Liturgy of the Hours

In response to my "Sacraments" post, dunmoose said...

I also followed the link off Mark Shea's blog. I liked what you said about the Liturgy of the Hours. I have a web page that lists a whole series of resources for lovers of the LoH. It is called the Liturgy of the Hours Resource Page. The URL is: http://www.dboyko.info/loh.html

Thanks, dunmoose. I'm always happy to see all the great Catholic resources that's out there on the web (and there are a lot), especially prayer resources.

The above website also mentions The Liturgy of the Hours Apostolate. It's a subscription service, and well worth it. Personal prayers cost $29.95 per year. Praying the Hours has completely changed my life. I've always loved prayer, and think of it as one of my charisms and a way to serve God and his Church. The Liturgy of the Hours is perfect. The beautiful thing about it is that it connects us to God and his people. It connects us to the work of the Holy Spirit this very day, and since it's praying the Psalms, it also connects us to God's people in every age and in every place. It has revoluntionized my prayer life. I've found that the more consistent I am (one of my perpetual struggles with prayer), the more godly my life is. I'm more patient with the hubby and the kids; I find that less bothers me and that I'm less irritable.

When I started using ebrievary.com about a year and a half ago, my biggest challenge was those hymns. Remember, I'm a "cradle Catholic," but I spent twenty-years in Protestant churches, so although I'm very familiar with a lot of hymns (and actually miss some of 'em), I'm not so familiar with Catholic hymns. So I was pleased when I literally "stumbled" upon a hymns site, called The Cyber Hymnal. It has MIDI files of thousands of hymns, as well as lyrics, scores, and history. I've found it to be an invaluable resource as I pray the Hours.

I probably pray the Hours a bit differently than most. Because of my busy schedule, I've found that it's best to pray the Hours at the end of the day, after everybody's gone to bed. If I pray it silently, it takes about twenty minutes. Often, I'm exhausted and don't feel like it, but I've found that if I push through it anyway, I benefit.