As far as particular texts go, I always recommend Morning and Evening Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer.We recommend at least Morning and Evening Prayer. The point of the Witness Cloud is for us to know that we are all united in prayer with Christ our Lord. We have our own recommended prayers, derived largely from the Book of Common Prayer, but you can use a different text if you like. The Witness Cloud! This is an endeavour started by my Anglican priest brother and I.Here are some resources for you to start praying the office if you wish to. I recommend starting with Morning and/or Evening Prayer at first before adding Compline or Midday Prayer, let alone Terce and None. There was cross-fertilization between the cathedral and monastic offices in Byzantium the monastic office pretty much won, whereas in the Latin West it did not, although it influenced the Roman Breviary to a great extent. Anyway, over the years, different ways and forms of praying the divine office evolved, some for public use in the local church (the ‘cathedral’ office), some for use by monks. Maybe I’ll discuss its biblical foundations another time. Well, the divine office or the liturgy of the hours is the round of prayer at fixed times that not only derives from these two injunctions but from the practice of the ancient church and synagogue. What office to pray? Where do I find the office? What is the divine office? The answer to the first is to consider the office as a gateway to ceaseless prayer. The answer to the second is probably yes, even if most of us have never given it much thought. So, whether you are gaining inspiration from Benedict or Francis, from the Celtic world or the Athonites, ask yourself: How can I transform my life into ceaseless prayer? Can I find seven times to pray every day? The round of prayer in the monastic world (broadly considered) from Sketis and Tabbenisi to the Great Laura on Athos to the Jura Fathers to St Martin of Tours to Benedict to Columbanus to Mont St-Michel to La Grande Chartreuse to Assisi is founded primarily on two biblical texts: That said, the inspirations for all monastic rounds of prayer are the same, and we non-monastics should take heed. When we take ‘real life’ into account, we begin to see why monks imagine that theirs is the life most devoted to God.
But we may be too busy to pray in this way as (post)modern lay people, many with demanding jobs and family demands. Besides requiring a certain amount of regulation and order, it also requires time.
Unless you are a Benedictine or other cloistered monk, I am not sure that you can achieve the lofty goals set out here. It is interesting for those interested in the history of the liturgy of the hours, of course, but I am not sure it fits the purpose of my blog posts about St Benedict’s Rule for today. I am not going to discuss the details of how Benedict arranges the times of day to pray and the Psalms to be sung. Chapters 8 through 20 of the Rule of St Benedict are about the divine office.
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