Catholic Book Club: The Handy Little Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours

Hello friends! A little mid-week interjecture for us this Lent with a book review on one of my favorite Catholic topics of all time: the Liturgy of the Hours! This is part of a larger series from Our Sunday Visitor (other volumes include prayer, spiritual communion, adoration, confession and Lent; hark, I may need to pick that last one up!) and this one is written by our very own community member, Barb Szyszkiewicz! 

The Liturgy of the Hours is one of the most meaningful parts of my spiritual life, and I've read a number of books discussing it and/or addressing how to pray it, as it does involve a bit of finessing to get used to how to find your place in the style of volume(s) you ultimately end up choosing. This little book has all the deets on the different options available for praying this treasure of the Church (both physical books and apps), and guidance on how to get started diving in and praying it. It also has a heartwarming SOS section addressing some of the major concerns people have as they navigate their way through the process of making the Hours part of their daily prayer routine. My personal favorite involved what to do if you pray Evening Prayer in the morning, or vice versa, or you pray the completely wrong day and set of prayers. Asking for a friend.

😂

Because it happens to everybody! 

Barb also includes the story of her journey on how she came to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and how she taught her husband to do it, at his request, during the pandemic. I really enjoy personal faith testimonies, and I LOVED this chapter in the book!

As the title would indicate, this is a short book that you will zoom right through, especially if you devour books on your favorite topics like I do. And it does an absolutely marvelous job of both introducing you to this form of prayer if you're new to it/intimidated by it, and getting into some nerdy nitty gritty for those that are more familiar with praying the Hours. I will be referring back to this little gal frequently I can already see, when I have a question about solemnities, feasts or memorials, lol!

I LOVED this guide to the Liturgy of the Hours, and it is now a permanent part of my bookcase for easy reference! If you also read the Handy Little Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments, and if it inspired you to begin praying (or get back to praying) the Hours!

Happy obsession with the Liturgy of the Hours continues, and Thanksgiving knitting...

Hello everyone, and somehow it's been two weeks since I last checked in! Last weekend was just one of those times that I got to Sunday, and realized that I had forgotten to blog. 😳 My mind is definitely awhirl these days between the kids, being back to work and teaching in-person, and my own happy dance and crafting stuff. Let's do some updating on ALL of those things, and also talk about Daytime Prayer! :-)

My kids are doing great, I'm so happy to see them thriving at school this year. School masses are back at both places (Henry still had some last year, just outdoors) and Anne is even doing a reading at the 5th grade Mass next Thursday! Really looking forward to that. Both Mike and I are back to teaching in-person at our respective colleges, and it's been delightful. Teaching to mostly dark little squares on Zoom definitely wasn't my idea of a good time. 

Amidst my new daily routine, I have been happily growing my Liturgy of the Hours habit. My little Night Prayer volume has become an indispensable part of my nighttime routine, and so when I saw that Catholic Book Publishing Company has a similar standalone volume for Daytime Prayer, I pounced. :-0

The convenience of the slim volumes is really appealing to me. I'm finding that it's really motivating me to pray more throughout my day, so that's a win/win! Come Advent, I know I'll want to be all up in the Proper of Seasons in the blue volume of my 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours set, and I cannot wait. 😍

In crafting news, I'm moving into cozy fall/winter projects. I currently have a Thanksgiving shawl on the needles:

Pattern is Acalypha from Expression Fiber Arts

We'll see if it makes it off my needles before Thanksgiving 2022, but hope springs eternal. ;-) And in dance news, I'm taking a new coursse on Zoom called The Online Dancer, and it's about shooting and editing video footage specifcally for dance. I am STOKED about this, as I am a total beginner at this, and think this will be so valuable for me to learn, and challenging in the best possible way! To some extent, online dance productions are here to stay, even if they becoming increasingly more hybrid with in-person performance. But the ease of gathering people from around the world in one show is something I don't see totally disappearing, and that's actually a good thing. Nothing replaces in-person events, but having a mix of both, highlighting their strengths, is a great step forward, in my opinion. And so I'll be working on my first homework assignment this weekend. 😁

How is everyone doing this week?! Any other Daytime Prayer partners? This is an hour/hours I have never prayed before, I'm excited to dive in!

Night Prayer anyone?

 

Happy Friday everyone! I've been diligently working away in the Everyday Holiness course, and finding myself quite inspired by it. :) One of our tasks this week was to try and incorporate Night Prayer into our daily prayer routine. I haven't prayed Night Prayer in many years, but I did in the past and loved it. The psalms and other prayers are so peaceful and perfectly related to falling into a soothing slumber.

I missed the first Everyday Holiness group Zoom chat, unfortunately, but Shauna'h happened to mention to me as she was relaying all the fun details that someone on the call had a special little volume just for Night Prayer. Hark. The librarian was on the case. 😂

I have the 4 volume set for the Liturgy of the Hours, but grabbing the current green volume for Ordinary Time and setting it on my nightstand made me immediately aware of two things:

(1) it took up a lot of space, ha! And,

(2) now, I would need to ferry the breviary between upstairs and downstairs for it to be in position for both Night Prayer (needed upstairs on my nightstand), and then Morning and Evening Prayer (which I pray during the work day or in my living room). 

A separate volume especially for Night Prayer would solve this problem! I simply had to order a copy. :-0 It's now on it's way to me, and I have to say, I'm super excited about this! I think a small volume that snugs on my bedside table and is devoted just to prayer at night will really motivate me to keep up with this practice. I've prayed Night Prayer the past few nights (while I await my new prayer partner) using my old one volume Christian Prayer breviary, but it also is quite large, and frankly has seen better days. It's got quite tattered in the time that I used it prior to acquiring the 4 volume set. So I'm excited about my new Night Prayer addition! Does anyone else regularly pray Night Prayer? 

An eye opening octave of Easter, and spring crafting as we journey towards Pentecost...

Hello all, and I hope you are well on this Easter Friday! I've been enjoying the season so, so much, and I've been continuing on with my journey in the Liturgy of the Hours. In fact, this was also the subject of my Catholic Mom piece for April. 

And here's something I didn't know! I guess I've never praying the Hours during an octave before, but...for Morning Prayer, you're literally using the same Psalms again and again from that particular celebration (Easter or Christmas) and praying them over and over for 8 days. Because the octave is a continuation of the celebration of that solemnity. That makes perfect sense, but I had not realized that that was how it worked before in the Liturgy of the Hours. One learns something new every day! It's one of the things that I love the most about our faith, the richness of the traditions and devotions. 

And my supplements came!

I am IN LOVE. 😍 The Dominican supplement, in particular, is fascinating in it's depth of coverage for all of the Dominican saints and blesseds. And for major Dominican saints, even where they're covered in the main breviary, the supplement has additional stuff for them (for example, the feast of St. Dominic is a solemnity in the Dominican order). Now that we're past the octave, I'll be excited to dive in when saints in the supplement come up in the calendar!

This has all been such a lovely addition to my daily routine. Now I can't imagine my days without the cadence of Morning and Evening Prayer. I've also been doing some crafting, and enjoying that as well. I'm working on a series of hats themed after the National Parks, one each month for all of 2021, and it is so delightful. I'm signed up to receive the kit each month with the yarn the designer chose specifically for that month's pattern. I am currently working on March, called Crater Lake:

I just love the rich blue shades in here! I am a huge fan of hats, I wear them all the time. Now that it's spring, the weather is all over the place here in WNY. Sometimes it's mild, but sometimes it's freezing (hat AND coat), or it's chilly, so I'll just wear a sweater and pop a hat on instead of bundling up with a coat. Works out well!

I'm also working on a cotton project (cotton is a favorite of mine in the spring and summer!) and making a bag to carry my yoga mat in:

The tube shape is underway! It's pretty simple, and works up very fast since it's crocheted. Ultimately, it'll have a drawstring tie and a strap to carry it on your back. I've needed one of these for years, so I'm glad that I'm finally getting to it! I'm trying to use up some of the yarn stash that I have acquired over the quarantine period 😬 and this lovely orange sherbet cotton is one of those additions. We're getting there!

How has your Easter been going? Any spring projects that you've started? Let's hear about them in the comments. :-)

A beautiful Holy Week, and some unexpected developments in my prayer routine...

Hello all, and HAPPY EASTER! I hope that you had a spectacular Holy Week and Easter Sunday, and that Easter blessings continue to shower your way. For my part, I doubly enjoyed it this year, after missing the liturgies so much last year. I didn't make it to the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, but I made it to both the Good Friday liturgy, and the Easter vigil. It was *so lovely*, and I felt so blessed and grateful to, (a) be there with my kids, and (b) be a part of something so much larger than myself that is so magnificently rich and beautiful. It really struck me anew this year at the Easter Vigil how much I have to be grateful for, and how much I value my faith. 

And I decided to do something new this year. Instead of giving up/resolving to do something for all of Lent, I decided to try and pray both Morning and Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours for the entirety of Holy Week. I mentioned an idea to my sister and a few mutual good friends that we could perhaps pray them together when we could via video chat. We began on the vigil of Palm Sunday, and though here and there 1-2 of us couldn't make some of the sessions, we were able to pray the Hours together a lot during Holy Week, and on the times we couldn't be together, we prayed them individually. It was so uplifting and cheering, and I looked forward each day to seeing the faces of those who could make it, along with any children who came along for the ride. :)

This all worked out so much better than I ever could have expected. I was so inspired by our commitment to this that 6 days into the Easter octave, I'm still praying the Hours. Mostly by myself because evenings were tough for everyone this week, but I've been praying Morning Prayer with my sister pretty much every morning (we're in the same time zone, definitely makes that easier!), and it has given a lift to my days that I haven't felt since the pandemic started. I've also found myself seeking out books about praying the Hours, and commentaries/reflections on the psalms in the Psalter, because my curiosity has been so whetted. I treated myself to this as an Easter gift, and am LOVING IT:

This is all quite unexpected. Although I've long had a love for the Liturgy of the Hours, I've never found a routine for praying them with regularity and consistency. I've picked up the St. Joseph guide each year and prayed here and there when the mood struck, but it sadly hasn't been a daily thing for me. Now I find myself craving more and more information about this form of prayer, and adding in additional Hours when I can (Daytime and Night Prayer). It's so delightful that I'm just going with it, hoping that this means it will really stick this time. I even have the Supplement to the Proper of Saints on it's way, as well as a special supplement for Dominican saints! 🙌

So my Holy Week and first week of Easter have been even more special than usual. I'll likely continue to blog about the Liturgy of the Hours and how that is going, and generally about spiritual topics this Easter season. I'm still planning out what I'd like to focus on here at the blog for Easter season and summer Ordinary Time. Thoughts on what you'd like to see? How was your Easter?! I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

On headaches and 30 day prayer challenges...

Soooooooo, I had a totally different post planned for today about discernment. And then...today happened. It was not a good day, work-wise. The semester starts Monday, and as is our new normal, we're all running around putting out fires that NEVER start back in June. They only start 2 days before classes begin. Every.Single.Time.

I felt frustrated. I felt stressed out and harried. I felt like I was forgetting things from moment-to-moment, as is always the case when I'm trying to do too many things at the same time. I developed a headache.

As I popped an ibuprofen, I thought of the text string I had with Sam last night. As we were talking about the stress of the new semester approaching (Sam is starting a brand new job as a teacher in a combined 1st/2nd grade classroom!) I said that I was really feeling deep in my soul how important prayer was going to be for me this semester. So that I wouldn't sink back down to the abyss of anxiety and depression and happened last fall (we will heretofore refer to the fall of 2016 as "That Semester" and shudder whenever we hear it's name). I had an official "Fall 2016 Managing Stress Series" last year for a reason. It's painful to reflect back on.

At any rate, back to prayer. Sam, my sister, and myself are in the midst of a 30 day yoga challenge for stress relief and relaxation.Which may not seem to have anything to do with prayer, but stay with me! :0 I mentioned to Sam how I longed to get back into a routine with praying the Liturgy of the Hours, but it's just SO difficult to stay consistent with it (footnote: the Liturgy of the Hours is the official prayer of the Church; it is made up of hymns, psalms, and other short prayers relating to the liturgical season and/or feast day). She and I both then commiserated on just how many times we've failed miserably at keeping up with Morning and Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. Then I had a eureka moment:

"We should do a 30 day challenge for *that*!"

Right?! For 30 days, we'll endeavor to keep up with this form of prayer. Now, Sam and I both agreed that Morning Prayer? It's just not happening. We're realistic, you see. We're up by 6 (Sam even earlier than that), I have kids out the door by 7:20, Sam has a 40 minute commute, we both have classes first thing...Morning Prayer just isn't going to fit in there. Doesn't mean we can't pray a morning offering, but official Morning Prayer would only make us cry. So what we thought we would try is for 30 days, praying Evening and Night prayer. Something to look forward to after our long days, and both are designed to be SO soothing for weary souls. Would you like to join us?

If you own Christian Prayer, or the 4 volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours, you're all set.  If you'd like to use an online tool, there is the iBreviary app, which is available for both Android and ios, or you can use Universalis. I have the Divine Office app, but I know that isn't for sale currently while they work out a copyright situation. It doesn't matter what you use, as long as it allows you to pray!

We're going to start Monday, 8/28. I can have accountability posts in here from time-to-time, so we can check in with each other and see how it's going. It made me feel SO much better to think of this today in midst of my Nightmare Day From The Pits Of The Evil One.

If you'd like to join us, or just have thoughts generally on helpful forms of prayer for stressful times, please comment below!

*heart*

Getting all tech-savvy with my prayer life - the Divine Office app :0

Happy Election Day everyone! I'm reporting in quickly, as I still have stuff on my to-do list and I want to leave a hair early to go vote. Mike and I are total Election Day nerds and have a full evening planned of walking to our polling place to vote, cooking a special meal, and procuring an autumn-inspired growler of ale with which to watch the returns later.

#fun!

But I wanted to mention something that became quite a little obsession of mine over the weekend - the Divine Office app. Let's discuss, yes?

I've only had a smartphone since May, so this whole newfangled world of apps is fairly new to me. I am aware that even using the word "newfangled" makes me sound ancient, so let's just press on, shall we? ;-) I own the 4 volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours. I have used them in the past, and I adore them. Plus - beautiful, leather bound books. This in and of itself is a huge plus for me. I'm a librarian, I love books.

I spent quite a bit of time reading up on how to *use* the print volumes and became decently proficient at ribbon placement and flipping. This could be a new Olympic sport for Catholic librarians, I'm thinking. It is not easy, I tell you. There are Propers here, and Psalters there. Feast days everywhere. :0 It takes a definite commitment to sort it all out. There were seasons in my life in which I was very good about toting the appropriate volume along with me and then praying Morning and Evening Prayer. But most of the time...they sit on my bookshelf and look lovely.

Every once in a while, Lent or Advent will roll around, and I'll make a resolution to pray with them for the entirety of the season, and usually the wheels come off of that plan long before my goal. There was one Advent, when Henry was a baby, that I stayed on course not only throughout Advent, but Christmas season as well, and it was spectacular. But I've never been able to keep at it for the long term.

Well. Then I acquired aforementioned smartphone and learned all about the beauty of apps. It was *months* before I realized that there were APPS for Facebook and Twitter and doesn't that make things so much easier?!?!

Yes, I know. *delicately clears throat while adjusting bun* Then I found all sorts of fun apps for things that I use all the time (Amazon, Etsy) and my universe was happily expanded. I downloaded the free Laudate app and the Pope app and figured I was good to go.

I kept hearing about the awesomeness of the Divine Office app, but I never really pursued it much after finding out that it was $14.99. Not that $15 is breaking the bank for me, but that's a lot for an app, right?

Well, it is, but WOW. I finally bit the bullet over the weekend when I was in my happy All Souls Day cloud and downloaded it from the Google Play store. No more flipping - each day is all set to go for you, saint feast days and any other solemnity goodness included. You open it up, and bam! There is your day, with the entries at your fingertips to click on, for:

• Entry about the day generally
• Invitatory
• Office of Readings
• Morning Prayer
• Midmorning Prayer
• Midday Prayer
• Midafternoon Prayer
• Evening Prayer
• Night Prayer

And the best part is yet to come, wait.for.it... There is the text there, yes, but for each there is an *audio file*. It is a thing of beauty! Click on it, and you feel like you're in a monastery praying along with your community.  LOVE.

They have about a week ready to go in advance, so you could always download the files if you're going to be traveling and prefer to save your data. I really, really love it, it was worth every penny. I've been using it daily, fitting in whatever offices I can, and it's been a joy. With Advent coming up, I feel like it's the perfect time to try and use it for a full liturgical season again. Here's hoping. :)

Of course, it is also available for iOS, and I hear that version has this precious little spinning globe, noting with points of light where others are praying using the app. I WANT. That isn't a part of the Android version just yet. :0

Does anyone else pray using the Divine Office app? Chime in!

Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

This is another interesting factoid courtesy of my Lenten Liturgy of the Hours foray. I've noticed this feast on the church calendar in the past, but never paid it much mind. This year, it seems particularly poignant that it falls within the week that Pope Benedict XVI will resign.

According to my Proper of Saints for February 22nd:

Chair of Peter, Apostle
Since the fourth century, the feast of the Chair of Peter has been celebrated at Rome as a sign of the unity of the Church founded upon that apostle.

There are special antiphons for today, plus a completely separate reading, intercessions and prayer. For Evening Prayer, I see that we will use the Common of Apostles rather than the Psalter. I know that I am a nerd because I find this so fascinating. All I can say is thank goodness for these little St. Joseph guides for praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

Tonight our dance class is off due to another commitment by my teacher, so I'll be at home happily knitting by Mike's side as we watch a movie. Fittingly, it has started to snow, just to make things cozier for us, isn't that nice?

Tomorrow, Mike and I are going out to dinner to celebrate my birthday, and Sunday I'm making a pizza so that we can watch the Daytona 500. Mike rolls his eyes whenever I mention this, but I always remind him that many men would love to have a wife who was interested in auto racing. He always compliments be appropriately. :) It should be a nice weekend.

Feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius

See the things you learn when you pray the Liturgy of the Hours? All sorts of interesting things.

On day two of Lent, my resolution to pray morning and evening prayer is going very well, ha! I do love it. If it continues to go well, I'm going to try to continue into the Easter season. We'll see.

Speaking of prayer, I needed the extra power this morning. We had an abysmal night with Anne (day 4 of the Nights of Misery series, coming to a theater near you) and this morning I was in tears. I do well now with one bad night even two. Being beaten down into submission with sleep deprivation will do that do you. Your standards sink immeasurably low. But more than that in one stretch really starts to get me down. I'm hanging in there.

This afternoon, I'm planning some needed grocery shopping followed by picking up Chinese takeout for dinner. Hank and I baked a cake last night and we'll frost it tonight as well. Anything we can do to cheer up is a good thing, I think.

*sighs*

So far, a blissful Lent

Yes, a rare Saturday post. :) I'm actually working today, one of my required undesirable shifts. And the library is deader than a doornail, so I'm blogging.

We're on Lent day 4, and so far I'm loving it. I've been keeping up with my morning and evening prayers in the Liturgy of the Hours, and can I just say, I absolutely love those books. I have the full 4 volume set, and they're a bit pricey, so I acquired them one at a time as I needed them. Makes it much less daunting to spend about $35 a pop rather than well over a $100 for the full set at one time. I think I was able to get one individual volume on Amazon, but the others are all available individually from the Catholic Book Publishing Company.

It's just so, so soothing. To learn how to pray them, many years ago I purchased The Divine Office for Dodos. I'm going to be honest and say that I found the "dodo talk" grating after awhile (all right, I found it grating right away) but the content is top notch. So, based on my foundational knowlege of how to pray the hours, after I eat my breakfast and am having a quick cup of coffee while assuring that Anne does not tear the house apart, I pray the invitatory, and then morning prayer. I skip the hymn, because my singing is appalling. But I adore those little seasonal antiphons with the psalms (a perk to the 4 volume set, the antiphons are right there and are repeated at the end of the psalm, so less flipping) and my favorite parts are the reading, the intercessions and the final prayer, all found in the Proper of Seasons. They're all very targeted to the liturgical season but also to the time of day. Lots of hope and motivation for daily tasks in the morning, reflection and self-examination in the evening.

For evening prayer, I just carve out time in spurts wherever I can surrounding dinner preparation and clean up. So far so good.

And being at home since Ash Wednesday has been such a blessing. I had some comp. time coming, and my mother-in-law needed to have cataract surgery (she watches Anne for a few hours each day while Mike teaches) so I was glad to pitch in during the day when I would ordinarily be working.

And the time for reflection has proved fruitful. This Lent, I feel that God is calling me to let go of my fear of change and really pray about what is to come in my future. Certainly, my vocation is to my family, that always comes first. And my job is pretty important to the family right now, for the income and health insurance benefits. But I'm just wondering about the future. Maybe God has something else in mind for me one day to earn money? Maybe I could work from home? I have absolutely no idea. And I'm happy to be at my current job (and very grateful for it) for as long as we need me to be. But for the first time in as long as I can remember, it's been on my heart that God may ultimately have something else in store for me. I don't know what or when, but I don't need to worry about that. Everything will work out. Just like it did with Mike's career situation. I never would have thought that we could have him home as much as he is with the kids and not working full time, but there you have it. He is, and it's wonderful.

Being home with the children has been awesome. Granted, sometimes challenging:

"Mommy, want to hear how I can count to FIVE THOUSAND?!"

"Anne, please don't SUCK on the *grocery cart*!" (I swear, she learned this from her brother. I'm not germ phobic, but seriously. Let's be reasonable here.)

but it is very, very rewarding. Monday I return to the grind, alas. But next week I'll review my first selection of spiritual reading for this Lent, and it's one of my all time favorite Catholic works of non-fiction. And it is not a spiritual classic, because I'm going to be honest and admit that I'm weak and am just not spiritually advanced enough to concentrate on those for any length of time. I'm all about the personal stories. And this book fits that bill. I've also decided to purchase a new book (pretty rare these days, but we're ordering season 1 of Downton Abbey and we need just a bit more to get free shipping anyway :)) and I'm super excited.

*happy sigh*