Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours Catholic Book Publishing

My husband just entered the diaconate program, and he has the 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours. (Ordained deacons are required to pray the morning and evening prayers, so they teach us about LOTH and suggest that they get into the habit even though ordination is 5+ years away for my husband.)Anyway, I found the 4-volume set incredibly confusing and somewhat burdensome, and I wanted to be able to pray the morning and evening prayers along with my husband (and with the entire group at diaconate classes) without having to share books (the print is relatively small), plus it’s an extra book in case someone else forgot theirs and needs to share. Another wife recommended this book and suggested washi tape to delineate the sections in addition to using the ribbons, which is a suggestion that I intend to follow, as there are not enough ribbons for me.Long story short, the quality of the book itself is excellent, and it comes with the St. Joseph’s guide for 2019 (at least at the time of my purchase) as well as the inserts with the Canticle of Zechariah, the Canticle of Mary, various closings depending on who is/isn’t present, etc. These inserts are shorter than the ones that came with my husband’s 4-volume set.Honestly I don’t intend to order the St. Joseph’s guide moving forward, as liturgyofthehours dot org will tell you what pages everything is on for literally every day for both this single volume and the 4-volume LOTH. Following that site’s guide has taught me, more or less, how this all works, as it is admittedly confusing, even with the single volume.Anyway, my husband and I compared our volumes, and all of the language matches exactly. Figuring out this single volume has helped me immensely with understanding how LOTH works and is likely sufficient for most laypeople’s needs.Supposedly the English translation is going to be released in the next year or two, so keep that in mind when you consider whether or not to purchase this, depending on your budget and/or whether you want/need the newest translation. We are unfortunately required to repurchase at least the 4-volume set when that is released, but I’ll still likely repurchase this single volume in the new translation to be able to follow/participate with the exact same language. In my very humble opinion, spending the money to purchase the new translation of the single volume is quite literally a small price to pay to be able to pray the LOTH in the interim.

This is the official daily prayer of the Roman Catholic Church, the highest form of prayer after the Mass. It's not the complete Liturgy of the Hours, but it does contain the most essential prayers of the LotH, those being Morning Prayer (aka Lauds) and Evening Prayer (aka Vespers), as well as the full one-week cycle of Night Prayer (aka Compline). Like the Siddur, the Jewish prayer book, the Liturgy of the Hours traces its roots back to the Second Temple period. This was the style of prayer Christ and the Apostles knew intimately and observed daily in the course of their earthly lives, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.There will always be a place for spontaneous prayer from the heart in the lives of Christians, but the Liturgy of the Hours takes us on a monthly journey through various Psalms, Canticles, and Scripture readings and shows us what our personal prayers should sound like, and it gives us words for those times when we don't know what to say to God.Catholic clergy and members of religious orders are obliged to pray the Liturgy of the Hours daily for themselves and on behalf of the entire Church. Lay people do not have the same obligation, but we are encouraged to pray Morning, Evening, and Night Prayer as often as our lives and circumstances allow.Many lay people want to engage with the Liturgy of the Hours but often find themselves intimidated or frustrated by things like the arrangement of ribbons, figuring out what section to use and when, and the ranking and observing of feast days. What instructional material is in the book is taken from a church document and is steeped in language that assumes you're in a seminary or a monastery and isn't the most friendly to lay people. I learned this prayer on my own by trial and error, and I have four recommendations:1) Place a ribbon in and study the section titled "Ordinary." It's an outline of how the prayer should go and shows you the order each part goes in, and it contains the prayers you will say every day of the year.2) Look up the YouTube channel "Sing the Hours" to hear what this prayer sounds like when it's sung. It's beautiful.3) Download an app like "iBreviary" to see what this prayer looks like without having to do any ribbon gymnastics.4) Bookmark the daily Mass readings calendar on the USCCB website. This helps a ton when it comes to figuring out what kind of feast days outrank others and tells you where you need to set your ribbons.You won't say this prayer perfectly when you first get started with it, but this isn't a test and you don't lose points for making mistakes. I've been praying the Hours for a couple years now, and I still make mistakes every now and then. It's not a mortal sin to miss a Saint's feast day or say the Magnificat at Morning Prayer. Catch your mistakes, but don't beat yourself up over them.Some folks complain about the religious art in this book. While I do find it dated and distracting, it ultimately doesn't detract from the beauty and dignity of the liturgy. I hope it gets taken out in the next edition, but I wouldn't be bothered if it stays in.TL;DR - Get this book and learn this prayer. It has a learning curve, but this prayer only becomes easier and more beautiful the more you engage with it.