Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours [Anglais] [Imitation cuir]

Christian Prayer does have one thing the 4-volume set does not, however: music for the daily hymns. I don't know all of the hymns and can follow along with the music to sound out how it must go. Occasionally, I've visited at another parish and heard for the "first" time a hymn that I've sort of hummed through on my own with Christian Prayer!

There are shorter morning and evening prayers in Christian Prayer than in the 4-volume set. It can take less time to get through. And I have taken it on a trip when the period of the trip will take me between two volumes of the Liturgy of the Word.

In size, Christian Prayer is about as big as a Bible. (Liturgy of the Hours takes up 4 Bible-sized volumes). It took about three years before I grew so fond of and dependent upon the prayers that I cannot start my day without them. At first, I struggled thinking I surely did not have time for 15 min. to a half hour of prayer in the morning. Now I would sooner go out without my makeup and hair styled than without my armor on. Christian Prayer and/or The Liturgy of the Hours can grow on you in a healing way.

But this past year (three years later), I have rediscovered this treasure. Recommended by a friend, I ordered this book, read the instructions and began to pray along, more or less every day. It was helpful! It's amazing to me how rich the psalms and readings actually are. And begining and ending the day by prasing God seams somehow to frame the day in a calmer, more forgiving light.

I recommend making a pact with yourself to open it every day (whether you hit the snooze one too many times or not!) It works great for a Lenten discipline, at least for me. And, oh, you have to make a pact with yourself to actually read, and think, and pray about the texts used. My eyes do tend to spead read...

Its a really good way, in my opinon, to both feel united with the church as a whole and remember who it is that we should begin and end each day praising! And these big red books with ribbons aren't nearly as forbidding as they appear!

Where can this lead? By dedicating each thing we think, say or do as a pray offering to God, we gradually grow into a state of constant prayer. It isn't necessary to be directly thinking about God as we pursue each task of our daily lives. Simply their dedication makes of them a prayer. The result is that we become consciously aware of God's presence on an ongoing basis. It's like when a person is standing behind us. They see everything we do, hear everything we say but we can't see them. Yet we KNOW they are there, and are aware of it at all times.

Once we are constantly mindful of God's presence, we allow Him to begin the purgative process, as St John of the Cross explains it. We think of hell as a 'firey furnace,' yet in the New Testament fire refers more often to God's love than anything else. In Hebrews and Wisdom 3, Scripture speaks of gold being purified in fire. Gold jewelry is an alloy with another metal, to enable crafters to shape it into a permanent, hardened state since gold is a soft, maleable metal. When we heat it up to 2500 degrees, though, it returns to its molten or liquid state, and the other metal (or 'impurity') easily separates from the gold, leaving only the pure, 24 carat gold.

Constant awareness of God's presence allows Him to begin to burn away our impurities by exposure to the fire of His perfect love. We feel the dissonance of everything that we think, say or do with His love when they fail to conform with that love. This spiritual discomfort becomes a gentle pressure, as we naturally begin to conform our lives to that fire of love. As we yield to His love and permit Him to transform our lives thus, we grow closer to entrance into perfect union with Him, which is essentially what heaven is. John of the Cross notes that this is what happens in Purgatory, but that we can make greater strides in that process during this life.

One by-product of this type of spiritual growth is that we acquire a keener sense of what God's will is. In the Last Supper discourse of John's Gospel, Jesus repeatedly says that whatever we ask for in His Father's name shall be done for us. St John qualifies that, though, in his first Letter by adding that what we ask of God must be in accordance with His will. As we conform our lives to His love, we increasingly feel more exactly what is in concert with it and what is not. Thus, we become more refined in terms of the prayers of petition that we ask of Him.

The Liturgy of the Hours is an excellent way to strive toward the prayer discipline that lets God draw us into that deeper spirituality, and ultimately into perfect union with Him for eternity.