EASTER WEEK 3 FRIDAY MORNING PRAYER
SAINT GABRIEL HOURS
Praying with Christ. Every Day. Every Where.
FRIDAY MORNING PRAYER
EASTER WEEK III
APRIL 28
PSALTER WEEK III
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VIRTUAL RESOURCES
Virtual resources provide more than the dry bones of the liturgical text. They celebrate the Hours with sounds and images. Most importantly they provide community, both community with those who produced the sounds and images, and community of those who celebrate at various times and places with the same sounds and images.
The posts for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer include:
Both a common recitation and a sung virtual resource giving the whole text for the Hour.
Two additional sung alternatives for the beginning Hymn.
Sung alternatives for each of two psalms of each Hour.
Sung versions of both the Gospel Canticle and Lord's Prayer
Breviaries which provide the liturgical texts for the Hours usually contain multiple ribbons that are necessary to switch between sections of the breviary. Word on Fire provides a monthly booklet containing the texts for Morning and Evening Prayer. It reads straight through just like a book, except for the Hymns which are in the back of the book. Four hymn choices for each post mean that one never has to flip to the back of their booklet.
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FULL ROMAN RITE SERVICES
Three Models (Options) for Morning Prayer (Lauds):
Praying with Christ Every Day, Every Where will be greatly helped by a variety of models each illustrated by a concrete option.
Becoming skillful at understanding and adapting these models for both personal and communal prayer is a major goal of this website.
The Instruction for the Liturgy of the Hours promotes both recitation in common as well as singing the Hours.
The first model below with its option emphasizes recitation in common. The second model below with its option emphasizes the sung nature of the celebration. The third model below with its easy-to- read monthly booklet is very suitable for personal meditative prayer and study, including marking the text. Don't throw the booklets away!
Each of the three Options contains the full official text of Roman Rite for Morning Prayer.
Each of the three Options has a beginning hymn. These are noted below as an aid to choosing among options. With a little practice, one can begin with one option and its hymn, then switch to another option.
RECITATION IN COMMON MODEL
DIVINE OFFICE.ORG OPTION
Excellent model of small (household size) community reciting the office with sung hymn at the beginning. Experience the Hours as community prayer even when praying alone and as skill building in preparation for praying with others as a small group.
Invitatory Psalm 95Hymn: "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent"Translation by Gerald Moultrie of Liturgy of Saint James *******************************************************
Invitatory Psalm 95
Hymn: "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent"
Translation by Gerald Moultrie of Liturgy of Saint James
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COMPLETELY SUNG MODEL
SING THE HOURS OPTION
Excellent model of totally sung office, mostly by one very talented young person. His father is an excellent translator of Latin Hymns. Although they use some Latin, there is always an English translation. If English is preferred, either pause the Latin after a verse to pray the English or mute the Latin and pray the English.
English Hymn: "Claro Paschali Gaudio."English Gospel Canticle & Lord's Prayer*******************************************************
Excellent model of totally sung office, mostly by one very talented young person. His father is an excellent translator of Latin Hymns. Although they use some Latin, there is always an English translation. If English is preferred, either pause the Latin after a verse to pray the English or mute the Latin and pray the English.
English Hymn: "Claro Paschali Gaudio."
English Gospel Canticle & Lord's Prayer
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PERSONAL MEDITATION MODEL
WORD ON FIRE OPTION
Bishop Baron's Word on Fire organization produces a monthly booklet that contains Morning, Evening, and Night Prayer for each day. It reads straight through like a book except for the beginning hymns for each hour which are all in the back of the booklet which does not have a ribbon!
Below is a close approximation to the hymn they have chosen. Often the video has more or different verses. Sometimes the translation and or the tune will be different. Unfortunately, sometimes the choice of hymn has to be changed due to the lack of available videos.
WORD ON FIRE BOOKLET: APRIL 2023, pages 589-597
Ambrosian Rite Mass Hymn - Hic Est Dies Verus Dei
HYMN SELECTED FROM MY PERSONAL FAVORITES
This fourth hymn option is strongly influenced by this blog author's musical interests and collection (first vinyl discs, then cassettes, then CDs). Essentially the author has been using a musical collection for decades to do what anyone can do with YouTube videos. Anyone also can start a blog like this to record for themselves and others their musical choices.
Christ As A Light (Prayer Of St. Patrick)
15,262 views Jun 25, 2015
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THE FOUR WEEK PSALTER
Since Vatican II, the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours has spread the Book of Psalms over four weeks rather than one. Also, the practice of praying the psalms in order has been abandoned in favor of psalms specifically selected for Morning and Evening Prayer.
A major goal of this website is greater familiarity
with the Four Week Psalter and its psalms
As noted in the General Instruction, there is an ancient tradition of personal meditation and prayer at the end of each psalm. There are many videos on the internet with psalms sung in a variety of ways, using different languages and translations, and drawing from different musical and spiritual traditions. Some presentations have beautiful slides or videos that can both enhance and interpret the psalm.
VIDEOS FOR TODAY'S PSALMS
The video selections are intended as a stimulus to personal prayer and meditation in the period after the group have recited the psalm in the first option, or the cantor has sung the psalm in the second option, or while a person is looking at the written psalm in the third option.
PSALM 51
PSALM 100
Psalm videos were selected to provide as much variety as possible while maintaining substantial ritual consistency by using the same authors or similar musical pieces. Preference was given to videos that covered most of the psalm. No attempt has been made to judge accuracy of translations. Those celebrating have already experienced the official text.
Psalm videos were selected to provide as much variety as possible while maintaining substantial ritual consistency by using the same authors or similar musical pieces. Preference was given to videos that covered most of the psalm. No attempt has been made to judge accuracy of translations. Those celebrating have already experienced the official text.
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THE GOSPEL CANTICLE
Canticle of Zechariah
Morning and Evening Prayer at Weston Priory
1,375 views Dec 11, 2020 (1998)
Antiphon:
Cry out in the stillness of morning.
With joy greet the dawn of this new day.
Pour out your heart like water.
Lift your hands to God in praise.
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THE LORD'S PRAYER
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DIVINE OFFICE / LITURGY OF THE HOURS
is the Prayer of Christ and the Church
"Christ Jesus, high priest of the new and eternal covenant, taking human nature, introduced into this earthly exile that hymn which is sung throughout all ages in the halls of heaven. He joins the entire community of mankind to Himself, associating it with His own singing of this canticle of divine praise." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #86)
"For he continues His priestly work through the agency of His Church, which is ceaselessly engaged in praising the Lord and interceding for the salvation of the whole world. She does this, not only by celebrating the Eucharist, but also in other ways, especially by praying the Divine Office." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #86)
"Lauds as Morning Prayer and Vespers as Evening Prayer are the two hinges on which the daily office turns; hence they are to be considered as the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #89)
"Lauds as Morning Prayer and Vespers as Evening Prayer are the two hinges on which the daily office turns; hence they are to be considered as the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such." (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #89)
The Divine Office, because it is the public prayer of the Church, is a source of piety, and nourishment for personal prayer. And therefore, priests and all others who take part in the Divine Office are earnestly exhorted in the Lord to attune their minds to their voices when praying it. The better to achieve this, let them take steps to improve their understanding of the liturgy and of the bible, especially of the psalms. (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #90)
It is, moreover, fitting that the Office, both in choir and in common, be sung when possible. (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #99)
... the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the Divine Office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually. (Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, #100)
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FUNDAMENTAL DISCERNMENT QUESTION
How can we, as individuals and groups,
use virtual resources such as those above,
to celebrate the Hours,
the Prayer of Christ, Every Day, Every Where?
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GUIDE TO PAGES ON THIS SITE
In addition to time and date stamped posts, such as one for Morning Prayer and one for Evening Prayer for each day, Blogs allow uses to create pages to provide a framework for understanding and using the posts. The list of these pages for this blog is in the Navigation on the upper left.
However, in order to understand the relationship of these pages to each other and the Fundamental Discernment Question, the author has created this more extensive guide to the pages at the bottom of each post. It will also be used to label NEW and REVISED pages for the convenience of the reader.
Blogs also have the ability to add user comments to each post; this has not been enabled for this blog. The author is a social scientist who is very interested in collecting qualitative data about the experiences of users. Qualitative data, opened ended questions and comments, can actually be both more reliable and valid that quantitative data, but it does have to be collected systematically. If you are interested in becoming a member of a user group of this blog focused on the Fundamental Discernment Question, please contact the author at jarakosky@gmail.com.