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The
Divine Hours like most variations and revisions
of established forms,
is born out of contemporary need. In particular the manual
strives for simplicity or familiarity of wording and
ease of use. Not only will such an approach reassure
those Christians
who have not yet begun the practice of keeping the hours,
but it will also provide even the liturgically accomplished
with what one
observer referred to as “a welcome
lack of so many ribbons.” With few exceptions,
the entire text for each office is printed within that
office,
and the rubrics or headers of each part of each office
are in contemporary rather than ecclesial English. The
first evidence of this approach is in the manual’s
title itself. Prayers for Summertime uses the
assignations of the physical year
rather than those of
the liturgical
one. The rough correspondence in this case
is between
what the Western Church now calls Ordinary Time and what
common
speech calls summertime. The liturgical color appointed
to Ordinary Time, however, is green; and in recognition
of that, the rubrics and headers of each office are produced
here in green. The offices in this manual are appointed, as is often
done now, not by the
date of each individual day nor
by the week of the liturgical year, but rather from the
Sunday of each week of the physical calendar. The Church
has long assigned certain prayers, readings, and intentions
to certain days of the week. Thus, Friday is normally
regarded as a penitential day, Saturday as a day of preparation
for corporate worship, Sunday as a sabbath. Ordering
the offices
by numbered dates rather than from the first
Sunday of each week obscures these historic rhythms. Following
current Church practice, the offices appointed for
each day are four
in number: morning, noon, vespers,
and compline. Following the ancient
principle of accommodation,
there is flexibility about the hour or half hour
within
which each may be observed. The morning and vespers or
evening
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prayers
adhere to the general configurations of their antecedents, and
the
noon office is an amalgam of the Little Hours of terce, sext, and none into one
whole. The fourth—compline—is frequently referred to as “the
dear office.” Unlike the others, compline is fixed by the individual and
not by the clock, for it is observed just before retiring. Because compline is
indeed the dear office of rest and because it is freer in its timing, it is also
more repetitive or fixed
here in its structure. For this reason, there is only one week
of compline texts for each month of the manual. Thus the compline
for the first Monday in June is the compline for each Monday in
June. Each
month’s texts are preceded by a prefatory page that
gives the page number for that month’s compline texts; the
physical or calendar date of saints’ days and observances
for the month; and the text of the Gloria and the Our Father. Most
Christians are so absolutely familiar with both of these fixed
prayers as to need no assistance in praying them. For that reason,
they are the only parts of the daily offices not reproduced here
within the texts of each office. On the other hand, new Christians
or those just commencing the practice of the offices may find it
reassuring to know that these two integral components are immediately
available at the head of each month. The
Feasts and saints’ days of the Church are so numerous
as to be only rarely incorporated in toto by any breviary or manual.
Rather, each selects for inclusion those holy days that are the
major observances of the Church as well as some that seem most
applicable to the volume’s intended communion. Although this
manual lists on each month’s header the exact date of observation
for each selected observance, it follows the pattern of celebrating
the saint or feast on the Monday of the week within which the occasion
falls. This system allows the user the flexibility to choose between
precise commemoration or that of the memorializing week in general.
In the event, as in third week of July, that there are two observances
in one week; the later one is celebrated on Thursday. To
facilitate the Church’s increasing emphasis on sacred
texts, The Divine Hours incorporates readings into three offices—morning,
noon, and compline. To make such incorporation possible, hymns
are primary here only in the vespers office, just as some of the
more repetitive practices of earlier manuals have been omitted.
The list of the symbols and conventions used in this manual, which
follows, will enrich the user’s understanding of some of
the other particulars of The Divine Hours as well.
PLEASE NOTE: During Lent, most Christian communities omit The Gloria. "Alleluia" is always omitted from every part of the Church's worship during Lent. The use of both is restored at Easter.
Copyright ©2000
Phyllis Tickle. From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by
Phyllis Tickle. Reprinted with permission of Doubleday Books.
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