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Summary: The Divine Office - A Way to Holiness
Review: I encourage any faithful Catholic to pick up a copy of these volumes and begin to pray the Divine Office (a.k.a. Liturgy of the Hours).The bulk of the Office is the reading of the Psalms on a four week cycle. The remainder are scripture readings, hymns, prayers of intercession etc. Be forewarned however, that if you are completely unfamiliar with the Office you will need a bit of a tutorial... For those of you who don't have the money to buy all of the volumes at one time, make the effort to buy them invidually either here or elsewhere. Be persistent and you can the vinyl covered volumes in this way. I have yet to find the leather volumes sold individually. Although I would certainly recommend this leather set, the vinyl volumes are very nice as well. However, the main point is that praying the Divine Office has steadily increased my faith in, and understanding of, Jesus Christ. Now I know why the Church has prayed the office for these long hundreds of years. The Divine Office is truly amazing and life changing. I have no hesitation in recommending the Divine Office to all of my Catholic brothers and sisters. May your faith, hope, love and charity grow the "Prayer of the Church."
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Summary: A book to live and grow with
Review: I started with the one-volume "Christian Prayer" and moved to this four-volume "Liturgy of the Hours" after a couple of years at the advice of some beautiful, praying people I have met in the third order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and on the internet. The four-volume set has many more readings for the day and more prayers than "Christian Prayer" (which I've thought of as the Reader's Digest version of the Liturgy of the Hours). [On the other hand, "Christian Prayer" does have the music as well as the words for the songs (the Liturgy of the Hours has only words), so you can sound out songs you may not have heard before]. I'm glad I invested in the leather binding for the 4-vol. Liturgy of the Hours. It is more expensive, but worth it. The book lies flat without you holding it down. This has been useful when I have prayed in the hospital, while nursing a baby, or had to leave my prayers for a moment before coming back to the page. The day prayers are brief and have provided me with a healing respite when in the middle of a hectic work day, stopping in a church to pray a bit, settle my heart and fears, and refocus on the Lord. The Office for the Dead has consoled me recently, with its tender focus on the mercy of the Lord. The poetry section has introduced me to poets whose work I never knew was so deeply influenced by their faith. (I'm carrying John Donne on my Palm Pilot right now.) "Keep in mind that Jesus Christ has died for us and is risen from the dead. He is our saving Lord, He is joy for all ages." This book can remind you of that joy throughout your days and even during a sleepless night.
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Summary: Beyond Compare
Review: If you are seeking a way to delve deeper into your Catholic faith on a daily (even hourly) basis, this is the foremost way to do it. The Church's liturgy includes prayers, hymns, Scripture and homily readings that will carry you through the day.
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Summary: get some help!
Review: It takes a while to get the hang of using the Liturgy of the Hours, but it is well worth the effort. I highly recommend finding someone else who already prays the Hours to help you learn to navigate. The easiest way is to pray with them until you can find your way on your own. There would very likely be someone in your local Catholic parish who can help you. The Liturgy of the Hours can be used for private prayer and meditation as well as for communal worship. Concentrating on the words, it is easy to lift one's heart to God. The translations of the Psalms and Canticles are beautiful. The one-volume set has the music in the back of the book. The four-volume set assumes you already know the melody to the hymns. If you don't know the melody, you can read them as poems instead of singing them.
Rating:
Summary: get some help!
Review: It takes a while to get the hang of using the Liturgy of the Hours, but it is well worth the effort. I highly recommend finding someone else who already prays the Hours to help you learn to navigate. The easiest way is to pray with them until you can find your way on your own. There would very likely be someone in your local Catholic parish who can help you. The Liturgy of the Hours can be used for private prayer and meditation as well as for communal worship. Concentrating on the words, it is easy to lift one's heart to God. The translations of the Psalms and Canticles are beautiful. The one-volume set has the music in the back of the book. The four-volume set assumes you already know the melody to the hymns. If you don't know the melody, you can read them as poems instead of singing them.
Rating:
Summary: the Divine Office--A prayer for the Spiritual man
Review: The Divine Office is a literal fullfillment of the psalm that says, "seven times a day I praise you." It is a great prayer. The lay should pray it as do the religious--all seven if possible but if not at least office of readings, morning prayer, evening prayer, and I would recommend night prayer.
Rating:
Summary: the Divine Office--A prayer for the Spiritual man
Review: The Divine Office is a literal fullfillment of the psalm that says, "seven times a day I praise you." It is a great prayer. The lay should pray it as do the religious--all seven if possible but if not at least office of readings, morning prayer, evening prayer, and I would recommend night prayer.
Rating:
Summary: great prayer of the church
Review: The liturgy of the hours has been in use for a long time in the Catholic Church. It is wonderful book which has psalms, old testament readings, new testament readings for each season for the liturgical book. It helps a person to follow's Jesus' commandment to pray always. I have used this book for the past 12 years I found it very helpful in my prayer life. I plan to use it for the rest of my life.
Rating:
Summary: great prayer of the church
Review: The liturgy of the hours has been in use for a long time in the Catholic Church. It is wonderful book which has psalms, old testament readings, new testament readings for each season for the liturgical book. It helps a person to follow's Jesus' commandment to pray always. I have used this book for the past 12 years I found it very helpful in my prayer life. I plan to use it for the rest of my life.
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Summary: Practicing the Presence of God
Review: The Liturgy of the Hours is a great stepping stone to transforming our entire lives into prayer. The single volume Christian Prayer is a good starter. With the discipline of sticking with it daily, we tend to thirst for more. Then the four volume, more extensive set becomes a valuable purchase. The organization of its volumes into the various liturgical seasons better than the single book enhances our ability to focus on them. Where can this lead? By dedicating each thing we think, say or do as a pray offering to God, we gradually grow into a state of constant prayer. It isn't necessary to be directly thinking about God as we pursue each task of our daily lives. Simply their dedication makes of them a prayer. The result is that we become consciously aware of God's presence on an ongoing basis. It's like when a person is standing behind us. They see everything we do, hear everything we say but we can't see them. Yet we KNOW they are there, and are aware of it at all times. Once we are constantly mindful of God's presence, we allow Him to begin the purgative process, as St John of the Cross explains it. We think of hell as a 'firey furnace,' yet in the New Testament fire refers more often to God's love than anything else. In Hebrews and Wisdom 3, Scripture speaks of gold being purified in fire. Gold jewelry is an alloy with another metal, to enable crafters to shape it into a permanent, hardened state since gold is a soft, maleable metal. When we heat it up to 2500 degrees, though, it returns to its molten or liquid state, and the other metal (or 'impurity') easily separates from the gold, leaving only the pure, 24 carat gold. Constant awareness of God's presence allows Him to begin to burn away our impurities by exposure to the fire of His perfect love. We feel the dissonance of everything that we think, say or do with His love when they fail to conform with that love. This spiritual discomfort becomes a gentle pressure, as we naturally begin to conform our lives to that fire of love. As we yield to His love and permit Him to transform our lives thus, we grow closer to entrance into perfect union with Him, which is essentially what heaven is. John of the Cross notes that this is what happens in Purgatory, but that we can make greater strides in that process during this life. One by-product of this type of spiritual growth is that we acquire a keener sense of what God's will is. In the Last Supper discourse of John's Gospel, Jesus repeatedly says that whatever we ask for in His Father's name shall be done for us. St John qualifies that, though, in his first Letter by adding that what we ask of God must be in accordance with His will. As we conform our lives to His love, we increasingly feel more exactly what is in concert with it and what is not. Thus, we become more refined in terms of the prayers of petition that we ask of Him. The Liturgy of the Hours is an excellent way to strive toward the prayer discipline that lets God draw us into that deeper spirituality, and ultimately into perfect union with Him for eternity.
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