SAINT GABRIEL HOURS
WHY THE SAINT GABRIEL HOURS BLOG?
The purpose of the blog is to bring the good news of Christ into our daily lives by Praying with Christ the Hours of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer: "Every Day Anytime Anywhere. With Anyone" The Good News is that this can be done easily through the use of virtual resources on the web.
Pope Francis makes an important distinction about our style of evangelization. We should be witnesses of the Gospel in our lives rather than its protagonists. This website witnesses some of the resources of the web which our household uses in the daily celebration of the Hours of Morning and Evening Prayer.
My journey with the Hours began in high school before Vatican II with the discover of the English version of the Hours intended for laity and women religious; priests then were still required to pray the Divine Office in Latin. That lifelong journey included collecting liturgical music from Anglican, Contemporary, Eastern and Roman traditions as background to praying the Hours.
As soon as the pandemic began our household began a project of collecting virtual resources, mostly YouTube, for celebration of the Hours in a blog called the VIRTUAL DIVINE OFFICE.
SAINT GABRIEL HOURS, https://saintgabrielhours.blogspot.com/ has been strongly influenced by reading of Thomas Merton's Seeds of Contemplation also while in high school, two years of Jesuit Novitiate, my undergraduate degree from Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota during Vatican II, and a master's degree in spirituality from Notre Dame University in 2008 which included courses on the Liturgy of the Hours, and the Liturgical Year by Robert Taft, S.J. of the Byzantine Rite, the author of The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West. In our course he encouraged to read as much as we could of the work of historians like himself, but then to decide in the light of that evidence what was best for our particular pastoral situations. Taft died a few years ago; I hope he would be proud of my effort to interpret how to use virtual resources to celebrate the hours in our households, small groups and associations.
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DIVINE OFFICE / LITURGY OF THE HOURS
is the Prayer of Christ and the Church
"Christ Jesus, high priest of the new and eternal covenant, taking human nature, introduced into this earthly exile that hymn which is sung throughout all ages in the halls of heaven. He joins the entire community of mankind to Himself, associating it with His own singing of this canticle of divine praise." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #86)
"For he continues His priestly work through the agency of His Church, which is ceaselessly engaged in praising the Lord and interceding for the salvation of the whole world. She does this, not only by celebrating the Eucharist, but also in other ways, especially by praying the Divine Office." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #86)
"Lauds as Morning Prayer and Vespers as Evening Prayer are the two hinges on which the daily office turns; hence they are to be considered as the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #89)
"Christ Jesus, high priest of the new and eternal covenant, taking human nature, introduced into this earthly exile that hymn which is sung throughout all ages in the halls of heaven. He joins the entire community of mankind to Himself, associating it with His own singing of this canticle of divine praise." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #86)
"For he continues His priestly work through the agency of His Church, which is ceaselessly engaged in praising the Lord and interceding for the salvation of the whole world. She does this, not only by celebrating the Eucharist, but also in other ways, especially by praying the Divine Office." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #86)
"Lauds as Morning Prayer and Vespers as Evening Prayer are the two hinges on which the daily office turns; hence they are to be considered as the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #89)
"Lauds as Morning Prayer and Vespers as Evening Prayer are the two hinges on which the daily office turns; hence they are to be considered as the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #89)
VIRTUAL RESOURCES
Virtual resources provide more than the dry bones of the liturgical text. Videos celebrate the Hours with sounds and images. These diverse and inspiring songs are signs of the heavenly liturgy and of Christ joining all humanity to himself in song. These videos invite us to listen, to sing, and to share our songs with others.
Although solitary persons and small groups are merely a drop in the ocean of human communities, videos summon us to the great diversity of persons and communities beyond our immediate experience. As individual and communities we are not alone. We can worship with a host of others across time and spaces. We are members of households, families, neighborhoods, workgroups, associations, congregations, parishes, cities, dioceses, states, regions, nations and continents. We are communities of communities.
Videos (and websites such as this one) can create and build communities as well as provide experiences of community, both communion with those who originally produced the sounds, images and websites, as well as communion among those who celebrate the Hours with the same sounds, images, and websites at various times and places.
In today's societies, we are usually members of many communities; a household, one of more families, a neighborhood, one or more workplaces, one or more parishes or congregations, one or more ministries, and various associations both civic and religion. Each of these, as well as each person within them, have their own experiences, needs and potentials for worship and evangelization. Let us bring the Hours to people of God whenever and wherever we can! Let us fulfill the Vatican II vision of Christ joining all humanity to himself in song!
This website and its video links provide sufficient choices for personal and communal worship gatherings across a variety of selections (e.g. recitation, chants, hymns and readings) without overwhelming us with too many choices. For those who may wish to explore further choices, the website provides links to posts containing an even greater number of videos.
In the interest creating community, it is recommended that everyone sample the choices provided here in order to create community though discussion of shared experiences. Saint Ignatius used the thirty days of the Spiritual Exercises to create shared experiences for spiritual discernment and direction. The Hours with their four- week Psalter can be used for a similar purpose, i.e. a common framework for discernment about types of prayer in general and about the place of the Hours in the lives of both persons and communities
Structure of this Website
This website contains two posts each day. one for Morning Prayer (Lauds) and one for Evening Prayer (Vespers). This is consistent with the emphasis upon the Hours by Vatican II and subsequent documents.
Morning Prayer (Lauds) can be prayed as early as first dawn or as late as late afternoon. When only one Hour is prayed during this period, Lauds is to be preferred to the Office of Readings, Midmorning Prayer (Terce, usually around 9am), Midday Prayer (Sext ,usually around noon), or Midafternoon Prayer (None, usually around 3pm).
The structure of Morning Prayer consists of a HYMN, followed by a PSALM, an Old Testament Canticle, another PSALM, a SHORT READING, a Responsory, the GOSPEL CANTICLE, Litany, LORD'S PRAYER, and concludes with a Collect. CAPITALIZATION indicates those elements for which this website has additional links.
The post for Morning Prayer each day contains the complete official text in three forms: a YouTube link (@PrayingHabits) with the complete visual and audio text of the Hour recited by a small group, a link (@SingtheHours) with the complete sung text of the Hour, mostly by a single cantor, and a link @CathaholicMusic) with the complete text almost all sung accompanied by an organ.
By clinking any of these three links anyone can celebrate the Hour without making any other choices. No other book or booklet or any other virtual resources including the ones in this post are needed. Praying Morning Prayer can be that simple, just one click and about fifteen minutes of our most precious resource, time. Saint Ignatius argues that it far better to pray for only fifteen minutes of quality prayer focused upon God rather than spending hours in prayer preoccupied with ourselves and our concerns. Saint Ignatius wanted Jesuits to spend their time doing God's will by serving others.
Saint Ignatius emphasized quality prayer by urging Jesuits to spend more time on those elements in which they found the most spiritual satisfaction, and to not hesitate to repeat them. If for example we have a hour to spend getting physical exercise on the treadmill or taking a walk in the park, there is no reasons why we cannot use two or even all three of the full text videos to celebrate Morning Prayer.
However, you can also extend and find greater spiritual satisfaction by using the following additional virtual resources: HYMNS, PSALMS, LONGER READINGS, GOSPEL CANTICLE, LORD'S PRAYER, CANTICLE OF SIMEON. Father Robert Taft who my liturgy professor at Notre Dame was found of reminding graduate students that liturgy was ritual: "We do the same thing again and again. People have the right not be be surprised or confused." As a social psychologist I would say the research evidence about music says: "Some variety in high quality resources without many confusing choices makes for good liturgy."
Three Models for Morning Prayer (Lauds):
The Instruction for the Liturgy of the Hours promotes recitation in common as well as singing the Hours. The first option below promotes recitation in common, the second and third options promote singing. Click on anyone of these audio-visual options for the full text of Morning Prayer.
RECITATION IN COMMON MODEL
Excellent model of small (household size) community reciting the office with sung hymn at the beginning. This website link has the complete text and audio not only for Vespers and Lauds but also for the Office of Readings, Midmorning, Midday, Midafternoon and Night Prayer. The textual screen can be viewed as Black on White or White on Black. A good place to begin the Hours. Click on the LINK below to experience Lauds as community prayer whether alone or with others.
COMPLETELY SUNG MODELS
Excellent model of totally sung office, mostly by one very talented young person. Although it uses some Latin, there is always an English translation.
Another option of a mostly sung office, by one person with organ accompaniment. Complete text and some music notation. Latin used only for the Lord's Prayer
PERSONAL /COMMUNAL MEDITATION MODEL
The WORD ON FIRE monthly booklet contains Morning, Evening and Night Prayer for each day. It reads straight through like a book except for the beginning hymns for each hour which are all in the back of the booklet. Very useful for beginners who want to look ahead for the month to plan their prayer. Also, very useful if you or your group wants to pray the Hours using a lectio divina model, e.g. underlining and annotating the text. The booklet for any given month, e.g. February will not be exactly the same next year, because the day of the week will not fall on the same calendar date. However most of it will be the same. Save the booklets to give away to others as examples.
