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Morning Prayer

Morning Prayer is part of the Liturgy of the Hours, as described below.  At St. Anthony Parish, Morning Prayer is celebrated Monday thru Saturday at 7:15 am in the church. Evening Prayer is celebrated every Thursday at 5:40 pm in conjunction with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and also monthly by the Parish Councils and Commissions before going to their meetings.

The Liturgy of the Hours, also known as The Divine Office, is the daily prayer of the Church, marking the hours of each day and sanctifying the day with prayer. The Hours are a meditative dialogue on the mystery of Christ, using scripture and prayer. The two most important Hours are Morning and Evening Prayer.

The Hours of the Divine Office:

Office of Readings (also known as Matins):

The office of readings seeks to provide God’s people, and in particular those consecrated to God in a special way, with a wider selection of passages from sacred Scripture for meditation, together with the finest excerpts from spiritual writers.

Morning Prayer (also known as Lauds):

As is clear from many of the elements that make it up, morning prayer is intended and arranged to sanctify the morning. Celebrated as it is as the light of a new day is dawning, this hour also recalls the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the true light enlightening all people and “the sun of justice,” “rising from on high.”

Daytime Prayer can be prayed at Midmorning (Terce), Midday (Sexte), or Midafternoon (None)

Liturgical custom in both East and West has retained midmorning, midday, and midafternoon prayer, mainly because these hours were linked to a commemoration of the events of the Lord’s passion and of the first preaching of the Gospel.

Evening Prayer (also known as Vespers):

When evening approaches and the day is already far spent, evening prayer is celebrated in order that ‘we may give thanks for what has been given us, or what we have done well, during the day.’ We also recall the redemption through the prayer we send up ‘like incense in the Lord’s sight,’ and in which ‘the raising up of our hands’ becomes ‘an evening sacrifice’ (see Ps 141:2).

Night Prayer (also known as Compline):

Night prayer is the last prayer of the day, said before retiring, even if that is after midnight. The Psalms that are chosen for Night Prayer are full of confidence in the Lord.

The above descriptions are taken from the US Catholic Bishops website; see the full text here.