When I was teaching my children to pray, the first prayers were the basic ones. Table Grace was the first prayer they learned, followed by the "Our Father", the "Hail Mary" and the "Guardian Angel" prayers. Then the rosary became our traditional family prayer that bound us tightly together outside of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the highest form of prayer they grew familiar with from their infancy. A decade into having a three children family, I discovered the Divine Office which was first introduced to me as the Liturgy of the Hours (LOH) while visiting a small Pentecostal Catholic Church in a neighboring diocese. A gold nugget, not just for holy orders but for the laity too. So, I bought each of my family members a LOH missal and we began to pray with some decent regularity as commanded by our Lord through Saint Paul in 1Thessalonians 5:16-18 to "pray without ceasing". But when I became increasingly disillusioned with the modern Mass, also known as the Novus Ordo, as God would have it I was rescued by a wonderful human being who was and still is extremely active in teaching priests how to celebrate the Latin Mass. Finally, I found my truest peace of mind by gaining access to the Traditional Latin Mass, the Mass of my mother and father. This led gradually to busting open the double doors to learning about the massive amounts of Traditions great and small, known as the unwritten Word of God, heretofore hidden from my hearing and view. Finally bringing me to set aside the modern Liturgy of the Hours missal and welcoming with tremendous excitement the ancient Divine Office I now pray that basks me in the wellspring of Psalms that our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ had prayed with His Holy Family, Saint Joseph and His/our Blessed Mother while walking upon this earth. There are 150 songs in Psalms of the Holy Bible, the written Word of God. The Divine Office is for laity and Holy Orders. The true gold nugget! The hours of prayer of the Divine Office are broken down into prayer times called Matins, Laudes, Prima, Tertia, Sexta, Nona, Vesperae, and Completorium. Now, I try to maintain a practice of Matins followed directly by Laudes in the morning, then Vespers and Compline in the evening followed immediately by reciting the Rosary. Laudes and Vespers contain 5 Psalms each. It is said that if you pray at all of the designated times each day for a month, then you will have recited the entire 150 Psalms. A bathing in God's merciful love that the Jewish people were so familiar with for more than a thousand years before Christ was born, then not surprising it was a principal way in which our Lord prayed in His own home. Wonderful to know. The app I use a lot but not exclusively is called Breviarium Meum on my iPhone. So easy to use and a wonderful way to get introduced to this ancient prayer form. God bless you all.
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