Customer Reviews

The Liturgy of the Hours Volume II - Lent and Easter

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This is the second book in a four volume set composing the Liturgy of the Hours (commonly referred to as The Divine Office since the word "office" comes from the latin word "officio" meaning "duty," since monks, nuns and priests are required to pray it every day) for the entire liturgical year. This is the series that composes all seven hours that Roman Catholic monastic communities, priests and religious say each day (not all priests and religious say all seven "hours" - some exclude midmorning and midafternoon prayer). The seven hours are: The Office of Readings(Matins), Morning Prayer (Lauds), Midmorning prayer (Tierce), Midday Prayer (Sext), Midafternoon prayer (None), Evening Prayer (Vespers), and Night Prayer (Compline). The old titles of the "Mid-" hours come from the Roman hours of the day: third, sixth, and ninth. The Divine Office and the Chant that was written for them date back to the earliest days of Christianity; so this is a VERY old form of prayer. These books contain the Divine Office as adapted in accord with the decrees of the Second Vatican Council.

As a beginner, knowing your way around the book can be confusing if you are not yet familiar with the parts that compose each hour, as well as how the liturgical season works. A better way to begin is to use another liturgical book published by the same company entitled "Christian Prayer" or even "Shorter Christian Prayer," which are only one volume each and contain only a few of the hours.

I suspect that most people looking at this item are familiar with the Liturgy of the Hours and are replacing a volume that they lost. However, if you don't own the four volume set already and you want to engage in the "Prayer of the Church" as it has been said for literally thousands of years by countless monks, nuns, priests, layman and numerous saints, this book is for you!

If you have the other three volumes, then you won't find any surprises with this one. It's perfect as expected. I just want to comment on the strange and misleading dimensions on the description page! They are way off. I don't know how they measured this book. Did they just take a guess? Here are the actual dimensions of this red volume; height 7 1/16 inches, width 4 5/8 inches, depth 2 inches. Now you know.

I lost my book three so picked up a used book from you to re-complete my set and it came quickly in great shape and ready to use. Thank you!

The item received was in great shape and arrived quicker than I had expected. Way to go!