The Hours of monastic prayer

You don’t have to be very long at a Cistercian monastery before the bell rings and it is time for prayer.  Seven times every day the community assembles in the church to sing God’s praise and listen to God’s Word.  Generally we use the traditional Latin names for these times of prayer:

Vigils – beginning some time during the early hours, around 4 a.m. while it is still dark;
Lauds – morning prayer, at daybreak;
Terce – mid-morning prayer, around 9 a.m;
Sext - midday prayer, around noon;
None – mid-afternoon prayer, around 3 p.m;
Vespers – evening prayer, ideally at sunset;
Compline - night prayer, which completes the day.

Each one of these “hours” of prayer has its own unique colour and focus, linked particularly to the time of day at which it is celebrated.  Each reveals to us something of the goodness of God and the mystery of Christ.  As St Basil put it, “each period contains a reminder peculiar to itself of blessings received from God”. 

The Second Vatican Council urged those who take part in the Prayer of the Church to “make it their own so that it becomes a cource of devotion, abundant grace and nourishment for personal prayer and apostolic activity.”  In the next few posts I will outline some of the ideas and themes associated with each of the Hours of prayer.