Daily Prayer
I purchased this four volume set for my husband. They are a beautiful, bound in leather, set that will be hopefully handed down for generations. My husband feels a calling to the permanent deaconate and wanted something to help guide him in his daily prayer life. Often he has comments and insights that he has gleaned from these wonderful prayer guides. Many priests and religious use the Liturgy of the Hours and have for centuries. The Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: Liturgia Horarum) is the title given to the four-volume breviary containing the official prayer of the canonical hours by which a day is consecrated to God. This set of books is issued by the Church of Rome. A similar prayer service has formed part of the Christian Church's public worship from the earliest times, and Christians of both Eastern and Western tradition. The early Christians continued the Jewish practice of reciting prayers at certain hours of the day or night. In the Psalms we find expressions like "in the morning I offer you my prayer"; "At midnight I will rise and thank you?; "Evening, morning and at noon I will cry and lament"; "Seven times a day I praise you". The Apostles observed the Jewish custom of praying at the third, sixth and ninth hour and at midnight (Acts 10:3, 9; 16:25; etc.). The Christian prayer of that time consisted of almost the same elements as the Jewish: recital or chanting of psalms, reading of the Old Testament, to which were soon added readings of the Gospels, Acts, and epistles, and canticles such as the Gloria in Excelsis Deo. Other elements were added later in the course of the centuries. I would definitely recommend the Liturgy of the Hours to anyone who wants a deeper prayer life.
