![]() The Liturgy of the Hours has a long history in the Church, going all the way back to the first centuries when Christians gathered together with their bishop to “break bread” and to pray the psalms and praise God as a community with hymns and sacred songs. The Liturgy of the Hours relies heavily on Scripture with psalms, canticles and readings from both the Old and New Testaments. It is about the sanctification of time, of each hour of the day, and is linked to the Feasts and Liturgical Seasons of the year. The Liturgy of the Hours is prayer which is intimately related to the Eucharist as a preparation for, and a continuation of, the action of the Eucharist throughout the day. Keep in mind that the Liturgy of the Hours is Liturgy! So, in praying this liturgy, we participate in that heavenly liturgy just as we do when we are celebrating the Mass. So, when we participate in the Liturgy, the work of the Church, we are rubbing elbows with all the saints and angels in heaven. In his book The Lamb’s Supper, Scott Hahn refers to the Mass as a time when heaven touches earth, and earth reaches to heaven. ![]() So, when we participate in the liturgy of the earthly Church, we also participate in the heavenly liturgy as we share in the Communion of Saints with those saints in heaven. Our Church tells us that our earthly liturgy is a participation in or a foretaste of, that heavenly liturgy that goes on twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year. All of these are constantly praising God, singing Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of power and might. Revelation describes this Heavenly Liturgy as God seated on His throne on a sea of glass with the Lamb that had been slain at His side, surrounded by the four living beings (representing all of creation), and the twenty-four elders representing the twelve tribes of Israel (the servants of the Old Covenant) and the twelve Apostles (the servants of the New Covenant), all the martyrs and saints and the great multitude of people of every tribe and nation, too many to be counted. We also refer to a Heavenly Liturgy, which is expressed in the Book of Revelation. Therefore, Liturgy is the work of the Church, but let’s carry this a step further. Everything it does in service to God and neighbor. It is everything the Church does in the proclamation of the Gospel and in active charity. And in this sense, it is not just the celebration of the Mass or the administration of the Sacraments. But the people of God is the Church, so we understand liturgy to mean: the work of the Church. In the Christian sense, Liturgy means: the work of the people of God. How this word made it into the Christian vocabulary, I really can’t tell you but, at some point, Christians appropriated it and it retained much the same sense as it had in the original Greek. It was the “work of the people” in the promotion of the public good. What does Liturgy mean? According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 1069), the word Liturgy is a Greek word that originally meant “public work,” or the “work of the people.” Its original meaning had nothing to do with religion as it referred to civil works such as civil government, public works, maybe police and fire departments or armies, etc. ![]() The Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council describes the Liturgy of the Hours as a primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit (CL n. Therefore, it is the public daily prayer of Christ, as the Head of the Church, and of the people as the Body of Christ. It is Liturgical Prayer, the public daily prayer of the Church.
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