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The Liturgy of the Hours (also known as the Divine Office)
is the richest single prayer resource of the Christian Church. It provides
prayers, psalms and meditation for every hour of every day.
It has existed from the earliest times, to fulfil the Lord's command to
pray without ceasing.
Never monotonous, always new, it provides the means for the whole world,
united, to pray together and sanctify every hour of every day of every year.
All over the world, hundreds of thousands of priests and religious have
vowed to pray the Liturgy daily, and all over the world they do, in public
and in private, in tin shacks and cathedrals, in palaces and in prison
camps.
But the Liturgy's very richness is also its weakness. The liturgical calendar,
the four-week cycle of psalms, the celebrations of saints - all these
interact in an intricate dance of prayer that requires some 6,000 pages
of small print in 3 or 4 volumes. The complete books (the Breviary) are
expensive to buy, heavy to carry, and, except for the really dedicated,
complex to use. Thus many people with a busy life in the world are unable
to undertake the project of praying the liturgy, and so it remains shamefully
unused.
| “The purpose of the Divine Office is to sanctify
the day and all human activity.” |
“The Office is... the prayer
not only of the clergy but of the whole People of God.”
Apostolic Constitution, Canticum Laudis.
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This site does all the calendar calculations for you, and presents you
with the psalms and readings for each hour of today, every day.
For instructions, please see the links at the top of this page.
As well as the Web, Universalis content is also available for WAP phones,
by email, and by web feed for syndication.
As we embark on the third millennium, it becomes more important than
ever that we should obey the Lord's command and pray without ceasing,
to sanctify time, the world, and ourselves. The
Universalis Web site has been created, to give us all, wherever we are,
at all times, the chance to participate in the Church's universal
prayer. One click - one bookmark - and we can pause for a moment in our
busy lives and contemplate what really matters.
This site uses the version of the Liturgy of the Hours given in the Roman Breviary
- but the Divine Office is for all Christians and not just Catholics.
Christians of many other denominations, including Anglicans, Methodists,
and Baptists, are using this site on a regular basis.
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