My Love Affair with the Divine Office

I am...uh...'borrowing' this beautiful picture from Dr Taylor Marshall's blog Canterbury Tales to talk about the Divine Office today. This post was particularly inspired by the blog Medical Matins, which is a must read for all Medics! For all my busy Medic friends, I have written this post, especially with you in mind. I hope you will at least read through most of it!

I love the Divine Office, after Mass, it is the next thing that keeps me sane every day. Daily Mass thought me how to centre my life around Christ. Because of the fixed time of Mass, it really requires to plan your day around it, in a sense it becomes the centre of your life. Going to meet friends in town? Mass is at half past six, either meet before or after Mass. The Divine Office pushed that to a new level for me. They say you get the most graces when you say the hours in the times when they are supposed to be said (Thankfully, you can anticipate matins!). Thus, when you completely settle the entire day around praying, it is really special.

I cannot explain it, but you really get a lot of graces from praying the Office. For those who are unfamiliar with the Office, it is essential praying the entire set of Psalms. In the extraordinary form of the office (EF), you pray all 150 in a week, in the ordinary form of the office (OF), you pray 143 psalms across the span of a month. As you all know, I am your typical Catholic, I have never read the bible from cover to cover, and I would have never dreamed of reading all the psalms, let me repeat, all the ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY psalms. Yea, well, only through the grace of almighty God, I read it and continue to so every week. 

And not only that, Matins, which consists of 9 psalms arranged into three nocturnes with accompanying lessons means that if God willingly, this time time next year, I'd have read through most of the bible as well! Well, not in it's entirety, as they do skip verses, but it's amazing! Right now, I am reading through the soap opera of King David's life in the second book of Samuel. He's just done nasty things with Bethsheba and Prophet Nathan is banging on his door. You'll have to read the rest yourself, it's all very fiesty ;)

Back to the point, you really do get a lot of graces. God likes to give out graces to people who want to pray more. Having difficulty with your daily prayer, like me? He will shower you with strength. It seems long, but each just Office just flies by. Not to mention how much it keeps temptation at bay. 

For the Medic on the go, especially clinicals or doctors working, especially those who can't get to daily Mass, or find it hard to seek prayer during the day, or if you just need an escape into God's wonderful arms, the Office is the way to go. The various hours of the day punctuate the time, and will give you the strength to go on. Not to mention, the little hours are short, about 5 mins a piece. You can sneak them into your day at appropriate intervals. They are a booster of grace, if you will.

I said the Office only in the second semester of school, and it helped me to carry on during the long hours of study. You have no idea how many times through the day, when one stumbles upon an encouraging line, like psalm 56, 'Have mercy on me O God, have mercy on me, for upon You my soul has relied, /And in the shadow of Your wings I will trust, until the wickness passes by.' Not to mention all the lovely psalms of praise, like psalm 116, 'Praise the Lord all ye nations, etc'. Even if you can only find time to say compline, you will benefit greatly!

While it is only a devotion for us, the Divine Office is an obligation for all priests, and it sustains them. Here's a remark from a damned priest on the power of the divine office:

As far as I was concerned, I used to remember that I was a priest and, at the beginning, I used to exercise my Priesthood responsibly. And then, as time went by, I found that monotonous and, forgetting prayer, I also forgot about celibacy. I cut out prayer, firstly because I believed I was too busy, and then I used to take it up again occasionally, and then, finally, I abandoned it altogether. I used to think that those long prayers in the breviary were tedious and useless and, in the end, I lost the taste for prayer. 

When I cut out the breviary, I fell into the sin of impurity, and from that moment on, I had no more taste for saying the Mass. This was a chain reaction. When I fell into impurity this was the chain reaction - I no longer said the Mass devoutly because I was no longer in the state of grace. In this condition, the reading of the Bible and of the Gospel, in particular, and also the sight of God's commandments, became a reproach to me.

The above from the a transcript of the damned priest, Verdi-Garandieu, whom God allowed to speak during an exorcism to a give a warning of damnation. So, it's got a stamp of approval from a damned soul. I suppose that's not much in terms of accreditation, but the Saints also have much to say as well. See St Alphonsus of Liguori:

On the other hand, when one recites the Office with attention, what merit and what profit does one derive from it. What lights are then obtained from the divine words! With what holy maxims is the soul penetrated! How many acts of love, of confidence, of humility, of contrition, may one not make by merely paying attention to the verses that one recites! Above all, what beautiful prayers are found in each psalm! There is no doubt that, when recited with faith and fervor, they merit treasures of grace, according to the infallible promise made by our Lord that he would hear whoever prays to him : Ask, and it shall be given you.(Matt. 8:7) For every one that asketh, receiveth.(Luke 9:10)

My Affair with the Office
I first got started in the Office way back in 2009 when I bought an anglican breviary it was a translation of the 1955 Roman Breviary, so it was the EF office. During those days of tepid faith, I started clumsily with Compline. I loved it, especially the hymn, Te Lucis Ante Terminum, but unfortunately, a lack of mental stamina prevented me from overcoming the ribbon flipping and mountain of instructions. After a while, the saying of compline dropped out of my prayer routine.

It was only this year actually, after finding out all my friends were actually saying the office and so I thought, you know I'd better succumb to peer pressure like a good peer-pressure succumbing youth and jump on the bandwagon. I had, for sometime now, an app on my Ipod Touch, called Breviarum Meum, which allowed you to download the text of the EF Office into your phone for the week, which had both the Office in Latin and English.

See the none of this would have happened if I hadn't gotten into the habit of sleeping early and waking up at 3am to study. I just get more work done in the morning before heading off for morning Mass. I used to joke that me getting up so early was practice for saying Matins, which are usually sung at 4am in monastic communities. Unfortunately, God took too me seriously. I had originally started with Lauds, Vespers and Compline, each about 12 mins, and then I eventually, I felt that I had to add the little hours, Prime, Terce, Sext and None. The little hours are actually very short, and take about 5 mins each, with the exception of Prime (8 mins).

Before I knew it, I was toying with the idea of Matins...and BLAM! I'm waking up daily at 3am saying Matins every day at 4. And I loved it. Matins on normal days takes about 20 minutes to say, and on days with 3 nocturnes takes about 35 minutes. See what happens when you even joke about praying more?

All in all, if you're trying to squeeze in an hour of prayer a day, the Office is the way to go. It comes in delightful bite sized pieces. The aforementioned Dr Marshall has a really lovely piece on praying the Office. Read it here: http://cantuar.blogspot.sg/2010/12/how-to-pray-divine-office-in-latin.html. It is by far, the best article I have read on it yet. 

I've also never actually said the Office in the OF, also called the Liturgy of the Hours, before. I started with EF by coincidence and have just start with it. If you want to know more about the differences between the two, read the comments in the above link on Dr Marshall's blog. All I can say, having looked at the OF Office, is that is is a kind of Divine Office lite, though they have more readings of the church Fathers. Try out the online versions and see which one you like.

Anyway, don't let all this waking at 4am be an obstacle to your recitation of the office. I am a weird person after all. Now, that I am on holiday and am no longer waking up at 4am to pray Matins (which I miss doing), but I just start praying the Office in chronological order whenever I get up, which is between 10 and 1. I am a slob, I  know. I also used to be very scrupulous about not missing an hour within the proper time frame, it was a great fear actually. Thankfully, after chillin' with some deacons from the Fraternity, they taught me that you can just say the hours as time permits within the span of 24 hours. We were touring Dublin on foot, and they pretty much wiped out their breviaries whenever time permitted. Also, remember that as lay people, we are not obliged to say the breviary. 

I really hate when that happens, because of my short stamina for prayer.

Getting Started

My advice is to pray to God and ask Him for the grace to say the office, and then start with Compline. It is the sweetest and easier office to say, because it is nearly the same every day. Then add Lauds and Vespers. Don't worry about saying Lauds before dawn, just try and say it in the morning. Soon you'll be doing that Pringle thing where you can't stop popping and you'll find yourself saying all the little hours. And you know how the story goes from there.

It helps to start with an electronic form of the Office, because it has all the parts laid out for you in the right order. I.E. not ribbon flipping and confusion. Over time as you get used to it, go out and buy a set of Breviaries. The OF Office, also called the Liturgy of the Hours, comes in a 4 Volume set or a 1 Volume book called Christian Prayer. You should be able to get that from your Church bookstore, you can also order them from amazon or www.divineoffice.org, which also has the hours in English daily. That is a useful way to start. If you want it in Latin: http://www.almudi.org/Portals/0/docs/Breviario/fuentes/breviario.html. If you like to try the EF Office, the hours are available online here: www.divinumofficium.com. Unfortunately there is only one Latin-English Breviary available now, and that is by Baronius Press: www.baroniuspress.com. However, that is a rather dear breviary, but it is worth the price for something will last you over a decade and will be used every day.

For iPhone apps (which I think are available on android too):

OF Liturgy of the Hours:
http://www.ibreviary.com/

http://www.universalis.com/

EF Divine Office:

http://apps.liturgiaetmusica.com/

All the best, and drop me a note if you have any questions or if all goes well for you!

Some thoughts on prayer.

Many people eschew prayer because it is a very difficult thing to do. One often has to force oneself to do it. Yes, it is true, that one does desire to do it, but at times, it certainly does feel like a chore before one starts. And then when you start, it seems to drag on forever, especially when one does a Holy Hour or starts reading Matins on days of first class feasts or even one starts the saying a rosary. I would bet that most Catholics, being the lukewarm king, would probably find that praying more than just the three necessary prayers (the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be.) would be an agony. I think Dr Peter Kreeft talks about this in one of his talks, though I can't find the one right now, but he concludes that it is necessary for believe that prayer be difficult, otherwise everyone get complacent.

But you know what, I welcome that feeling of prayer lasting forever. I want my conversation with God to last an eternity, I just want to spend all my time with Him. I know that I cannot do that now because I  am so attached to the material things of this world and that my heart is still attached to sin. The pain from this timeless striving for concentrating and continual focus is from these attachments, because one cannot be in the presence of the infinite God with stain of sin. One will burn, and that is why in death, should we be fortunate enough to attain heaven by God's great mercy, we go through purgatory to remove all the sin remaining in souls. I pray that He will cut asunder all those horrid bonds of unnecessary things and that my heart will become completely open to Him. And only then, when He can finally come into my heart, and close the door behind will I be able to experience Him without the chains of temporality. Then, I made silent, and listen completely to His sweet words.


That is what the mystics experienced, they opened their hearts so completely to Our Lord, that He was able to dwell completely in their hearts, and they completely set apart from the world, were in a completely connexion with God. I think about St Dominic Slavio, going into his first ecstasy, not realising the hours that had passed by, until St John Bosco tapped him gently on the shoulder. I remember what one very holy priest said about another mystic, St Bernardino of Siena,


'And we don't know to what extent he saint, because Brother Vincent who travelled with him on the same donkey, died just before him, and he was not allowed to say what he knew, because he was always in intimate union with God and often in ecstasy! That is the correct dynamic! God having access to the heart!'


Until my heart can truly commune with my Lord, I shall at least take some consolation in the short glimpse of eternity with my sweet Lord.

The Universality of the One True Church.

The third mark of the true Church as professed in the Nicene Creed is that it is ‘Catholic’, from the greek καθολικός, meaning ‘universal’. This is what I love about her, she is the universal Church, a church for all. She provides a means of salvation for everyone, sinners and saints, regardless of colour, language, culture, or depth of depravity. To each one of these, she provides the same means of salvation: the thrice holy sacrifice of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, in the Mass.

Many, many people with good intentions misunderstand this one fact of the universality of the one true Church. They understand the term to mean ecumenism, acceptance, multiculturalism and plurality of practice. Many of the Catholics I have spoken to keep this weird notion of many roads to salvation, many different spiritual practices. For those enjoy it, there is the Latin Mass, and the rest who want to understand what is going on can attend Mass in the vernacular. Those appreciate it can have chant at Mass, the rest can have praise and worship songs or hymns. Even worse are the ones who don’t believe in the superiority of the Catholic Church over all other religions.

I had a very disturbing conversation with a priest about the starting a Catholic Society in School, and he was not to happy that I wanted to make the liturgy and prayer the foundation and cornerstone of the group. He was worried that people with other spiritual inclinations, like providing care for the others, and corporal acts of mercy would get side lined. The childish pluralistic idea that Catholicism is a buffet with something for everyone!

No, the universality of the Church is not a buffet with things to chose from, the universality of the Church is that there is one sure way to salvation, the cross. To put God at the centre of one’s life, to be completely obedient to the divine will, to go for Mass and receive communion. ‘He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day’. That is the Holy Mass. The religious orders are all the same, the Mass and prayer, and obedience to the divine will are at the centre of these orders, regardless of the minor differences in their expression of spirituality. The Little Sisters of the Poor, in keeping Christ at the centre of their lives, would put down their spoons during feeding time when the bell for prayer rang. In a letter to her sister, there is evidence that St Thérèse of Liseux put down her pen in midstroke to obey the bell.

That is the true universality of the Church, the one means to salvation, through Christ, her spouse. It doesn’t matter if one attends the Novus Ordo in English or the Tridentine Mass in Latin; they are the same Mass. That sacrifice is the one and the same sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. And, there could never be anything less exciting than the Mass. The Mass is where one finds Christ, truly present, in the most Blessed Sacrament! Assisting at Mass is where we participate together with the Christ in the salvation and conversion of souls! The Mass is where you get to meet your God, the God who created everything and everyone in the world, with love, regardless of their belief in Him. If anyone is to be converted to the truth, to belief in Christ, it would not be through endless hours of theological debate, it will be through the graces earned the Holy Mass.

And that is what we as youth need! What we want! Enough of this nonsense of making Mass accessible to youth! Enough of appealing to our hormonal emotions and desire for endorphins. Give us Christ! Give us His Mass in all its splendour! Teach it to us! Enough of bishops, priests and religious camouflaging themselves in civilian attire! Are they not the spouses of Christ, why do they not wear the very wedding gowns and collars that symbolize their fidelity and submission to Him? People complain that they won’t be able to appreciate chant, they won’t be able to understand the Mass if it was in Latin. Then learn about it! Listen to it, read up about it. We live in a world where all these things are accessible to us via a few keystrokes. So if it is inaccessible to you, it is only because you are lazy. That’s why. Why do you not make the effort to learn about the most exciting thing in your life: Christ? And if you are not excited, perhaps you should ask yourself, is Christ really the centre of my life?

Stop waiting around for Christ to come down and teach it to you Himself. He has already come once for our redemption. The next time He comes will be at the of time, to judge the living and the dead. Do really want to wait that long to learn more about Him? It will soon be a lent, what a better time to reconcile with Him and learn about his sacrifice!

‘Ask and ye shall receive’.

Prayer When Unable to Assist at Daily Mass

Go, my Angel Guardian dear,
To church for me, -----the Mass to hear.
Go, kneel devoutly at my place
And treasure for me every grace.
At the Offertory time
Please offer me to God Divine.
All I have and all I am,
Present it with the Precious Lamb.
Adore for me the great Oblation.
Pray for all I hold most dear
Be they far or be they near.
Rmember too, my own dear dead
For whom Christ's Precious Blood was shed.
And at Communion bring to me
Christ's Flesh and Blood, my food to be.
To give me strength and holy grace
A pledge to see Him face to face
And when the Holy Mass is done
Then with His blessing, come back home.

I found this prayer at www.catholictradition.org. is very cute, no?

St Leonard's words of advice when the going gets tough.

It's Advent again, and a time to return our lives to Christ and await his second coming as we celebrate his first. It is a penitential time, a time to shrug of the worldly intoxications that we infatuate ourselves with and return to prayer and Christ. It is a difficult period especially in a secular society that began celebrating Christmas last month. For me, end of term MCQs and final examinations are rearing their ugly fanged heads. Now, it's a race to finish memorising everything that I shall have to know for this term.

When you're in university, no matter the course, it's always a mad rush for time. For me, my ADHD distracts me and biology is dragging me behind, it takes three hours to make each set of notes. I am blessed however, that it is only time that ails me because there are others who struggle with deeper issues than me with regards to understanding work and getting it done. But I-- or rather St Leonard has a solution for any of these problems! (Yes, a one size that fits all solution!)

Let me quote from his precious book, from examples to induce Tradesman or Artisans to hear Holy Mass, emphasis mine:

But you are thinking that the avaricious will never listen except to a tune in their own key. Well, then be it so. Get rich, gather up, make profit. What is the surest way? I will show you: daily hear Holy Mass with thorough devotion. It is plainly seen in the case of two artisans whom I could point out. Both pursue the same trade; one is burdened with a family: wife, children, grandchildren; the other is burdened alone with his wife. The first has brought up his family in great comfort and even style, and has all his transactions turn out wonderfully. Customers at his shop, and sales despatched. So he has gone on, till he finds himself putting by every year a good round sum, to serve in time for marriage-portions for his daughters. The other, who is without children, at one time got little employment, was half famished, and was, in short, a ruined man. One day he said confidentially to his neighbour, 'How is it you do? In your home there rains down every blessing of God; while I, poor wretch, cannot hold up my head; and all sorts of calamities light on my house.' 'I will tell you,' said his neighbour, 'Tomorrow morning I shall be with you, and I will point out the place from which I draw so much.' Next morning he took him to church to hear Mass, and then led him back to his workshop; and so two or three different times, till at last the poor man said, 'If nothing else is wanted than to go to church to hear Mass, I know the way well enough, without putting you to inconvenience.' 'Just so,' said the other; 'hear holy Mass, my friend with devotion, every day, and you will see a change on the face of your fortune.' And, in fact, so it was. Beginning to hear Mass every morning, he became well provided with work, shortly paid his debts, and put his house once more in capital condition. (Sar. in Vit. S. Joan. Eleem.) Trust the words of the Gospel. And if you do so, how can you doubt the fact? Does it not say clearly, Quaerite primum regnum Dei…et haec omnia adjicientur vobis? 'Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.' (St Matt vi. 33.) Make but the trial of a year; hear holy Mass every morning with true earnest devotion for one year, and if your temporal interests do not take a better turn, lay the blame on me. But there is little fear of that; you will rather have many reasons to thank me.

- St Leonard of Port Maurice, The Hidden Treasure

Apart from the long beautiful paragraph which our internet brains cannot endure, you may have noticed that this is intended for artisans and tradesmen, the businessmen, whose interests lies in making profits. How does that apply to me, the student, you cry, bewildered, invoking the names of several dinosaurs. It is simple, because we as students, we too desire earthly profit! Our avarice (greed) is in the desire for time! We are so greedy for it. Time is a material worldly value, it is precious, more so than money and we would be most foolish to waste it. Yet, we jealously guard it from its creator and our's. How many foolish times have I, in my youth, neglected even Sunday Mass, to study! And I thank God that he has made me wiser now, that I should give back to Him, what He has deigned to give me.

Now, my dear friends, I am not saying completely give up your studies to spend all your time in prayer. That is not your vocation, it is, at present to study, however, I am suggesting, that you perhaps, through this lovely advent, spend more time in prayer. If there is only one thing you do for Advent, go for daily Mass where possible, it is only half an hour of your time! If you fear the commitment, than, go more times than usual, go Monday, Wednesday, and Friday perhaps, or even just Monday and Friday. Whatever it is, set aside that time for God daily, and plan your day around it. Let nothing disturb that. Watch the change in your life appear.

That is what I shall plan to do this Advent. If you can, please say a Hail Mary for me that I complete all my exam prep in time!

To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul: in Thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed. Neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on Thee shall be confounded. V. Show, O Lord, Thy ways to me, and teach me Thy paths. V. Glory be. -Introitus, First Sunday of Advent, 1962