Praying the 'Hours'

 Praying The Hours - An Introduction

Praying The Hours provides a rhythm for our days, establishing a rhythm in order to connect with the sacred. Bee is speaking about the Catholic way of praying the hours. The Liturgy of The Hours has changed over time and is sometimes called The Divine Office and within that are the canonical hours (hours that mark the divisions of the day in terms of fixed times of prayer at regular intervals). A book known as a ‘Breviary’ containing weekly cycles of psalms, prayers, hymns, antiphons, and readings which changed with the liturgical season is commonly used.

Bee will be making her own book of hours and is collecting quotes and images that are meaningful for her. In Bee’s favourite book about praying the hours there is a wonderful quote- Meister Eckhart says,

 ’If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is Thank You, it will be enough’

If we just stop what we are doing to say thank you, if we come out of clock time/calendar time to move into sacred time then we’ve done it. A pause is enough.

‘Pete Greig says the reason for praying the hours is to get to know the creator of a hundred billion galaxies’

 

You don’t have to pray for an entire hour, just a part of it to fit in with our day. Don’t try to squash the prayer but try to expand sacred time but our focus and purpose is for us to decide.

There is a video from the silent minute bell in the chalice well gardens that she plays at midday and 3pm (sext: noon and none: 3pm known as the little hours). A bell is a good way of marking the pause.

The little hours are Terce (9am) Noon and None.

As we get into the winter evening livestream will coincide with vespers (lighting of the lamps).

We will discuss how we will fit our community praying of the hours. Sunrise prayers are called Prime which last an hour.

Christine Valters Paintner (abbeyofthearts.com) talks about praying 4 and Macrina Wiederkehr suggests praying 7 which is biblical but there are also 8. You could do morning, lunchtime and evening or morning, lunchtime, evening and bed or the canonical hours. The minimum could be one but in order to feel the day is held by the sacred then maybe 3 is a good minimum number.

It is recommended to collect quotes, mantras, poems, videos, etc., to create your own Book of Hours as a reminder why you are praying and to develop focus.

Current Quotes:

Mary Oliver- The hours are appointed and named; they belong to holy time (slightly abridged) life’s fretfulness is transcended. The different and the novel are sweet but regularity and repetition are also teachers.

Repetition is very grounding and reassuring. Wendy says, ‘repetition is boring until you need it and then it becomes magical’ Bee has found people like the repetition during live streams.

The liturgy of the hours forms the official set of prayers that mark the hours of each day and sanctifying the day with prayer. In the church the liturgy, the hours are to do with praying the psalms and Bee will choose poems on the psalms by women and other alternatives.

Bridges of faith and healing.

The traditional hours are

7 daytime hours and one at night.

The idea of the seven comes from Psalm 118 and 119 where it says ‘7 times a day I praise you’ and in Psalm 119 verse 62 it says, ‘At midnight I arise to praise you’ so that gives us 8 hours.

Praying the ‘Hours’ is the practice of putting down whatever we are doing and taking a break. This can be a big challenge to prioritise and then surrender to prayer. To respond to an alarm and choose to stop and just breathe can be a challenge. A reason to have our own Book of Hours is that it is a lovely thing to choose to engage with. The alarm Bee uses is an app called Woodland alarm clock. Teaching ourselves to stop is an important discipline. Lots of spiritual traditions weave pauses into the day.

Good to choose a saint for each of the hours. Bee tends to have a theme for each ‘Hour’.

God is the eternal now ‘John O’Donohue’

At dusk Vespers/evening prayer.  The lighting of the lamps is a moveable prayer

Compline/night prayers before bed at 7pm (may be a bit early)

Matins/vigils in the middle of the night. Bee finds this a very beautiful time. Bee uses Li Ban as the Saint for vigils.

Dawn prayer/Lourdes another moveable prayer.

Prime/early morning prayer

9am Terce the third hour (little hours)

Sext noon (little hours)

None 3pm (little hours)

Books

Seven Sacred Pauses, Living mindfully through the hours of the day by Macrina Wiederkehr.

A book relevant to all faiths and highly recommended by Bee. Macrina was a Christian nun and was part of the Saints Galastica Monastery in Fort Worth. She died last year aged 80.

“More and more people find themselves drinking at the wells of each other’s spiritual traditions and engaging in a deep and common quest” Jim Wallace.

Sacred Time, Embracing an intentional way of life by Christine Volters Paintner

She recommends having 4 pauses dawn day dusk and dark which she calls the four hinges.

Awakening Inner Peace, a little book of hours by Sister Stan

Praying the dark hours, a night prayer companion by Jim Cotter

The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle

The Divine Hours, Prayers for the summertime, Phyllis Tickle

A Book of Hours by Henri Nouwen (a more traditional Christian book with lots of illuminated pictures).  A book with 4 weeks’ worth of prayers.

A good idea is to gather pictures that speak to us to use in contemplation.

So, are we saying that holding one of the ‘Hours’ for a specific saint, deity, beloved are you acknowledging them, embracing them, being held by them. What would you say?

Bee: I’d say that I am trying to sink into the feeling of them. For instance, I think I’ve got Saint Kevin as my sunrise saint who was the saint who held out his hand to the blackbirds’ nest. So, I might at that time think about supporting the world or how I might support nature or how we hold something very precious in our power. I suppose I use them for my inspiration for the hour or I think about what they are saying to me and I consider that in some way. I don’t always think about them at all, and I am early on in this so I try not to overwhelm myself.

There are many Saints connected to birds. Saint Kenneth, Saint Cuthbert, Saint Kevin, Saint Pega and many more.

A history of the hours read from the book A Book of Hours by Henri Nouwen.

‘In England around the year 1240 William Debreyall (sp?) of Oxford produced the first book of hours to have survived. He was not only a scribe but also a gifted illuminator. During the time before the printing press the book of hours was handwritten and hand painted on velum made from the skins of sheep. It was written in Latin in immitacio of the liturgical hours enclosed monks and nuns followed during their day primarily centred on the recitation or chanting of the psalms. The book of hours which in England was called a primer also included the little office of the blessed virgin, The office of the dead and the litany of the saints. The monastic day entailed seven canonical hours; vigils, matins with lourdes, prime, terse, sext, nones, vespers and compline. The major hours were chanted communally whilst the small hours were generally prayed privately. Most books of hours were made for literate aristocratic women which were highly treasured not only as prayer books but also as works of art. They were often lavishly adorned with jewel like paintings with scenes from the bible and the lives of the saints. In England scenes from the life of Thomas Beckett were popular particularly renditions of his martyrdom at the altar of Canterbury. Before long owning a beautifully scripted and illustrated book of hours became a status symbol. After the black death wealthy English laypeople started purchasing the books made in the Netherlands and France. With the appearance of the printing press in the 15^th Century the book of hours became a more popular book of devotion among the literate than the salter (the salter is the psalms, liturgical calendar and liturgy of the saints) and the primer was the book of hours and contained everything.  Not only aristocrats but also plebians had access to the book of hours. Correlating their hours of worship with the holy prayer life of monks and nuns. The book of hours was small enough to fit into a pocket or hidden in ones dress so that a person carried her ‘cell’ wherever she went. Subversive pockets!

*We will ask Euphoria about her work on the birds and the Hours and pool our thoughts about it all.

By 1530 the Book of Hours moved towards the vernacular (not in Latin) and the more English that was contained within its pages, the more coveted it became. Even when England broke with Rome it remained a favourite devotional book. Bee says:  ‘It’s just a human compulsion isn’t it, to connect with the sacred and the book of hours is such a beautiful pattern of doing that.’

Any reference to the Pope or Thomas Beckett had to be obliterated. Between 1558 and 1599 no Catholic book of hours was produced in England.

 ‘There is magic here today, there needs to be a modern psalm for the wild goose. Our own one’

Macrina Wiederkehr:

She talks about drinking from the wells of one another’s traditions, ‘These words have found a nesting place in my heart and the beautiful truth they contain is like a prayer shawl that I keep wrapping around my great longing for spiritual communion with all beings. I am steeped in the spirituality of Jesus, deeply rooted in Christianity. This is where my home is. I believe that when roots go deep enough eventually, they entangle with other roots. This entangling it seems to me ought to bring us joy but often it fills us with fear. I want to give up my fear of other religious traditions, I want to wrap my prayer shawl around lur entangled and entwined roots in the lovely gesture of a blessing so that we may continue our spiritual quest together and learn from each other’s sacred practices. As a member of a Benedictine community, I have been blessed by the practice of honouring the hours through conscious pausing for prayer at specific times of the day. When I speak of the hours I am referring to those times of the day that the earths turning offers us: midnight, dawn, mid-morning, noon, mid-afternoon, evening and night. Although every hour is sacred these special times have been hallowed by centuries of devotion and prayer.

A reflection of all those hours: It’s possible to develop a kindred spirit with these rich historical hours that does not require praying specific texts or going to a particular place for prayer. Each hour has its own unique mood and special grace. You can learn to enter into the spirit of the hour wherever you are no matter what you’re doing you can pause to touch the grace of the hour. Living in harmony with the hours requires faithful practice in the art of mindfulness. Striving to live mindfully is a universal quest and belongs to us all. Living mindfully is the art of living awake and ready to embrace the gift of the present moment.  The hours have been revised and expanded in many ways and in the course of history been known by various names, The canonical Hours, The Divine Office, The Prayer of the Hours, The Divine Hours, The Liturgy of the hours. I was taken by surprise at the beauty of the hours and the immeasurable wisdom of moving to the natural rhythm of the days and nights. The daily and nightly dance of the hours is a universal way of honouring the earths turning as well as the sacred mysteries that flow out of our spiritual heritage. This ancient tradition of inviting people to move through the day remembering their source of life is not a practice that is died, it is alive and well in many traditions.

Everyone may find their own rhythm without needing anything else. Bee will do further livestreams to delve in deeper.

The seven ‘sacred pauses’.

At midnight I rise to give you thanks, we proclaim in Psalm 119 verse 62 and in verse 164 in the same Psalm we pray seven times a day I praise you. The early church and monastic communities have tried to honour the invitation of these scriptural texts in the following manner.

Matins/vigils Traditionally this hour was prayed in the heart of the night, however due to the fragility of the human condition it is understandable that in many communities Matins was moved to the early morning hours when it was still dark. It became a pre-dawn prayer.

(Joining Matins and Lourdes means you only have to get up once)

The theme for this hour is vigilance (being in vigil). Keeping vigil are the sentinels of the night, I call this hour the night watch.

Bee says, during this prayer you have a sense of keeping vigil for those who are sleeping, keeping watch for spirit and being present for spirit in a way that is very intimate and it is very beautiful. This is Bee’s Li Ban praying the hours.

Lorde’s/morning prayer Ideally prayed at sunrise is the first of the day hours and has praise and resurrection as its central themes- the resurrection of the light. Rising early we watch for the coming of the light (The awakening hour).

Bee calls Lords at dawn the enlightening hour and prime at sunrise the awakening hour.

We can find our own way through the hours to suit us and our needs

The little hours

These will be during the day when we are going about our business so they may be shorter pauses or we may not be able to pause at all. We make work sacred by praying the hours by bringing ourselves back to the sacredness in the centre of our work several times a day that Bee finds to be a very liberating experience.

Our simple efforts to turn our thoughts briefly back to God, to the dance of life, to the mindfulness of the present moment

Pious Parse (SP?)  calls them breathing spells for the soul.

Terce 9am is the blessing hour. The beginning of our day we practice a holy presence remembering that the blessing we seek is already in us. We invite the spirit into our work and we remember the sacred nature of our work.

Sext at Noon is the 6^th hour. The hour of light when the sun is at its height. The hour of illumination that Bee calls the beautiful resistance hour. Bee feels the noon and 3pm have similar themes and feelings and she is working them out.

The hour of light, the sun having reached its peak in the heavens illuminates all things. This is the hour of courage, recommitment and passion. It is a good hour to practice believing that peace on earth is possible.

Nones the 9^th hour The Wisdom Hour. An hour to reflect on the impermanence of life. Bee says it is also a kind of forgiveness hour. If we have been stirred up at noon by thinking of the firefly resistance, the beautiful resistance then 3pm is a good time to forgive the world for all of those things because part of being able to sit with the sacred is being able to forgive life and forgive the world and that is a practice.

Vespers. Dusk The Lighting of the Lamps or twilight hour. Time to move from the tumult of the day to the quiet of the evening. This is the hour of the day most often prayed festively and publicly. You celebrate this beautiful hour in community, I call this the twilight hour.

Compline. Night prayer is the last hour of the day often prayed privately or in small groups when we turn our thoughts inwards, review our day by means of gentle re-evaluation of our work as a pilgrim of the hours. A time to lay everything down and draw a line under all that has gone before. This is the hour of intimacy. It is love rather than guilt that ought to enrobe us as we enter into what monasteries call ‘The Great Silence of the Night’.

These hours are important archetypal images of the movement of the day. In that we are continuing the ancient dance of the hours using scripture, poetic prose, poetry, song, personal stories and quotes.

May you be able to respond in a way that is authentic for you on your unique spiritual path.

When Bee prayed all of the hours she found she had a lot more energy and that she was much more in touch with herself and a lot more ‘on it’ It is about finding a way back to a better rhythm and forgiving ourselves always. This will be difficult like going to the gym can be difficult. We are pilgrims questing a way for ourselves.

Poems about praying the hours-

Christine Voltners Paintner from the book Sacred Time

St Aiden of Lindisfarne

Macrrena Wiederkehr: The hours do not wait for me, they move on into eternity without me

She talks about using a bell to call us to the prayer of the hours, an instrument of invitation even if it annoying!

With thanks to our Pastor Jacqueline Durban for the instruction and to Rachael Galil for typing up the live stream. For more information, visit: 

https://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.durban

http://radicalhoneybee.blogspot.co.uk/