The Liturgy of the Hours (Part 3)

The Liturgy of the Hours as priestly prayer

Priestly prayer is intercessory prayer, a generous prayer for the Church and for the world. Often the complaint is heard from those who regularly pray the Hours that it "fails to speak to them" or "has little to do with their personal experience." Though this may be experientially true, these observations miss the point of the priestly nature of the prayer. In raising this hymn to God, the one praying joins his or her own voice to the voice of the whole Church, and in so doing, gives voice to the voiceless. To enter into priestly prayer means setting aside personal dispositions and lifting up any number of "nameless" persons and situations to the love of the Trinity. The Liturgy of the Hours is a prayer of generosity in that the one praying looks beyond himself or herself to the needs of the whole body.

Those who take up such priestly prayer present themselves to the Lord as "microcosms" of the whole world. The baptized faithful are priests of God in the world, and so approach God as such. Our participation in the Liturgy of the Hours is an offering of our very selves as we lift up the world in prayer. Understanding this, Fr. Ron Rolheiser proposes the following prayer as preparation for taking up the prayer of the Hours:

Lord God, I stand before you as a microcosm of the earth itself, to give it voice. See in my openness, the world's openness, in my infidelity, the world's infidelity; in my sincerity, the world's sincerity, in my hypocrisy, the world's hypocrisy; in my generosity, the world's generosity, in my selfishness, the world's selfishness; in my attentiveness, the world's attentiveness, in my distraction, the world's distraction; in my desire to praise you, the world's desire to praise you, and in my self-preoccupation, the world's forgetfulness of you. For I am of the earth, a piece of earth, and the earth opens or closes to you through my body, my soul, and my voice. I am your priest on earth.⁹

There is much richness waiting to be discovered in the Liturgy of the Hours. The focus of these few reflections has been to nurture an approach to the Liturgy of the Hours that has little to do with external obligation or vow, but rather one that enters into the experience of liturgical prayer as a participation in the very life and work of the Trinity. The invitation to join the celestial hymn is given by the One who sounded the first sweeping note. It is the hymn of the Bride, the Church, in praise of her Lord and Bridegroom. It is a hymn of selfless love poured out from the heart of the Trinity and prompting a joyous response from the children of God. It is a hymn that once created the world and one-all the more glorious with our voices added-that continually recreates the world according to the song of redemption.

End Notes

1. Cf. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
2. Sacrosanctum Concilium #83.
3. General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, #3.
4. This affirmation is found in the prayer for the preparation of the Easter Candle from the Easter Vigil.
5. For a full treatment of the historical development of the Liturgy of the Hours, see Robert Taft, The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1986). Of particular interest is chapter eleven, wherein Taft compares the Monastic and Cathedral Offices and suggests a basic outline for the ancient structure.
6. Pope John Paul II, Novo Millenio Ineunte, #34. The Pope goes on to specifically mention lay groups in parishes and other communities who are driving the rediscovery of the Liturgy of the Hours as a prayer of the whole Church.
7. Cf. Rev. 5:9ff.
8. See Sacrosanctum Concilium #83 -101.
9. Ron Rolheiser, "Priestly Prayer-Prayer for the World" in Catholic San Francisco, March 28, 2003.

Copyright © 2004 Homiletic & Pastoral Review.
Reprinted with permission.

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