Do you want to see a bunch of Catholic geeks get into a squabble? Walk up to a group of Catholics and ask them which is the best version of the Liturgy of the Hours. Sit back with your popcorn and watch the fun begin.
After the dust clears, they will all agree that it doesn’t matter that much which version a person uses to pray the hours, what matters in the end is whether or not the person is praying the hours. So, use this review to decide which version is best for you, but in the end, join in the prayer.
Priests and religious in the Catholic Church are required to pray the Liturgy of the Hours 5 times a day using the breviary. Lay people are encouraged but not required to pray the hours. Some lay people pray all five and some pray fewer than five each day.
Lay people can pray the hours however they want, but if you want to pray in communion with the larger Church, it is worth learning how to pray, when to pray, and why to pray; however, that discussion is larger than the space I have for this post, so I will just focus here on which book is best to suit you.
The Four Volume Set
When I first learned about the Liturgy of the Hours, it was from a priest friend who used the only version available at the time, the four volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours. The priest called it his breviary. That is the official name for the book used to pray the prayers of the day. There are so many prayers each year they are divided into four books.
Volume I “Advent Season, Christmas Season,” Volume II “Lenten Season, Easter Season,” Volume III “Ordinary Time, Weeks 1-17,” and Volume IV “Ordinary Time, Weeks 18 – 34.” If you don’t understand the titles for the books, it is best if you try one of the other versions to be discussed below.
It can be very confusing just figuring out which volume to use as well as which pages and prayers to use. Each year one must purchase a little pamphlet called an Ordo to find the right prayers and pages each day.
And then came the Internet
If you are traveling and happen upon a group of priests and they are all staring at their phones, chances are they are praying their breviaries. I traveled to France with our parish priest and his friend one summer and they used their phones to pray their breviary the whole time.
There are a couple of apps to use that really take the work out of figuring out what to pray. All that fuss looking up the day’s prayers gets old fast. Many Catholics have reported “inheriting” a four-volume set of the breviary from a priest friend or religious friend and look forward to praying with them. I know, a lot of people “just have to have a real book.” I get it. I’m not one of them though.
One of the best free apps to use is called iBreviary. I love it. It includes the Liturgy of the Hours, the Missal, Readings, Prayers, and Rites. It is free, but they welcome donations to keep it going. Several of my friends use the Laudate app. It is free also. It is worth having even if you don’t use it for the breviary. It has everything a Catholic could want. Really. Download that right away. I actually upgraded my iPhone just so I could have that app. It was worth it.
What if you really want an actual book version?
There are three popular actual book versions that are used by many with great success. I have the one I started with as a home schooling mom: Christian Prayer and two that I alternate between: Liturgy of the Hours for Benedictine Oblates and Shorter Christian Prayer.
I use them mostly at home. When I’m traveling, I use the iBreviary app on my phone. At home, I like to use the book and have my phone in a different room to keep me from getting distracted by notifications.
Christian Prayer and Shorter Christian Prayer are available at any Catholic bookstore and on the Amazon store online and the Benedictine version is available at St. Meinrad Archabbey’s bookstore in St. Meinrad, Indiana or from their online gift shop smagiftshop.com.
Christian Prayer
Christian Prayer is a one volume version of the breviary that was created for lay readers. In the 1970’s there was a movement to include the laity in more of the prayers and traditions of the Church and this was a great way to get us involved.
It took me a couple of years to really get the hang of how to pray with Christian Prayer. (This was before Amazon, I bought mine at a Christian book store – they ordered if for me and when it arrived, they embossed my name on it.) Every year, one must purchase the Ordo to follow exactly the correct prayer, antiphons, and pages numbers. I had a group of home schooling moms who really wanted to learn and we eventually did. I don’t think I ever managed to pray using the Christian Prayer book regularly though. It was a struggle. It comes with 5 ribbons and two additional loose prayers. The instructions in the book finally make sense to me after participating in Lauds and Vespers with various groups over the years. It has 2,079 pages.
Shorter Christian Prayer
St. Meinrad has a very popular summer program for college and high school age students called One Bread One Cup. Each participant gets a copy of Shorter Christian Prayer and for the week they are in attendance, they are taught how to use it well. I think that most of the lay people I know who pray the Liturgy of the Hours had a mentor or an experience like that in order to learn how to use the book.
Shorter Christian Prayer is less than an inch thick (Christian Prayer is over 2 inches thick) and easily fits in a purse or a back pocket. It fits nicely in a backpack and is very convenient for those who want a real book in hand to pray.
It has a four week psalter, Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Night Prayer, Proper of the Seasons, Proper of the Saints, Office for the Dead, Memorial for the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday, Hymns, and Indices all in 670 pages.
Liturgy of the Hours for Benedictine Oblates
I know you are wondering what an oblate is. The website describes us as “partners in the prayer and works of the Benedictine monastery.” One of the things that oblates do is pray part of the Liturgy of the Hours each day: Morning and Evening Prayer.
The Benedictine version is a bit larger than the Shorter Christian Prayer book: it doesn’t fit easily in a purse or back pocket. It is about an inch thick and has only 415 pages. The paper it is printed on is much sturdier than the thin onion skin paper in either Christian Prayer or Shorter Christian Prayer. When I pray with either of those, I am always conscious of the delicate pages and try not to tear them as I flip back and forth finding the various daily prayers. The Benedictine version has Lauds, Vespers, Midday Prayer, Compline and includes hymns with the prayers. There is no flipping back and forth. It has only 3 ribbons. I prefer this version, but it isn’t as portable as Shorter Christian Prayer. I am not fond of the Benedictine translation of the Canticle of Zachariah. It isn’t deficient in any way, but after saying the other version for years, it just seems odd to me when I pray it.
Which One Will You Try?
How immersed in the Liturgy of the Hours would you like to be?
Do you want an actual book to hold? Are you willing to learn how to use the four-volume or Christian Prayer versions?
Do you want something easy to carry around or do you want something easy to follow? Will you just skip the actual book version and start with the app?