[Father Sam Anthony gave me permission to transcribe a draft he had composed for his talk at the 1983 OCDS Congress in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The text below presents his words with minor editorial changes (i.e., converting the text from all capital letters, and making rare spelling corrections). Essentially it is a verbatim reproduction of his conference. -Jean S. Bottorff, O.C.D.S.]

by Rev. Sam Anthony Morello, O.C.D., STL

INTRODUCTION-Before beginning the treatment of our subject I would like to make a few introductory remarks of fact that will hopefully serve our understanding of the Liturgy of the Hours and better prepare us for the considerations of this presentation.

First of all, we want to acknowledge that we get a Christian sense of liturgical time of the day from the Jewish synagogue, our mother religion. We speak of liturgical times within the one period of twenty-four hours, one day. The Jewish temple observed Shacharit, a morning service; the Minchah, a midday service, and the Ma'ariv, an evening service. On the Sabbath and certain feast days, another morning service called the Musaf was added. And once a year there was a fifth service on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) at the close of the day, called Ne'ilah. The early Christians inherited a sense of those hours as we have documented by St. John's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Christians began to pray at those hours in private in sympathy with the temple worship. In the temple those services had the double spirit of benedictions (praise) and intercession.

The early Church used to meet in the morning and evening for some psalmody, scripture reading, and perhaps a homily. This is the origin of Christian Lauds and Vespers, Morning and Evening Prayer. That practice gave rise to what is called the cathedral tradition, the Morning and Evening Prayer meetings of Christians with a basically catechetical intent, to instruct and motivate the faithful.

Another tradition arises with the origins of monasticism. The fourth and fifth Century monks of Egypt kept the practice of meeting twice a day for praise and intercession. They, however, initiated vigils in the early hours of the morning before daybreak, and kept to the hour of sunset with vespers. Each time they met they prayed twelve psalms with a couple of biblical readings Their Office was not catechetical or instructional, but basically cultic (though we must not exaggerate the intent of either the cathedral or monastic Office in favor of instruction or praise exclusively).

As the hermit monks added Matins (or Vigils), the community monks (cenobites) added Prime and Compline to the already developing schema of liturgical times that grew out of the three Jewish hours. Thus, St. Benedict in time would prescribe that Benedictines meet eight times a day for the opus Dei of the work of God, as he called it. Those times were: Vigils in the night, Lauds or Morning Prayer, Prime as a workday preparation, Terce around 9:00 a.m., Sext about noon, None about 3:00 p.m. (The little hours here corresponding to the three Jewish hours as I understand things). Vespers at sunset, and Compline about the time of retiring.

THE VATICAN II REFORM OF THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS. We now turn our attention to the main lines of thinking of the Vatican II architects of the reform of the Liturgy of the Hours.

For any serious student of the Vatican II mentality, I give here a list of the documents which addressed the question of the reform of the Breviary.

1. SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM. December 4, 1963. The great conciliar document on the reform of the liturgy. It was approved by the bishops 2158 votes strong, with only 19 against. Chapter IV (Articles 83-101) are devoted exclusively to the reform of the Office. (This was the first time ever that a Council drew up such detailed guidelines for the Liturgy of the Hours).

2. THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION, Laudis canticum, by Pope Paul VI on November 1,1970, promulgating the new law on the Office and making way for the "General Instruction on the Liturgy on the Hours." This is a short document of some seven pages, published by the United States Catholic Conference, 1971. Therein you can see the aspirations of the Pope for the new Office.

3. Lastly and the most practical to study since it contains the spirit of and is a practical implementation of the conciliar directives-THE GENERAL INSTRUCTION ON THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS published in Latin by the Vatican Polygot Press in 1971 as the official directives to be prefixed to the Divine Office itself in the new Breviary. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops published an English version in 1971. (The Liturgical Press also published the document with a commentary by the Dominican liturgist, Fr. A. M. Roguet in 1971. It is still a very helpful manual for students of the new Office.) Yet another aid for your study is the little pamphlet "MAKING THE DAY HOLY" by the Vincentian liturgist, Charles E. Miller, published by the Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1975.)

Now with our eyes on these documents, we will make some statements which I hope will be very helpful for our instruction in and our appreciation of the new Office.

1. The new Office reform was undertaken principally for pastoral ministers. Notice it is not the monastic Office that is the subject of the reform. Rather the changes have the Breviary in mind which is used by the priest in private and those non-monastics who pray the Office in common. We note, then, that the reform is aimed at the busy person engaged in the Apostolate.

2. Next, we advert to the fact that the Council deliberately chose to follow the monastic tradition rather than the cathedral tradition, thus retaining the cultic nature of the Office. There was a very strong current at the Council calling for an Office which would look more like spiritual reading than the traditional Office. Especially Bishops of the Third World were of this mind. But the Benedictine influence at the Council, small in representation indeed, nevertheless won out. It was overwhelmingly decided to retain an office whose essential elements are praise and intercession. The cultic Office was seen as one's best apostolic tool.

3. The notion of the sanctification of specific times of the day was also retained from the monastic tradition. True, the number of Hours or times to be marked were reduced to five from eight to make that easier. Prime was suppressed. Of the Three Little Hours, one is free to choose any one at its approximate time, and furthermore, Vigils was renamed the Office of Readings so that without any designated time, one praying that section of the Office outside a monastic context, could do so when most convenient, perhaps attaching it to any other Hour prayed. Thus, four times are to be marked by the priest: the time about sunrise for Morning Prayer, an appropriate time for one of the Little Hours [Daytime Prayer], sunset for Vespers [Evening Prayer], and bedtime for Compline [Night Prayer]. And then at one's own timing, the Office of Readings can be prayed.

4. Then, consistent with the old cathedral tradition which many bishops favored, the Council chose to emphasize two hours as the principal ones: Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. (As we know, these are the Hours the Secular [Discalced Carmelite] Rule calls for, along with Compline [Night Prayer]). Morning Prayer celebrates both creations, the first of nature and the second of resurrection grace. Evening Prayer is Eucharistic in that it is a thanksgiving hour that reflects with gratitude on God's saving presence to the Old Testament history and to New Testament history all the way up till the present. These two hours are called "the two hinges on which the daily Office turns" (S.C., no. 89a). We want to feel a special affinity to these two hours and endeavor to recite them daily in union with the entire Church.

5. We note how no Hour has more than three Psalms or three sections of a Psalm. This is a reduction from the typical five of the last Office of the Roman Rite for Lauds and Vespers. St. Benedict had spaced all 150 Psalms over a one week period. The Council called for "some longer period of time" than "throughout one week's time." The post Conciliar Commission chose a four-week cycle, thus distributing the 150 Psalms over the space of four weeks for those who say all the hours each day (as many of you do).

I'd like to note that here again the Council is being faithful to the monastic tradition. In the Early Church, the cathedral practice was to pray only certain Psalms at Lauds and Vespers, Psalms which reflected particular themes or times of the day. It was the monastics who expanded the rule to include each and every Psalm.

6. Great attention was called for in the ample selection and distribution of Scripture readings; more and better selections of the Fathers of the Church and other ecclesiastical writers were ordered by the Council. And content related to the lives of the saints was to be chosen according to strict historical standards. When we look at the finished product of the Office of Readings (which some of you say beyond the call of duty), there is much satisfaction expressed.

Here again we have an expression of fidelity to the monastic tradition. The monastics engaged in what was called lectio continuua or the ongoing reading of Sacred Scripture at the Office.

At the Office of Readings we have quite an extensive offering of biblical fare. More is on the way; there is a supplement that will create a two-year cycle of biblical readings for Office sayers. The supplement will be looked on as optional. This biennial arrangement. . .allows the inclusion every year of nearly all the books of Sacred Scripture, as also the long and difficult passages which rarely have a place in the Mass and partly in the Liturgy of the Hours (General Instruction, no. 146)

I wish to express personal satisfaction over the great selection of writings of the Fathers in the new Office at the Office of Readings. The theology, the catechetical instruction, the liturgical documentation of Early Church practice, the poetry, the mysticism, the pastoral manner of the Fathers edify me no end. And then we discover so many other ecclesiastical authors that we didn't even know existed. Our tradition comes alive, both that of the East and the West. The new Office is already rich. I am anxious to see and use the additional supplement which is being prepared in English.

7. Returning to the Council, I wish to conclude my review of the reasons, the spirit and the how of the reform of the Liturgy of the Hours by speaking of the aspirations of the Council and of Pope Paul VI for the new Office. The Council hoped for a rediscovery of the treasury of the Office once revised. The final articles of the conciliar document invite everyone to participate in the Prayer of the Church in common, in parish Vesper services, and in private (S.C., no.100). (And we may note that it is now held that anyone who prays the Liturgy of the Hours or any part of it performs a liturgical prayer). Some who say it by obligation still have a special deputation to pray officially in the name of the Church in the capacity of their priestly office or of their religious profession, but everyone prays as the church when he/she prays the Office. We perform a liturgical act even if we pray it all alone. (Your Rule, in calling you to pray the Office of Lauds, Vespers, and Compline, thereby gives you the added dignity of deputation to pray officially in the name of the Church, in my opinion.)

Pope Paul VI in Laudis canticum very clearly expressed the aspirations of the Council: "Now that the prayer of Holy Church has been renewed and entirely revised in accordance with its very ancient tradition and in light of the needs of our day, it is supremely to be hoped that the Liturgy of the Hours may pervade and penetrate the whole of Christian prayer, giving it life, direction and expression and effectively nourishing the spiritual life of the people of God .

"We have, therefore, every confidence that an appreciation of that 'unceasing' prayer which our Lord Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church will take on new life, since the Liturgy of the Hours, distributed as it is over suitable intervals of time, continually strengthens and supports that prayer. [Laudis canticum, no. 8: LH, VI, p.16]."

In the same apostolic constitution (#3), Pope Paul speaks proudly of the various aids proposed (in the new Office) to kindle a meditative spirit. He mentions the Psalm titles. For example, Psalm 86 [LH, V.I, p. 81] has printed in red before the text the following words: "The prayer of the poor man in distress." This helps one identify more easily with the Psalm as he/she prays it. Then, there is often a New Testament text put in italics after the title: that same Psalm 86, placed in Morning Prayer on Wednesday of the third week, has the following line from 2 Corinthians 1:3, 4: "Blessed be God who comforts us in all our trials.", thus linking an evangelical thought to that of the Psalm. The Pope also sees the retention of the introductory verse called the antiphon as such a meditative aid. The antiphon takes a key thought from the Psalm and presents it as an introductory focus as one begins to recite it. And there is the newly introduced optional pause after the Psalm. If no strong attraction to any particular verse of the Psalm calls us back for reflection, one can very conveniently meditate on the antiphon by gently repeating it to one's self over and over a few times. The Pope refers to these moments of silence and to the Psalm-prayers. We now often have a prayer that follows the recitation of a Psalm. This, too, comes from the ancient monastics of the East. After praying the Psalm, the monks prostrated themselves in silence to add contemplation to their vocal prayer. Then the leader of the choir would break the silence by injecting a short prayer that related the Psalm in some way to the Mystery of Christ and/or the Church. Pope Paul is happy to see this practice reintroduced as an option. The whole text I am referring to by Pope Paul reads as follows: "various aids to meditation on the psalms are provided, for example, titles, antiphons, psalm-prayers, while optional periods of silence are suggested. [Laudis canticum, no. 3; LH, V.I., p. 14]." It was a hope of Paul VI that one would easily be able while praying the new Liturgy of the Hours to join contemplation to his/her vocal praise and intercession. Praise and intercession are what the Office is about. But the renewed Office wants the contemplative element to enter into the very style of public praise and intercession.

8, I want to add my own appreciation of a couple of other new features of the new Office. Intercessions accompany both Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. Try to let the feeling of those intercessions soak in. Morning intercessions are very much in line with the feeling of the sunrise and the start of a new day. They dedicate the new day and ask for the strength and grace needed to live it in the newness of Christ. Evening intercessions have the flavor of the more mellow sunset hour. They give thanks for the blessings of the Church and ask for the needs of the Church. They also commend the faithful departed to God's mercy. At both Hours add your own special intentions, mindful of the opportunity to exercise intercessory prayer in the bosom of a liturgical or public act.

Another beautiful addition to the new Office is the placing of the Lord's Prayer at the end of each set of intercessions in the morning and in the evening. In the Ordinary-instructive part of the Liturgy of the Hours-several ways of introducing the Lord's Prayer are given. It is clear from these that the idea is that the prayer Jesus taught us makes perfect our own petitions. We add the petitions of Jesus to those of the Church for the perfect expression of our needs.

Furthermore, the revisers of the Office had the wonderful desire to return to an ancient Christian practice, attested to by the celebrated book known as the Didache, of reciting the Lord's Prayer three times each day. (That early Christian practice, by the way, seems to have been the Christian way of marking the traditional three Jewish hours.) Christians commonly prayed the Our Father in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. Three such recitations became a hallowed practice. Now the new liturgy has placed the Lord's Prayer at the conclusion of Lauds [Morning Prayer] and of Vespers [Evening Prayer]; and, with the recitation at Mass daily, we once again are praying the Lord's Prayer officially three times every day.

9. Finally, let me say a simple word about Compline [Night Prayer]. Compline prays in its own spirit. It invites an examination of conscience at the beginning and a confession of our sins. It then prays a hymn and a night psalm or two. Attentive to all its beautiful elements, we can easily see how it does two things. First, it consecrates the night's sleep and prays for protection for both body and spirit. And, secondly, it meditates on death as the inevitable sleep that we must all sleep in Christ. Look closely to see if that is not so. Compline concludes with the blessing: "May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death." That says it all. But one more correct notion is that Compline should be prayed at the time one retires even if after midnight. It is a bedtime Hour in the new scheme of things.

10. My conclusion is a call to Masters/Mistresses of Formation, and to all those who like to study: Please read and carefully study the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours. That one document carries all the spirit of Vatican Council II and of Pope Paul VI's desires for the renewal of the Office. It gives the theory, the practical guidelines (for making the sign of the cross at the right times, for example), all the options, and many ways of creatively using the Office for pastoral enrichment. I especially recommend the document with Fr, Roguet's commentary published by the Liturgical Press. I have found it very helpful.

In a word, we want to pray the Liturgy of the Hours rather than merely recite them. As Carmelites we relish the Church's efforts to blend liturgical and contemplative prayer. And, as faithful sons and daughters of the Church in the spirit of a Teresa of Avila, we ought to be the first to willingly study and embrace the new Liturgy of the Hours in the spirit of authentic Christian praise and intercession.

Thank you.

Father Sam Anthony Morello, O.C.D., STL.

[Spelling for the Jewish liturgical terms was found by Jean S. Bottorff, O.C.D.S.on
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Judaism/liturgy.html.]

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