who has the power to grant Indulgences?
A. The Pope alone has the power to grant Indulgences in the whole Church, and the Bishop in his own diocese, according to the faculty given him by the Pope.

128 Q. How many kinds of Indulgences are there?
A. Indulgences are of two kinds: plenary and partial.

129 Q. What is a plenary Indulgence?
A. A plenary Indulgence is that by which the whole temporal punishment due to our sins is remitted. Hence, if one were to die after having gained such an Indulgence, he would go straight to Heaven, being, as he is, perfectly exempt from the pains of Purgatory.

130 Q. What is a partial Indulgence?
A. A partial Indulgence is that by which is remitted only a part of the temporal punishment due to our sins.

131 Q. Why does the Church grant Indulgences?
A. In granting Indulgences the Church intends to aid our incapacity to expiate all the temporal punishment in this world, by enabling us to obtain by means of works of piety and Christian charity that which in the first ages Christians gained by the rigour of Canonical penances.

132 Q. What is meant by an Indulgence of forty or a hundred days or of seven years, and the like?
A. By an Indulgence of forty or a hundred days, or of seven years and the like, is meant the remission of so much of the temporal punishment as would have been paid by penances of forty or a hundred days, or seven years, anciently prescribed in the Church.

133 Q. What value should we set on Indulgences?
A. We should set the greatest value on Indulgences because by them we satisfy the justice of God and obtain possession of Heaven sooner and more easily.

134 Q. Which are the conditions necessary to gain Indulgences?
A. The conditions necessary to gain Indulgences are: (1) The state of grace (at least at the final completion of the work), and freedom from those venial faults, the punishment of which we wish to cancel; (2) The fulfilment of all the works the Church enjoins in order to gain the Indulgence; (3) The intention to gain it.

135 Q. Can Indulgences be applied also to the souls in Purgatory?
A. Yes, Indulgences can be applied also to the souls in Purgatory, when he who grants them says that they may be so applied.

136 Q. What is a Jubilee?
A. A Jubilee, which as a rule is granted every twenty-five years, is a Plenary Indulgence to which are attached many privileges and special concessions, such as that of being able to obtain absolution from certain reserved sins and from censures, and the commutation of certain vows.[/quote]

Edited February 17, 2007 by StThomasMore

[Aloysius]

Your opinion is materially heretical... though it flows from a false understanding of what an indulgence is.

Indulgence does not give licence to do sin. It heals the damage done by previous sin and remits the temporal punishment due to sin (temporal punishment is purgatory, a healing punishment) by healing one's soul of the effects of sin.

forgiveness is one thing, but sin causes damage and the damage needs to be healed. the Church attaches indulgences, like medicine, to certain prayers and pious acts and that really does heal the damage.

you can be inculpable for sins because of invincible ignornace or because you were forgiven for them; but the sin is still evil and it still did damage. indulgences are therefore necessary to heal the damage.

plenary indulgence is the complete healing of your soul. to receive it, you must do the pious act or prayer proscribed, confess to a priest, receive the eucharist, and be detached from all sin. otherwise, you just receive partial indulgences. those used to be counted, by analogy, according to days/years of punishment that would be due for your sins.